Your storytelling is so compelling, at least to a fellow university student
This idea makes sense: disruptions to one’s everyday routine are novel and so, perhaps, more likely to make one open-minded (e.g., to ~weird~ ideas like ‘maybe we should work on making sure we don’t die because of something that doesn’t exist yet’)
I am not sure if this is an actual phenomenon or if I’m just combining what I know about mindfulness, habit/inertia, & the way human brains adapt to familiar things
I see such synergy with Sydney Von Arx’s concept of scene-setting. Like, maybe we could forward-chain to a scene by thinking about historically successful GITV moments for your group, or back-chain from a desired ‘scene’ to plan GITV moments.
This reiterates why welcomingness & demographic representation are important. They’re important for socials, generally, but GITV moments probably require even more comfort/welcomingness than other socials.
This helps me better understand why UChicago House culture is so compelling and, most importantly, how UChicago EA can compete.
Your caveat about prioritizing programming is completely on-point, so I want to caveat the below by saying—this is a vision of what groups should aspire to, but perhaps only after they’ve solidified core non-social programming like fellowships.
Anecdote about house culture as examples of non-EA GITV:
UChicago brands itself as being ~quirky~ which partly manifests through ‘house culture.’ As a freshman, I really wanted the university experience, and to me that meant seeking the epitome of house culture. I was lucky enough to be placed into the Dodd-Mead house, which has many house traditions.
I also don’t consider myself someone who ‘does things spontaneously’ but somehow, being part of a group of ~20 freshmen who were open to learning about + trying these traditions got me to do some pretty wacky things, like
Wake up at 5 AM for a straight week, so that we could play games and do exercise together before going to class/the gym at 8 AM.
I also woke OTHER people up at 5 AM for a week
I also volunteered to make breakfast for one of those days, which meant waking up even earlier(!)
Refuse to call an official UChicago event by its official name (‘Kuvia’), and instead call it something different (‘Kangeiko’). We are the only House that does this, but we correct everybody else because obviously, we are right.
Worship an obelisk.
Carry around a squirty toy to try and fake-assassinate others, while avoiding being fake-assassinated
Espouse the superiority of our dining table. Dodd-Mead is the only House that has a round, not rectangular, table in the Dining Hall. We regularly try to bring non-House friends to this table because it is obviously the best table shape for discussion.
We have also petitioned the Dining department to protect our dining table. Preserving our round table is incredibly important to us, even though it is space-inefficient, difficult to maintain, and overall annoying to the Dining department.
Other GITV /Scene-setting similarities:
These traditions feel unique because they’re idiosyncratic, but there are enough of them that you can feel like you can always partake in another or partake next year
Yet, each time you participate, it feels slightly different too!
Traditions evolve and change along with the community, just like scenes might
It’s both incredibly welcoming and incredibly self-selecting
Some people are really weirded out by it and won’t participate. This always makes more engaged people sad, because it’s fun and we want other people to also have fun!
But sometimes people will participate later, or only participate in certain traditions, and nobody is ever excluded because they’ve never participated.
Discussions veer between really deep and really inane, and both styles feel equally fun. Being serious and being lighthearted are both successful modes in Dodd-Mead!
General buy-in → Positive reinforcement: once you’ve enjoyed some of these traditions, it’s way easier to keep engaging in more of them. It feels like everything will be awesome, as long as you’re with this group of people. I think I started getting more involved in EA when I started feeling like this, because I met actual real EAs and thought they were really cool.
Dodd-Mead historically has experienced great retention, from people staying in the House all four years (very uncommon) to people moving off-campus together, to people getting married!
Also, I can’t believe I had to write this comment to recall but, Dodd-Mead was also considered’cult-y.′ So maybe I shouldn’t be so concerned about EA being considered ‘cult-y’ : )
Fellow UChicago alum here, also from a house with hardcore house culture (save Breckinridge!) and I think your comparison to house culture is useful in understanding some of the caveats of GITV moments. Being part of an intense, somewhat insular group with strong traditions and a strong sense of itself can be absolutely exhilarating and foster strong cohesion, as you say, but it also can be alienating to those who are more on the edges. Put differently, I absolutely think we should encourage GITV moments, but that spirit can go too far. Once you start saying “the people who don’t get in the van aren’t real members of [GROUP],” that starts pushing some people away.
