The Co-ops Present: The Thanksgiving Hootenanny!

It’s the annual fall tradition you’ve all been waiting for!

1424411_663462637027986_1577993020_nYes, the “bigthanksgiving feastparty” is happening again. The Co-ops (aka the Farm and Garden Houses) are making lots of food from scratch. There will be meat options, as well as vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free. (Word on the street is that there will be duck!) There will also be square dancing with a live string band and caller, and a twinkling atmosphere of cozy jollification.

When: November 22nd

More specifically: 7:00pm-9:00pm

Where: SU

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

Please please please help us cook, set up or clean up and you will have our unending love.

Sign up HERE!

Email hamueller@reed.edu if you have any questions/concerns.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Co-ops Present: The Thanksgiving Hootenanny!

Applying to be a House Advisor

HA-search-banner

Time is flying past us, and soon it will be December 1st, 2015: the day that the House Advisor job application becomes available for the school year of 2016-17. Being an HA is a yearlong commitment to a residence hall and a team of community members who are dedicated to supporting their peers. The role of the HA is to assist the Residence Life department in accordance with our mission statement:

“The Department of Residence Life facilitates a residential experience in which students feel supported in their academic pursuits, personal growth, and participation in an interdependent community. We envision a vibrant, safe, and inclusive living environment where every student is actively engaged. It is our intention that students develop a sense of pride and investment in Reed.”

Continue reading

Posted in Did You Know?, Residence Halls, Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Applying to be a House Advisor

Winter Clothing Drive: November 3

“Reedies Care for Other Reedies” is one of many iterations of a broader philosophy grounding our students and the work they aspire to accomplish on campus. As the Portland area transitions into the much cooler fall and winter seasons, several groups on campus have captured this philosophy of care through the organization of a donation drive for winter clothing. The groups want to ensure that students in need of winter clothing can stay warm throughout the next few months by being prepared for the colder weather. Donations have been received since October 14th, and campus community members (students, faculty, and staff) have been dropping off items to the Student Center (home of the Multicultural Resource Center and Student Activities).

Student_Center

Reed community members are donating gently used winter clothing items at the Student Center as part of a clothing drive sponsored by several student groups. Image courtesy of Wikimedia.

The Peer Mentorship Program (PMP), the Low Socioeconomic Status (SES)/First-Generation student group, and members of the Justice League Theme Community will be hosting a Free Winter Clothes Pickup for students that are in need of winter attire between 4:00pm and 6:00pm this next Tuesday (November 3). The event will be held in the Grey Lounge (located in Kaul). We’re excited to see this effort take shape, and want to share information with everyone regarding next steps for this event.

For those that are interested in supporting this effort, volunteers are needed for set up in Kaul on Sunday at 2:00PM (meet in the Student Center/MRC). Additionally, donations are still being requested and encouraged! If you gently used winter items, including gloves, scarves, or coats that you’re willing to part with, please visit the Student Center and drop off items in one of the donation drop boxes. You can also bring items to the pickup event next Tuesday.

We’ll be sharing more updates and additional information on this and other events sponsored by student groups in the near future! In the mean time, please consider attending this event and making a donation!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Winter Clothing Drive: November 3

HA Superstar 1: Camila

MEDINAMORA

Camila Medina Mora is our first HA superstar! She kindly answered my questions about her experience as an HA and as a Reedie.

This is  my second year as an HA, I am a senior art major, and I use she/her/hers.

Q: What extra curricular activities do you do on campus?

I, alongside two other students who are also HAs (Caitlin and Sidra) signate for FSU. I am also a peer educator and advocate through the SAPR programme.

For FSU I help plan the weekly meeting topics and facilitate the discussion, as well as organise campus wide events and collaborate with other student groups.
Working for SAPR, while challenging, is very rewarding. As a survivor, I find it really healing to help others with similar life experiences and I love the other students I work with. I have also found that the training has made me a better HA, and has been super helpful for programming.

