Community is one of Goucher’s core values, but the campus can often feel fragmented at times. Without a shared class or club, sports team or job, it can be easy to feel isolated from your peers. You might only find day to day interaction in your residence hall, but if you don’t know anyone, it can still feel lonely.
Special interest houses offer an opportunity that seems increasingly lacking on campus: a chance to connect and form community. For those not in the know, special interest houses are themed communities that you can apply to be a part of when filling out a housing application. There are three active houses: Arts & Media House, Gaming House, and Language House.
The Arts & Media House (A&M) is a student-run interest house located in Dulaney Hall. Members screen movies and have game nights, often with open invitations to friends inside and outside of the house. The community involves not only the house residents, but friends in the discord and partners that come to events and spend time in the building.
“The A&M community is pretty well connected and pretty active,” Opal Monaghan ‘27, one of the admins of the house said. “…There’s a wide swath of campus that I feel very connected to through this community.”
A&M not only has its own reserved space on the 3rd and 4th floors of Dulaney, it has a dedicated common room where many watch parties take place.
“…There was a watch party that we were going to do for… Cat People,” Monaghan said. “…We got distracted and ended up watching a bunch of… indie short films. We… [quoted] parts of… [one of them] to each other for the next week.”
The House has plenty of space and is always looking for more people to join the community. Prospective students can join the discord at: https://discord.gg/W4zPNHuTRz
Another student-run interest house is the Gaming House, managed by its president, Luca Forno D’Adamo ‘27. Its members are interested in exploring and playing all kinds of games, from digital to tabletop.
“…Having this space where there’s a bunch of other people that share your hobby… and [a built-in] community where you can go to your neighbor and say, ‘hey, I want to play a board game’ and there’s a good chance they’ll agree to it,” D’Adamo said.
However, with the closing of Tuttle Hall last year, residents were rather abruptly re-located to the 2nd floor of Trustees Hall.
“…I think that unfortunately… cost a lot of cohesiveness… [to the] spirit and identity of Gaming House,” D’Adamo said. “I would try to bring some of that back, but it’s difficult… [with the lack of] support Goucher is offering us.”
Unlike A&M, Gaming House shares its space with residents who aren’t members. The second floor is also used as a touring space, which diminishes house member’s efforts to personalize or express themselves.
“…Going into Tuttle when it was Gaming House, you had all these… common areas that got used a lot, … [but] being in Trustees, you don’t have that much,” Luca stated.
For Kai Pender ‘26, an older member of the interest house, while the vibes of the house haven’t changed as much, the facility issues remained a challenge.
“HVAC [in Trustees] is… an issue because you can’t control what temperature it is when,” Kai explained, “whereas in Tuttle, the air conditioning had mold.”
Despite the changes, Kai still felt like living in Gaming House improved their sense of community here on campus.
“I really like the quirkiness of it,” they said.
The last special interest house involves a faculty advisor. The Language House, in Welsh, is run by Professor Chris Torres, who was offered the chance to live on campus as the Language House advisor in conjunction with his professoral duties.
“[It’s]… an opportunity to… [help] build community with students, so that… [they] could come to know a different kind of relationship with faculty,” Torres stated.
The Language House offers a micro-community on campus to be another home for students regardless of how many languages they speak, helping them practice their target language and get to know other cultures as well. There are many events, from meals in the dining hall at least once a week, as well as game and movie nights.
Professor Torres also ensures students can get involved with planning events.
“The cultural showcase was an idea of a member,” he explained.
Rebecca Siemers ‘27 has been a member of Language House for four semesters, and joined due to their interest in linguistics.
“I wanted to be in an environment where I’d be surrounded by different language use,” Siemers said. “Chris is really great and… I really enjoy having a list of events I can go to each week.”
While the house puts on several events, membership and attendance can often be a struggle. As a tenure track professor, Torres has to balance the language house and his academic responsibilities.
“The challenge is…me finding the time to facilitate entertaining events and for students to have the time to… join in,” Torres stated.
Despite this, Torres intends to broaden the horizons of the language house, such as working with resident assistance on programs to bring the entire Welsh hall together. “Everyone is welcome, regardless of how many languages you know. It’s just a place to learn and have fun at the same time with no fear of being graded or assessed.”
By Jaiden Johnson ‘27
Photo Credit: Jaiden Johnson
