Sub-free and the Street

Blum recalled in an e-mail that her mother “pressured” her into living in sub-free, telling her, “You don’t want to be around that stuff. It won’t be good for your studies.”

Since she “didn’t feel like fighting,” Blum said, she checked the box requesting a sub-free dorm room.

Now in her junior year, Blum has been a member of the women’s golf team for three years and was elected the president of Cap & Gown Club this winter. “People are shocked and confused when they hear that I lived in sub-free housing as a freshman,” Blum said.

But accounts from students who have lived in sub-free housing suggest that Blum’s social experience fits within the broad spectrum of sub-free living experiences. While some students choose sub-free rooms because they plan to abstain from alcohol and parties, others still incorporate the Street, partying and Greek life into their social lives to varying extents.

Living sub-free

Students living in sub-free rooms may not bring alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco products or incense into their rooms, regardless of whether they use them there, though they are not restricted from drinking alcohol or using tobacco elsewhere on campus if they are of age.

Kevin Chai ’13, who lives in a sub-free room, said that residents of sub-free dorms are often stereotyped by other students. “People think that the sub-free kids tend to keep to themselves and are introverted,” he explained.

But Chai and other freshmen living in sub-free have not found this stereotype to hold true.

Sarah Trebat-Leder ’13 said in an e-mail that she usually goes out to the Street once a week, and sometimes twice a week.

Being in sub-free is “a good way of separating life on the Street and personal life in your room,” Brian Reiser ’13 said.

Yet sub-free housing also attracts those students who do not partake in the typical social scene on campus.

Brandon Bark ’13 said in an e-mail that he and his sub-free roommates hold themed movie nights, go out to dinner and host birthday parties and study breaks, and that he does not frequent the Street.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“I’ve probably been twice since I arrived on campus,” he said.

Similarly, Walter Fick ’13 said in an e-mail that he never goes to the Street, since he prefers the “surprisingly large number of fun social activities almost every night — and certainly on Thursday and Saturday nights — that don’t involve drinking.”

He added that “sub-free housing offers a great alternative for students who don’t want alcohol to be a central role in their lives.”

Michael Olin, the director of student life at Wilson College, said that “about a quarter to a third of all incoming freshmen indicate preference for sub-free housing,” and that there is always a handful of these students who cannot be accommodated.

Matt Frawley, the director of student life at Mathey College, noted a similar phenomenon at his college, as “more incoming freshmen request sub-free housing than sub-free rooms available.”

Frawley explained that because colleges determine the number of sub-free rooms before learning how many students request sub-free housing, they make conservative estimates to ensure that students who do not choose sub-free housing are not placed in those rooms.

None of the 17 freshmen living in sub-free housing interviewed for this article said that their decision has negatively affected their social life.

“I don’t think it’s really affected my social life at all,” Trebat-Leder ’13 said.

Both Olin and Frawley said that students in sub-free housing rarely encounter problems in becoming involved with the campus social scene.

“I’ve never had students tell me that their choice of sub-free has delayed their introduction to any social circle,” Olin said. “Instead, I’ve only had students saying how much they like it.”

Looking back

As a freshman, Blum said, she “did not socialize much” with other sub-free students. “At the time I felt that being in sub-free forced me to find friends outside of my dorm because I went into it thinking that I didn’t have much in common with my neighbors,” she recalled.

But two years later, Blum has reconnected with some of her former hallmates. “Through Cap I am actually better friends with some of my past neighbors than when we lived next to each other,” she explained.

When Colleen Judge ’11 lived in sub-free housing as a freshman, she said, many students did not abide by the strict rules against bringing alcohol into rooms. “It didn’t really end up being sub-free, because most of the people — at least somebody in each quad — definitely engaged in some substance use [in their rooms].” She noted that this was “not a problem for the hallway.” Like Blum, Judge chose to join an eating club and is a member of Tower Club.

Though she not did live in sub-free housing until her sophomore year, Sarah Sims ’11 said that the environment offers an “oasis,” noting that she began to appreciate sub-free housing even more after signing into Colonial Club.

“You spend so much time in your eating club, so if I need a substance-free atmosphere, I have it [in my room],” she explained.

This year, Sims stayed in sub-free as a residential college adviser in Rockefeller College. She said she found that there is no “overarching social quality that characterizes all freshmen in [her] sub-free zone.”

Sims noted, however, that students in her zone are more cohesive than those in other groups, spending more time together in common rooms and participating more frequently in activities sponsored by the college.

But Lilly Nordahl ’10, who was an RCA in traditional housing last year and is an RCA in a sub-free zone this year, said she has not noticed a difference in cohesion between her groups last year and this year.

Judge, who is an RCA in regular housing in Whitman College, said that there are fewer problems in sub-free advising groups, making sub-free zones popular among RCAs.

Ultimately, students noted, choosing sub-free housing does not limit their social lives.

“People choose to live in sub-free but go out and drink,” Sims said. “The main thing is that they don’t bring it back to their dorm … Many of them are involved in frats or sororities too.”

Judge explained that sub-free housing has not harmed her social life or lessened her opportunities. “It’s a personal choice,” she said.