For those who are not familiar, the SAPR program stands forSexual Assault Prevention and Response. They rely partially on the efforts of student advocates like Camila. Visit SAPR at Reed if you are a Reed student interested in becoming a SAPR advocate!

Q: Could you describe your experience of being an HA?

My experience as an HA has been overall really positive. I love the ResLife team and how supportive they have been when I have had issues I don’t feel comfortable handling by myself. I love feeling like I am helping foster a sense of community in my dorm, and getting to know freshmen in a way that, as an upperclassman, wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Q: Do you think of yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?

I identify as an extrovert, for sure! I think when we took the [Myers Briggs] I tested as 100% extrovert. And while that might be a bit of a stretch, it’s not entirely untrue.

Q: What would you say to anyone who has doubts about applying to be an HA?

I would encourage future applicants to get to know the ResLife team and ask as many questions as they have. We are here to help and we were once an applicant too!
I would also comment on how great ResLife is as a support network.

 

Thanks so much Camila for your words and your efforts as an amazing community member!

Are you interested in applying to become a House Advisor? Click here to get started!

Posted in meet the staff, Residence Halls | Comments Off on HA Superstar 1: Camila

Old Dorm Block, Steve Jobs, and (not) Ghosts

 

The HAs of Old Dorm Block and Anna Mann present…

ODB: A History
Old ODB

Old Dorm Block, 1920. Photograph. Reed College Hauser Library Special Collections and Archives. Portland, Oregon.

In 1912, when the building’s construction began, the building’s architects designed the campus in the Tudor Revival style of Saint John’s College at Oxford in order to signify the college’s mission of scholasticism and create the visual ambience of an elite college.

The original campus master plan organizes the academic and residential buildings around connected quadrangles. Old Dorm Block was the second building constructed, after Eliot Hall (formerly the Arts and Sciences Building). The plan proposes forty-nine buildings, comprising two colleges, a men’s and women’s.  A central quadrangle divides the colleges and opens onto several gardens, much like Saint John’s College’s Front Quadrangle, which opens onto The Gardens.

Doyle Owl and ODB
House F residents pose with their prize, originally swiped from an Eastmoreland residence.

Doyle owl: “Strigidus cementus. Unofficial mascot of Reed College (the official mascot being the griffin (q.v.). While the griffin is a mythical beast, the Doyle Owl is concretely real, although most of the tales of the owl are myths. The original owl was a local piece of garden sculpture, which was carried off as a prank by students living in House F (later renamed Doyle). Since then, there have been many incarnations of the Doyle Owl; the present avatar is owl number 23, plus or minus 11. Almost all of them are made of concrete and weigh over 100 pounds (although there was at least one anti-owl, made of papier-mâché). Contrary to prevalent myth, the Owl was never one of the animals adorning the roof of Old Dorm Block; those are and always have been beavers.” (From “The New (Olde) Reed Almanac” Reed Magazine, 2011)

ODB student

ODB “Doubles” Myth! “The reason why some rooms are big and some are small is because Reed used to be for elite students who brought their butlers and/or servants. The butlers and/or servants lived in the small rooms.” FALSE. We’re pretty sure that they used to be all huge rooms and have since had walls erected, dividing them into two living quarters, explaining why only the inner rooms have built-in closets. Although I’m sure someone tried to bring a butler at some point…

The Sundial: According to alumnus Beatrice Olson, ‘24, the sundial on the south side of ODB tells time most accurately on the following days of the year: 4/20, 6/9, 9/3, 12/22… at least when there is sun… (Reed Oral Histories)

No Boys Allowed… Unless: In the 1940s, male-bodied visitors in women’s dorm rooms had to keep “one foot in the hall all the time” (Reed Oral Histories, Phyllis Glasener Whitman ’44). But I heard it was “one foot on the floor”… either way this is pretty great.

