Community Living

By Josh Holladay

Traditional University of Great Falls students are required to live on campus for at least two years of attending school according to school regulations.

The university requires freshmen to live in Emilie Hall, the dorms located on campus, but sophomores and upper classmen have the option of living either in the Villas, Sikora Hall, or the new apartments adjacent to Sikora Hall.

This type of community living gives students the opportunity to live and cohabitate with one another in an enjoyable setting, while simultaneously providing an opportunity for students to work for their degrees.

The community living staff works for the University, performing duties such as helping students become involved with projects, keeping the residents safe, and updating the residents on campus events.

According to Maria Ochoa, the Resident Director for the University Villas, there are several benefits associated with community living.  She says “upperclassmen learn to become more independent when living on their own away from home. They gain access to their own bedrooms, and they have the option to cook versus eating at the cafeteria every night of the week.”

Jocelyn Moore, a resident of the Villas, says that the benefit she associates with living at the Villas is “being able to spend time with others and socialize in a community where the people care about one another. The ability to be independent while making friends is also a plus.”

Although community living is beneficial to the students, issues still arise when a group of people live together agree Ochoa and Moore.

When asked about some of the issues, Ochoa and Moore both said, “sometimes the compatibility of the roommates are not as good as we would like them to be. Also some neighbors tend to be a little louder than others which causes a problem with some residents.”

Although there are some setbacks to living together, being able to bond and grow puts the negatives in the back of one’s mind.

The opportunity to share in one another’s experiences makes the ability to learn from one another a better experience than that of living on one’s own.

Through the community living option at the University of Great Falls, students gain new friends by interacting with the community of students living amongst them.