Monroe Hall, commonly referred to around campus as “the hotel,” is the newly renovated residence hall and current home to spring 2013 transfer students. Being a transfer myself, I was lucky enough to be housed in Monroe for my first semester at Geneseo.
It seems almost unfair to me that though I’ve only been here on campus three weeks that I am living in what is probably the nicest building on campus. But I’m not going to complain.
Besides the way the building looks both inside and out, Monroe’s “hotel” reputation also comes from how its residents get into their dorm rooms. To get into your room you simply wave your ID the way you would to get into your residence hall. I couldn’t tell you how many of us have been locked out for forgetting our IDs, but I can tell you that it drives our resident assistants crazy.
It seems as though everyone is curious about Monroe Hall. People ask me how it is and I explain that it’s a really nice building, but I have nothing to compare it to.
Walking into the residence hall, you find a nice open lobby with cushioned benches and autumn colors. Everything about it says, “Welcome, enjoy your stay here at Monroe Hall.” But Monroe Hall is new, and like every new thing it has its quirks. Slamming doors. Freaky sounds in the middle of the night. Alarms that go off when doors are held open for too long. Oh, and if you take a little too long going to the bathroom, the sensor lights will forget you’re in there and will turn off.
Many of the spring transfers had already gotten to know each other via social media in the months leading to orientation. We discussed what rooms we would be in, talked with our roommates and met our neighbors. Although we all spent our first semester away from Geneseo, we did so together. That experience, along with being put into the same building, has given us a great bond.
Monroe Hall is fresh and new; it only makes sense that fresh, new students get to live there, right? Joking aside, I am so lucky to get to live there for my first semester. And it’s always fun to hear those jealous groans when I tell people: “I live in Monroe Hall.”