Lewis & Clark College Top Questions

The dorms are very open, doors are often left open and unlocked. Athletic events are not widely attended, school spirit is not popular at Lewis and Clark. The dating scene is small. Girls outnumber the boys by a lot and a good portion of the boys are gay. My closest friends were the ones near me in the dorm. If I was awake at 2am on Tuesday night I would be studying. Every weekend is a party, there is always something on or off campus. There are no fraternities or soroities but the crew teams are seen as the campus soroities and fraternities. Last weekend I went to a party with friends and then spent the rest of the time watching movies with friends and doing homework. On a Saturday night you can just hang out with friends on campus or go off campus down to Portland. Portland is great fun and a great place to hang out on the weekends. You can go to Powells or to one of the many coffee places and there are many quirky stores and restaurants that college students love to discover.

Sorry, I have to go do my homework now.

Cool organizations: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Womyn's Center, Black Student Union, Slam Poetry group, various a capella groups, newspaper Many of us leave our dorm rooms unlocked, some don't. I don't lock my door, and nothing has ever been stolen. I know everyone on my hall and almost everyone in the building, so I have no worries. No one who matters (for the most part) goes to athletic events, unless you have a friend who's playing. We have some crazy awesome guest speakers that come lecture here- we've had internationally renowned slam poets, cutting edge economic scholars, authors... okay I can't actually think of that many good speakers, but it seems like there's always something tight going on. There are no fraternities or sororities, thank Jesus. People drink and smoke- it's college. Shrooms and LSD aren't unheard of, but aren't prevalent either. Off campus is a great music scene. Popular bands play all the time if you can afford to see them, and there's also a healthy local scene if you like cheap/free shows. It's a wonderful city. Hawthorne street, VooDoo donuts, Jackpot records, Powell's books, the pearl district, saturday market, etc. Of course, there is a huge fucking Nordstroms and Abercrombie & Fitch and all that horseshit downtown, too, but we only notice it when we're making fun of the mannequins or advertisements.

Students in dorms leave their doors open most of the time. Open door means come on in. You get to know your neighbors pretty quickly, and often find that you spend more time in other people's rooms than in your own. Athletic events are not very popular -- not like at a big university -- but they have their fans and their participants. Many students choose to go to other events on and off campus: theatre performances, open mics, parties. One of my favorite LC tradition is the Naked Mile. On Prospective Student Open House (when prospies flood the campus to make the final matriculation decision), current students run, bike, scooter, unicycle, and skip a mile around campus. Naked. While all the prospies and their families are on their campus tour. It's hilarious. I'm often up until 2am on weeknights finishing my homework (which I procrastinate on) or arranging events (Love Your Body Week, AIDS Summit, Coming Out Week, sexual assault advocacy training, etc.). Everyone also spends a lot of time on facebook -- it's just about the fastest way to communicate with anyone besides text messaging.

Momo and the coop, the student run a cappella group. We're awesome!

Dorm friendliness probably depends on the dorm and the inhabitants, but it isn't a stereotypical college atmosphere with people everywhere. No fraternities/sororities which is a good thing except there are few options on weekends. There is a lot to do in Portland but if you crave social interaction with your LC peers on a saturday night you will most likely have to create it yourself in your dorm room or if you are lucky go to a lame, probably poor attended party at someone's house nearby. Don't forget to BYOB.

People are very independent here and I would say that that helps lead to some overall lack of involvement. Clubs organize events but people don't go. However, the Music Coalition has been organizing some good concerts lately that people do go to. KLC (the radio station) seems to be in shambles, I don't even know if they are streaming online anymore. Part of this is not their fault as they got kicked off the regular air waves a few years ago and people lost interest. I think they should be revived. The Pioneer Log is in better shape than KLC, although not by much. We are basically out of money, we do not have enough to print all the issues we usually do in one semester. Also, we usually get paid and that is probably not happening this semester. However, until we run out of money, we will come out every Friday with at least 20 pages of pretty good studd. People leave their doors open ostensibly but that doesn't mean they want to talk to you. I guess it just is nice than the door being closed. People don't really go to athletic events, I think, but each sport has its own group of supporters. The Theater department puts on good programs and a lot of people go see their plays. And there are always smatterings of people at guest speaker events and lectures depending on the topic. I met my two best girl friends on Facebook before I even got to LC. Of course we weren't best friends then but it became that way after we met here. I don't think this is a common thing for people, it just happened to me. People are easy to meet in classes. I like having "class friends" and then once the class is over or the semester ends, we can be friends in real life. If I am awake at 2am on Tuesday, I am definitely doing homework. I think a lot of people end up staying up really late finishing things because they were socializing earlier in the day. I don't really do that but it seems a popular tendency. People used to really be into Homecoming but since they changed it last year to be "family and alumni friendly," its not so popular anymore. This year it was basically a disaster because they made you take a bus there but there weren't enough buses for all the people that wanted to go. It used to be a great drunken, debacherous night but it doesn't look like it is going to be anymore. Partying occurs all the time, however, I would say MOST people limit their partying to Thursday through Sunday. It's not that people don't have classes Friday that they party on Thursday, it's just that they are impatient for the weekend. There is no Greek life of any kind at LC, thank god. Last weekend I went to see a movie at the Portland International Film Festival, I saw the Dancer exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, I went out for dessert and chai tea at the Pied Cow on Belmont, and I cooked a dinner of tofu tacos. I usually do things that don't involved drinking on the weekends. However, drinking and good activities are often combined. The weekend before last I had a party where people drank but we also played Taboo, danced, and made creme brulee. Off campus, I go to a lot of movies, museum-y things, thrift shopping in Portland (the Bins, House, Red Light, Buffalo Exchange). Hanging out on Hawthorne is always fun, there are lots of things to do/consume there. I don't do a lot of nature-type things, but lots of people hike or ride their bikes in Tryon State Park, go on Campus Outdoors trips (to the coast or a mountain), or take the Campus Outdoors Mt. Hood ski bus to go snowboarding.