Rooftop ODBPhyllis Whitman on the Old Dorm Block roof, 1943. Photograph.
Reed College Hauser Library Special Collections and Archives. Portland, Oregon.

Old Dorm Poets (errr.. I mean Anna Mann Poets…): Poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder ’51 gave a poetry reading in Anna Mann in February 1956, from which the first known recording of Ginsberg’s “Howl” was taken.

KRRC in ODB: The KRRC was originally run out of the Doyle basement, next to the washing machines (which are still located in the same spot!). KRRC has since moved just across the way in the Student Union.

KRRC ODBDJ in the KRRC station, ca. 1989. Photograph. Reed College Hauser Library Special Collections and Archives. Portland, Oregon.

Daring Climber: While he was a Reed student, Gary Snyder ‘51 was spotted climbing up a rope dangling from his girlfriend’s third floor window of Ladd. He clearly wasn’t keeping one foot in the hall.

Steve Jobs and doyle owl

Jobs posing with the Doyle Owl in Palo Alto, CA in 1996 (Photo courtesy of Jeremy Stone ’99)

The Man, the Myth, the ODB resident: Steve Jobs reportedly lived on the third floor of Westport during his short tenure at Reed before leaving us for bigger and better things (read: computers). Here’s a Quest article about our most famous dropout complete with a few great quotes from him about his time at Reed.

Ghosts: I know you wanted to hear about hauntings in ODB, but, honestly, we don’t think there are any. Yet.

And, finally, watch this awesome silent film of Reed campus scenes, filmed 1938-1942 by student Donald G. Krause! Trü Olde Reed!

The ODB/Anna Mann House Advisor staff hope you enjoyed this read! Come back soon, ya hear?

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Old Dorm Block, Steve Jobs, and (not) Ghosts

Blackberry Fields Forever Part Two: What we did with thirty pounds of blackberries

When last we left our adventurers, they had returned from a successful journey to Sauvie Island with thirty (yes, thirty) pounds of blackberries.

IMG_3992

Yeah so spoiler alert, we baked a lot of really beautiful things with the blackberries, like this cobbler! But keep reading anyways!

Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Blackberry Fields Forever Part Two: What we did with thirty pounds of blackberries

Blackberry Fields Forever Part One: How we came into possession of thirty pounds of Blackberries.

On a lovely, windy Saturday morning right at the end of orientation week, a crew of adventurous and freshly oriented students from Old Dorm Block embarked on a quest that turned out to be quite, well, fruitful.

unnamed-3

Their quest took them far from their beautiful old brick home at the heart of Reed’s campus all the way to Sauvie Island, an idyllic expanse of every type of U-Pick farm imaginable: apples, flowers, pumpkins, christmas trees, and, of course, berries.  Now, the date of this quest happened to be right smack in the middle of Blackberry Season.  And oh, what a season it was.  After arriving safely at Sauvie Island Farms thanks to the expertise of a capable van driver–(thanks Aaron!)–our band of heroes was bowled over by the bounty of bushes bursting with ripe blackberries awaiting them.  The sheer number of blackberries present at every turn may have overwhelmed some less-seasoned adventurers,  but not our brave ODB residents.  In less than an hour of furious picking (and maybe little bit of snacking), these berry bosses had three overflowing boxes of the antioxidant-packed and delicious little fruits.

Three boxes!  When taken in comparison to the thousands of blackberries left still ripening on the bushes at Sauvie Island Farms, three boxes may not have seemed like much.  But when our heroes lugged these three boxes (thirty pounds!) of blackberries home to discover that they filled an entire freezer compartment and then some, they wondered:

“Have we picked off more than we can chew?”

Stay tuned for part two to see the ingenious way our brave protagonists made use of thirty pounds of frozen blackberries!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Blackberry Fields Forever Part One: How we came into possession of thirty pounds of Blackberries.

