The Return of the South Warren Basement
June 27, 2009 | Contributed by Daniel Walters
Like most years, next fall brings a lot of new changes to the Whitworth campus. Whitworth will see the opening of East Residence Hall, (named after famed Whitworth Trustee, George P. Eastresidencehall). Schumacher’s brief and torrid life as a dorm will end.Yes, three years from now, most people will be completely oblvious to the fact that Schumacher was once a dorm. In that respect, not much will change.
But perhaps the most interesting change is that the South Warren Basement will go from being full of girls to being full of guys.
Big deal, you say. A simple gender swap, you say. Nothing major, you say.
Ah, but that’s only because you don’t know your Whitworth History.
The South Warren Basement was all-male once before.
The year, was 1984.
And the South Warren Basement was famous. Check that– they we’re more than famous. Infamous, if you will.
The halls were full of guys of the wild and crazy persuasion. They were unsavory, unhinged, and downright untamable.
The South Warren Basement was a whirling dervish of id. It was a non-too-subtle speakeasy on a campus under strict prohibition. It was the seedy underbelly bubbling under the verdant and placid grass of Whitworth College.
Nationally, the mid-80s were the peak of binge drinking, of alcohol poisoning, and, most likely, of porcelain hugging.
The people of the South Warren Basement would drink, yes. And when they were caught — which they often were — they would counter by vandalizing their own hall — and then drinking some more.
This is the hall you’ve seen in a million college movies, the hall that would send the crusty old dean skyward-bellowing and fist-shaking like clockwork.
And like those college movies, an ultimatum was issued. Forget double, triple, secret probations. If there were any more hiijinks — ie, drunken debauchery — the hall would be shut down.
And when the hiijinks inevitably continued, and the hiijinks were inevitably discovered, the Basement Dwellars couldn’t pull off a last-ditch talent show/charity event/stirring speech to make everything all-better again.
In the middle of the year, with a sudden swift hand — the dudes of South Warren Basement were evicted. Every last one of them.
And they were replaced with young women. The thinking was, I suppose, that they would be more prim, more proper, more well-behaved.
Here’s the story from the Whitworthian:
Cellar Dweller’s evicted for “attitude.”
Chris Vogel
Citing a “non-constructive attitude,” Student Life evicted the residents of Warren basement, effective Feb. 3.
According to Dayna Coleman, director of housing, “Excessive vandalism and constant possession of alcohol led to the final decision on the floor.”
“From the beginning of the year, the basement residents were committing vandalism,” elaborated Coleman, who also serves as Warren Head Resident along with her husband, Pat.
“The drinking was also out of hand,” said Coleman. “That, no doubt, probably led to a great deal of the vandalism.”
In an effort to stop the vandalism and drinking, the Colemans, along with basement Resident Advisor Tim Veldhuizen, held a floor meeting near Thanksgiving.
“Up until this time,” Coleman said, “Tim was constantly writing up vandalism damages. Something had to be done.”
“The general attitude of the guys at the meeting was, ‘We’ll police ourselves. We’ll watch the vandalism, and take care of the beer,’ ” said Coleman.
“Vandalism did seem to be reduced,” said Veldhuizen, “but the drinking was still going on.”
“This,” Coleman said, “left no choice but to have another meeting and make the alternatives clear.”
“At the second floor meeting, right before fall finals, the ‘alternatives’ were given,” said Coleman. “We said, “It’s a joke. If you guys can’t stop drinking, we’re going to have to close the floor.”
Coleman continued, “We really made it clear — one more contract, and you’re gone.”
“All through finals, there was no problem. We thought the guys had finally stopped with the games.”
“Everything was seeming to go smoothly,” said Coleman. Near the end of Jan Term, however, Veldhuizen confronted and contracted six individuals for beer drinking.
“No one denied anything,” said Coleman, “and the first comment was ‘The drinking has been going on all Jan Term. Why are you just getting around to busting us now?’ ”
“That,” said Coleman, “was the last straw.” Following a meeting involving the residents and Student Life, a memo was sent out announcing the eviction of the residents.
The wording of the memo itself has caused some controversy. The memo stated, “The basement residents are on behavioral probation,’ and any further contracts could jeopardize their enrollment at Whitworth.”
After substantial response had been made by the residents, Student Life issued another memo, rewording the earlier memo so behavioral probation,” read “behavioral contract.”
“We felt bad about the earlier unfortunate choice of words,” said Julie Anderton, vice president for Student Life. “The reason we felt that we had to make the provision was to safeguard against any retaliatory action.”
Greg Hamann, director of Residence Life, agreed with Anderton on the need for the precaution.
“We’ve always had problems with the basement,” said Hamann. “When we caught them, they would tear the place up.”
“We really want to see the best in all the guys, to see them as individuals,” added Anderton. “I hope we put that across in the second memo, making up for the first one.”
Some of the people involved are apparently not so forgiving of Student Life.
“The whole idea behind the memo has made the guys upset,” said Veldhuizen. “The idea saying ‘one more slip-up, and you’re gone’ isn’t sitting to well with some of the guys.”
Former basement resident John Davisson agreed, “For them to say I’ll be kicked out for any mistake, no matter how small, is just ridiculous.”
“I can’t believe I’d be kicked out of college for something like being caught on a fire escape,” said Ron Kincaid, another displaced resident. “It even says we’d be kicked for that.”
Former resident Alan Cizik believes “the second memo didn’t help at all.
“It was supposed to be an apology, to my understanding,” he said, “but it doesn’t say anything to the effect.”
“It really made me mad,” said Kincaid. “Now, we really want people to know what happened to us.”
