Memories of Campus Life at UC Berkeley

Image source: Merlina McGovern

A few days ago, I wrote about staying at the Stern Hall dorm when I went to UC Berkeley for college. Writing a description and investigating the dorm information online made me nostalgic for my time there. Stern was an all-women’s dorm when I first attended, and it now “welcomes womxn-identified students,” according to the university’s site.

I didn’t originally choose to go to an all-women’s dorm. I was the first in my family to go to college, so I wasn’t super prepared to go. I waited until the last minute to sign up for housing, and I ended up at Stern Hall. Of course, I was at first disappointed. I mean, who wants to participate in forced collegiality with the campus’s all-men’s dorm, Bowles Hall? (Though, Bowles Hall no longer seems to exist as a dorm for the university.)

But the very first week I was there, I made lifelong friends and ended up having so many wonderful memories. I shared a double. As I look at the floor plan (all almost 200-square feet of living space shared by two people), it doesn’t look like much has changed since I went there *mumbles something inaudibly* years ago.

I remember doing homework while listening to Depeche Mode and U2 and all-night chat sessions with new-found friends, where we discussed politics, art, love, philosophy, religion, movies, anything and everything. I remember standing up on tip toe on my desk to peek through the window to see Pearl Jam at The Greek Theater for free. I remember late-night movies and eating popcorn until my stomach hurt. I remember crying on the phone after not being able to finish problem number 3 of my first physics homework set. I sobbed to my dad that if I couldn’t even get through that first homework assignment, how the heck would I survive my first class let alone my first year of college?

I remember meeting lovely women from every background you could imagine: a Jewish woman with Iranian parents, a Christian woman with Syrian parents, a Korean woman who grew up in Denmark. We all bonded over a shared first-year experience, and I’m still friends with some of them to this day.

After that freshman year, we went our separate ways. I couldn’t afford to stay at Stern and ended up moving to a separate dorm and then eventually to off-campus housing. There is a current controversy pitting the university against town residents over additional student housing slated to be built over People’s Park. I understand the fabled history of People’s Park, birthed in the tumultuous 60s, a place for the voiceless and the homeless. I also understand town residents who already feel the squeeze of living in a university town.

I also know my experience as a student with little means. We were only guaranteed housing our first year. After that, we were on our own. I worked while I went to college and lived in off-campus apartments run by shady landlords who for sure weren’t following city housing codes. I remember living in houses with 1 bathroom for 10+ people and apartments with mildewy bathrooms and roaches.

So, I don’t know what the answer is, but I would hope that somehow the town and the university find a way to include more students, especially students of limited means, in the wonderful educational experience that I had. An experience that bonded me forever with wonderful people and that opened doors for me throughout my career.