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First-year students spend their first days at 51���� navigating new terrain, organizing their living spaces, meeting classmates, and otherwise adjusting to life in their new milieu. What they are doing intrigues professors of psychology, anthropology, physics, sociology, and many other disciplines.

The first weeks of school are of special interest to psychology professor Carrie Keating, who studies social bonds and what makes or breaks them, as well as the psychological forces that give root to human dominance, hierarchy, and leadership.

“By observing students’ nonverbal behavior, I glean hints about which way they are leaning,” Keating said. “Are their smiles real or fake; are their laughs happy or nervous? Do their body postures say ‘come hither’ or ‘go away’?”

Anthropologist Nancy Ries, who has taught Core Russia as a first-year seminar, sees similarities between the residence hall experience and the Soviet revolutionary experiment of crowded communal living, where five or more families shared kitchen and bath areas.

“Students have joked that sharing hygiene facilities with others requires tactics quite similar to those of Russia kommunalka dwellers,” said Ries. “They guard their personal hygiene products like soap, shampoo, and body wash. None of those products are shared or left in the collective bathroom either. The shower caddy — a mundane plastic object — provides a way for students (especially females) to maintain ‘self-other’ boundaries, a small exertion of privacy in the collective space.”

Physics professor Beth Parks sees communal living in the context of its impact on energy use. She has deployed student researchers to audit energy patterns on campus as a means of raising their awareness as well as improving 51����’s carbon footprint.

“One thing I think is interesting is that once students arrive on campus their energy use changes,” Parks said. “In most of the U.S., the main way people use energy is by driving and heating and cooling their houses, but because college dorms don’t have much surface area (walls and ceilings) per person, hot water for showers becomes a bigger fraction of their energy use. Similarly, students at 51���� don’t drive very much, since even if they have cars, most don’t have daily commutes.”

Professor Chris Henke, sociology, teaches a class simply called Food. “We eat food so that we can be nourished, but we also eat to create bonds,” he said, “so food can make a big difference in how a student adapts to life here.” He said that is especially true for international and multicultural students. “Through the cultural organizations on campus they are able to demonstrate to others who they are.”