“The beginning of the semester was bad,” Kincaid said. “But we really stopped the vandalism, especially considering how bad it was.”
“The suddenness of the eviction also left some residents with problems.
Anderton beleives, “The semester break was a better time for the guys to move than in the middle of the term.
The move, said Davisson, hurt him the first part of the term academically.
“The incident isn’t over yet,” said Veldhuizen. “They’re (the resident) are going to be in quite a shock when they get the vandalism charges.”
An administrative source, who declined to be named, said, “The residents collectively will be facing a minimum charge of $350, with much more to come.”
Hamann said he feels “pretty comfortable” with the outcome of the eviction.
“It was a decision that the South Warren Basement made for themselves on closing down,” he said. “Now it’s over. All Student Life is saying, “It’s out of our hands, it’s over, and let’s move on.”
With South Warren Basement becoming an all-male hall again, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen.
The atmosphere of a hall, of course, is mostly an expression of the population within. Yet, there are ways that the hall itself exerts inflence. The location, the size of the hall, the size of the rooms, the quality of furnishing, the insitutional memory, the hall’s past reputation, its interaction with other halls and other dorms– these all can shape and tweak the nature of community.
So too, can administration. While on the Whitworthian, I wanted to research an expose titled “Is Dorm Rivalry Dead?” about how the Mac-BJ rivalry was intentionally squashed, and how the “wild and crazy” Baldwin Jenkins was intentionally extinguished.
Now, I think getting drunk and vandalizing things is pretty stupid.
And coming into Whitworth, I would have thought the wild and crazy nature of BJ would be simply another reason to roll my eyes. This was an ACADEMIC institution, thought I, not a place for frivolity and horseplay.
Yet, after a few years, my mind changed. The unhinged nature of Baldwin Jenkins at its craziest was not just a matter of fun, a matter of creating memories, it was a matter of keeping the Whitworth status-quo off-balance. It’s a matter of injecting a little chaos.
A good college campus, as I’ve said, is a gyroscope spinning perfectly between order and chaos. Too much chaos and you lose the rote learning as it becomes too difficult to complete assignments and memorize Core 150 buzzphrases. Too much order, however, and the place becomes starched, stodgy, conventional. Creativity, innovation -evaporates. People still debate, they still question, but they do so in predictable tired ways. The passion isn’t there.
Higher Education should be a free-wheeling simulation of the challenges of real life. The hard work, the dutiful march — yeah, those are important. But learning how to defy trends, to make noise, to blow minds, to surprise — those are perhaps even more crucial.
So please, South Warren Basement. Be crazy. Break rules. Get in trouble. But not in a tired RA-Finds-a-Miller-Lite-Can sort of way. Be crazy in a nobody’s-ever-done-that sort of way. Do things that make the college-movie dean shake his fist, without taking a single swig of booze. Distribute perfectly clean underground newsletters that don’t come from the official Channels. Put up posters for unsponsored events. Hold techno dance parties. Get in trouble for things that aren’t ever mentioned in the Student Handbook.
Make people say, “Wow. South Warren Basement. Those were some wild and crazy guys.
Disrupt community, please, but don’t vomit all over it.
Comments
5 Responses to “The Return of the South Warren Basement”
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Put up posters for unsponsored events. Distribute a zine. Hold lofty political and/or religious debates in the lounge. Be intelligent about breaking rules so that your goal is to make culture not destroy it.
Daniel-
I understand where you’re coming from in terms of what you are advocating in your post. But, my primary concern with what you espouse is the danger of the encroachment of the slippery slope phenomenon. While I do agree that students should have the ability to a freer college experience, away from the influence of the imposition of too many rules, where do we stop when we allow little things to slide?
Let me be clear, the last sentence makes me sound like one of those crusty old deans from the movies, but, I think I make a reasonable point. The inherent problem with letting people get away with the small things is that they could possibly balloon into something bigger. I’m not saying that’s what the next crop of male students to Warren South Basement will do, but, the possibility still remains.
What will steer the overall environment in the South Basement is the R.A.. I admire R.A.s a lot because they have a difficult job of straddling two dichotomies: 1) understanding what it’s like being student, and knowing that having fun is simply in a lot of individuals’ DNA, and 2) being a person who will lay down the rules, and be strict when necessary. Take for example, Caleb Knox. I think that he beautifully illustrates how he was able to balance the two dichotomies very well. If the South Basement in Warren has R.A. like him, then I think the overall community in that hall will predicate towards a more relaxed atmosphere, where slight rules can be bent.
I believe, however, that a proviso like I laid out above can foster a community of people where fun can still be had. Time will tell if my situation is a likely outcome.
I know for a fact that some of the boys moving into the basement are the boyfriends of the girls that lived there last year.
And creativity is not abounding as far as they have demonstrated with the pranks they pulled last year. Except for stealing a bed while we were in the next room.
I am with you, Daniel. I want jolly japes and wizard wheezes, the stuff of legend. Warren needs to assert itself as something other than an initially confusing haven for freshman football players and frosty girls.
I just don’t know if these are the boys to do it.
As a student in South Warren during those “turbulent” years, I remember the entire year filled with skating rinks, pool parties, and hockey/bowling in the halls. Will be interesting to observe the “new South Basement” phenom, hoping to have some follow up info here on the forum!
As the RA in South Warren “that year”, I must say, the stories seem a little embellished over the years, although they are good stories! Let’s not forget we are talking about college, a time to learn and sometimes learn from mistakes. I just hope the vandalism can be avoided. Anyway, have fun, be safe and remember…… ice blocking down the hall leaves a lot of water!!!