''Westco seems to be the place that people try to do that sort of thing because they hear the folklore and want to grab onto it,'' Ms. Tamara Raimundi, a senior administration official for residential life, said one woman in Westco asked to be moved out this year, citing nudity as one reason. But they said anyone habitually walking around in the buff in public areas would risk being hauled in front of the Student Judiciary Board. University officials said the written rules did not specifically ban nudity, out of concern that anything so specific would only encourage it.
''We tell students that nudity is offensive to some people and we have to tell people not to engage in it.'' ''There is folklore that it is a clothing-optional unit, but that is not true,'' said Freddye Hill, the dean of the college and the the administration's senior representative for students. The university, for its part, sort of denies. ''A lot of people don't want to participate, and a lot come just for the spectacle.''Īside from Guidance, there are other random moments when nakedness is encouraged, like one corridor's periodic ''Naked Hour,'' when anyone in the mood can show up. Connor, 22, a senior and the head resident for all of Westco. ''People have realized that having a clothing-optional Guidance is not the best way to have a meeting,'' said Christopher C. (For those of you skimming this article looking for the naked bits, you are here.) (The dorm's term of choice.) This tactic had mixed results, however, with some students avoiding the gathering and many present clad in just towels. If a time traveler wanted to find a place where the ethos of the 1960's still flowered, Westco would be a holistic choice.Īmongst prodigious doodling, the books brim with notations of resolutions taken in recent years, like, ''Make people aware of injustice on and off campus.'' Another entry recorded a discussion weighing a collective hair-dyeing session just before parents' weekend ''just in case your parents thought you were normal.''Īt least once last fall the weekly telephone messages summoning all students to Guidance trumpeted that particular meeting as clothing optional. It encourages students to expose all their interests in the theory that everyone will be enriched. It's kind of cool that there is a place you can do that.'' If I feel the need to take off my pants, I take my pants off. Goldsmith, a 19-year-old who neither volunteered, nor was asked, where the body piercings might be, but did strip off his pants as he talked. ''I just sometimes feel the need to be nude I have body piercings to show off,'' said Jacob Z. The students soon learned that aside from residents who developed a habit of leaving the stall doors open while they showered in the mostly coed bathrooms, not that many people wanted to go naked. (Her cousin, somewhat later, called a reporter.) Her mother called the school and suggested that her daughter be allowed to move if she wanted. When she found out, Miss Reicher, 18, called her parents.
Admissions: The Supreme Court will decide whether two race-conscious admissions programs are lawful, raising serious doubts about the future of affirmative action.Slavery Ties: Harvard released a 134-page report on the universty’s four centuries of ties to slavery, in an effort to begin redressing the wrongs of the past.Recent Issues on America’s College Campuses She had been particularly drawn to West College because it advertised itself as a diverse, multicultural, politically active dormitory for men and women.
Naturally, she was ecstatic when Wesleyan accepted her, and doubly thrilled when she was assigned to her first choice of a residence hall, a place called West College. She dreamed of attending a strong liberal arts college in the East. Miss Reicher, along with myriad high school seniors across the country, was eagerly awaiting a college acceptance letter. This story, about how one well-choreographed rite of passage from high school to college life went unexpectedly awry, actually started last year. ''Still, it is definitely the part that gets the most attention.'' ''The first week of school I would have said I live in The Naked Dorm, but now it would not be the first thing I say,'' Miss Reicher, a Wesleyan University freshman, said recently. Finding herself assigned to what is often dubbed The Naked Dorm came as a shock to Martha Reicher, but now she would rather not live anywhere else.