The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at DePauw chapter.
Reflecting back on my last semester, a thing I cannot stop thinking about is Humbert Hall and the love-hate relationship I have with it. Known throughout the campus as the “Humbert Hotel” based on the reputation of being the newer dorm (before Resident Hall 1 was constructed), it has famously been the place to be for first years on campus. During my reflection of my first year at DePauw, I have compiled a list of things I am going to miss about Humbert Hall:
- The elevator that jerks when it has to move. The best thing is waiting for the slow elevator to get to you, then for it to make a loud noise that makes you think it is going to break. I also really appreciate the times that it does not move on the first try so it has to keep trying over and over again to go up.
- The carpet that is peeling up from the concrete in my dorm. But seriously, I got so unlucky because everyone else in Humbert got new floors except me, so I had to keep the nasty carpet.
- The desk light that went out the other day. I then proceeded to wait weeks to replace it because I kept forgetting to put in a maintenance request. It was my last straw.
- The window that conveniently does not lock, so I am grateful that I live on the third floor. Although, it is also one less step to open the window so I am not sure if this is a complaint or a praise for Humbert Hall.
- The cold water from the showers. Every once in a while, the hot water stops working and leaves us all with a nice cold shock when we wake up, until someone in the dorm emails maintenance about it.
- The threats from housing. I remember the one time all of the residents of Humbert were almost fined because someone kept putting a chair and lamp in the elevator for no reason.
- The missing door of the men’s restroom. The best way to wake up is to a message in the floor groupchat asking who stole the door to the stall in the restroom. This then led into an investigation that concluded that it was taken off of its hinges between 2-4am. We still have no idea who did this, however, we did conclude that maintenance may have taken the physical door away.
- The loud music that vibrates the floor while I am in my room studying. There is nothing better than when you hear the music from the men’s showers during their hour-long concerts.
- Fire alarms that conveniently go off once a month during the worst weather. Bringing your laptop outside during a Calculus zoom meeting while it is raining outside because the fire alarm went off again was the best part about living in Humbert.
- The heat in Humbert that they swore they turned off last month, but yet, the air conditioning never turned on. This leads back to my point number four, where it is a necessity to open that window as fast as possible.
- The late night study sessions. Studying chemistry at night usually ends up being more talking than work and more people entering the room that are not in a chemistry class. I am not complaining though. Those sessions definitely did help my chemistry grade.
- The new faces that have become my closest friends. These residents of Humbert Hall Floor 3 have reminded me that even during the isolation of the pandemic, I am never alone here.
Humbert has placed me on a floor with all of my best friends and has made me realize that it does not matter which dorm you live in, it is the experience and people there that makes a dorm a good place to live (even though I was really hoping to be in Jordan Hall).