Residential Hall Spotlight: The Quad

The Quad

As a first-year, you will be living in one of three residential halls: Sulzberger, Reid, or Brooks. These halls, along with Hewitt Hall, comprise what's known as the Quad.Here's a description of each of the three possibilities.

Sulzberger ("Sulz"): Coveted because of the mere fact that it is the only hallway with air conditioning, which is definitely an asset in those hot summer months.  Although I was lucky enough to be placed in Sulz my first year, the other dorms aren’t too bad temperature wise, just remember to bring a fan!

Sulz/Reid (and how it works!): Sulz, Reid, and Brooks are described as individual halls, but that is technically not the case.  Because of the Sulzberger Tower, a housing option for upperclassmen, the design of The Quad includes a “Sulz” hallway, but also a “Sulz/Reid” hallway that is split up into Sulz (with air conditioning) and Reid (without air conditioning). The Sulz hallway has its own RA, the Sulz/Reid hallway has its own RA, and the Brooks hallway has its own RA.   

 

The room of Alyssa Blackman '17 and Jenna Beers '17 in Sulz/Reid

Brooks: With its own entrance and deep cherry wood doors, Brooks Hall is a great hall to live in.  Although the gate closes at 10 PM and during extreme weather, the secondary entrance gate is a great way to quickly enter The Quad without having to go all the way around to the main gates.  Brooks has its own entrance and elevators, and the Brooks side is also where valuable services and spaces are such as the Brooks Study Lounge, Primary Health Care, Furman Counseling Center, and Well Woman.

My first-year room. (Sorry about the mess!)

Room Size: As Margeaux mentioned in a post earlier, do NOT worry about the roommate selection process; Res Life is generally so spot on.  However, I am also aware that a lot of anxiety stems from how big the room is.  I moved to New York expecting the living-in-a-shoebox scenario that I have often heard about in Manhattan. I can honestly say that is not the case at all.  The rooms are pretty big as far as dorms go, and I have never felt as though I lacked space.    

Sharing a Bathroom: So, yes, you are living with at least one roommate, and, yes, you have to share a bathroom with an entire hallway of people.  Although this may sound like the worst thing in the world right now, there are actually many positives to sharing a bathroom.  There are typically two bathrooms per hall: a gender inclusive one, and a women’s only one.  The set-up is like that of a public bathroom, with various individual stalls and a couple of sinks with mirrors.  There are also showers, and it depends which floor you are on as to whether there is a separate room for just showers or if it is still in the space of the bathroom and sink area.  One thing I really liked about corridor style housing is that you never have to clean your own bathroom (yay)!  Facilities will clean out the bathroom often twice or more a day, which is probably more than you would if you were in charge of cleaning it yourself.  Another thing is that because there are so many bathrooms, showers, and sinks, you probably will never have to wait for one to open up, which is always convenient.

 

The view from my Sulzberger 8th Floor Room

Floor Bonding: One great thing about this corridor style housing set up is that everything is connected.  If you have a friend in Brooks and you live in Sulz, you can just walk through the hallways and get to the room.  At the end of my first year I found that my best Barnard friends were actually the ones that lived on the 8^th floor. We all spent so much time together and it was so easy and convenient to see them.  The corridor style set up is definitely instrumental to hall cohesion among the students who live on your floor, and it’s a really great experience to have all of these friends so easily accessible!

Maria

Sunset at Columbia, as seen from a room in Sulz/Reid