Photos of Campus Life that Didn’t Make it into the Reed Lookbook

Incoming students, welcome! As you daydream about the divided doubles and coed restrooms that will be yours in just two weeks, I’d like to offer some titillating imagery of campus life that you may not find elsewhere. I adore our campus; it is green and it smells good, smells like nature, nourishes me when life in Reed world gets cray. Below is a sort of Residence Life tour informed by the experience I happen to have had here over the last three years:

Appreciating the natural beauty of Reed campus:

1. Spring is really beautiful in Portland… and is such a relief.

IMG_3608

Tulips are some of the first signs of spring we see around campus.

Continue reading

Posted in Did You Know?, Just for Fun, Residence Halls, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Photos of Campus Life that Didn’t Make it into the Reed Lookbook

Biking in SE Portland

One of the best things about living at Reed isn’t even on campus!  Living in the middle of SE Portland means excellent access to bike paths and bike friendly streets taking you to downtown, Mt. Tabor, Sellwood and more!  Here is one of my favorite rides starting from Reed.  It’s  under 10 miles round trip, so it’s accessible to almost any skill level of biker, but it will still manage to give you a great sense of the city of Portland.

unnamed

Downtown/Steel Bridge

This one’s a classic.  It’s a great way to see the Willamette and explore the west side of town all while staying on a beautiful and spacious bike path.  First, you leave campus heading towards the 7-Eleven.  Then, making your way up 26th, turn left on Gladstone.  This street winds around and somehow turns into 21st, which you use to cross Powell.  Now here’s where things get fun.  First, the People’s Food Co-op will be on your left, with a sweet juice bar/food cart out front called Sip.  Try the Maca Madness if you ever get a chance!

Urban Foraging Pro Tip # 1: In the summer, there are two plentiful plum trees a block past People’s.  (They’re okay to eat because they’re on the sidewalk, so it’s not stealing, I looked it up!) One of them has yellow plums the other purple.  I’ve only had the yellow ones so far.  They’re amazing.

Once you’re done feasting on plums, continue to Divison St.  Here you’re going to take the diagonal street: Ladd.  It’s an awesome neighborhood for biking.  It’s beautiful, you can take up the whole road, and on morning commutes you’ll sometimes see twenty or so cyclists in a line all going to work.  Take this through Ladd Circle and right before you hit Hawthorne and the Hawthorne food carts (home of the famous PB&J fries) head left on Clay.  There’s a small bike lane for you to turn through, no cars allowed!  This will take you all the way down to the river.  Once on the river, you head north along the bike path to the Steel Bridge.  Along the way you will ride on a floating bike path, where you can see great sunsets and a silhouette of downtown (Fig. 2.)

unnamed-1

Cross the Willamette along the Steel Bridge, it’s pretty obvious which bridge this is.  It’s very much made of Steel.  Now you’re downtown! So fast and easy! From here you can do anything, everything downtown Portland is very close, and if you don’t feel comfortable riding anywhere in the city, you can just hop onto the MAX with your bike.  This can take you to Washington Park and the Zoo, and all kinds of food carts, among other things.  To get back to Reed, you can cross the Hawthorne bridge, head south on the bike path until you get to the new MAX line, and ride along Tilikum Way (brand new MAX line, just in time for the school ) up to Clinton.  This is a very relaxing street to cruise on.  It takes you back to 21st, and from there you should know the way back by now.  Urban Foraging Pro Tip #2: Don’t forget to eat some plums on your way back.

Posted in Get Off-Campus, Just for Fun, Portland Life, Tips | Comments Off on Biking in SE Portland

Meet your new bloggers: Lydia

Hi Everyone:
Like Mara, I’ll also be blogging throughout the rest of the summer and into the 2015/2016 school year!  I’m a rising senior Psychology major, and I’ve been an HA for 2 years and a summer.10392319_10153335417733910_1984641736745686799_n

Continue reading

Posted in Did You Know?, Entertainment, Just for Fun, Portland Life, Residence Halls | Comments Off on Meet your new bloggers: Lydia