With EA as with house culture, I think it’s important to find a balance between cultivating passionate intensity and acknowledging that folks have other things going on and can’t always commit 100%; important to cultivate GITV moments but also acknowledge and build systems and traditions that acknowledge that you can’t always get in the van—and, furthermore, that often folks with more privilege can more easily get in the van. If you have a shift at work or have to care for your kid, you can’t go on spontaneous trips in the same way that a person with fewer obligations might.
This idea makes sense: disruptions to one’s everyday routine are novel and so, perhaps, more likely to make one open-minded (e.g., to ~weird~ ideas like ‘maybe we should work on making sure we don’t die because of something that doesn’t exist yet’)
This definitely seems true to me, and is representative of my experience.
Anecdote about house culture as examples of non-EA GITV:
These examples are great, and I think illustrate the point really well! Common sets of unusual/quirky activities/traditions are often great for group bonding.
Really love this, Thomas, because
Your storytelling is so compelling, at least to a fellow university student
This idea makes sense: disruptions to one’s everyday routine are novel and so, perhaps, more likely to make one open-minded (e.g., to ~weird~ ideas like ‘maybe we should work on making sure we don’t die because of something that doesn’t exist yet’)
I am not sure if this is an actual phenomenon or if I’m just combining what I know about mindfulness, habit/inertia, & the way human brains adapt to familiar things
I see such synergy with Sydney Von Arx’s concept of scene-setting. Like, maybe we could forward-chain to a scene by thinking about historically successful GITV moments for your group, or back-chain from a desired ‘scene’ to plan GITV moments.
This reiterates why welcomingness & demographic representation are important. They’re important for socials, generally, but GITV moments probably require even more comfort/welcomingness than other socials.
This helps me better understand why UChicago House culture is so compelling and, most importantly, how UChicago EA can compete.
Your caveat about prioritizing programming is completely on-point, so I want to caveat the below by saying—this is a vision of what groups should aspire to, but perhaps only after they’ve solidified core non-social programming like fellowships.
Anecdote about house culture as examples of non-EA GITV:
UChicago brands itself as being ~quirky~ which partly manifests through ‘house culture.’ As a freshman, I really wanted the university experience, and to me that meant seeking the epitome of house culture. I was lucky enough to be placed into the Dodd-Mead house, which has many house traditions.
I also don’t consider myself someone who ‘does things spontaneously’ but somehow, being part of a group of ~20 freshmen who were open to learning about + trying these traditions got me to do some pretty wacky things, like
Wake up at 5 AM for a straight week, so that we could play games and do exercise together before going to class/the gym at 8 AM.
I also woke OTHER people up at 5 AM for a week
I also volunteered to make breakfast for one of those days, which meant waking up even earlier(!)
Refuse to call an official UChicago event by its official name (‘Kuvia’), and instead call it something different (‘Kangeiko’). We are the only House that does this, but we correct everybody else because obviously, we are right.
Worship an obelisk.
Carry around a squirty toy to try and fake-assassinate others, while avoiding being fake-assassinated
Espouse the superiority of our dining table. Dodd-Mead is the only House that has a round, not rectangular, table in the Dining Hall. We regularly try to bring non-House friends to this table because it is obviously the best table shape for discussion.
We have also petitioned the Dining department to protect our dining table. Preserving our round table is incredibly important to us, even though it is space-inefficient, difficult to maintain, and overall annoying to the Dining department.
Other GITV /Scene-setting similarities:
These traditions feel unique because they’re idiosyncratic, but there are enough of them that you can feel like you can always partake in another or partake next year
Yet, each time you participate, it feels slightly different too!
Traditions evolve and change along with the community, just like scenes might
It’s both incredibly welcoming and incredibly self-selecting
Some people are really weirded out by it and won’t participate. This always makes more engaged people sad, because it’s fun and we want other people to also have fun!
But sometimes people will participate later, or only participate in certain traditions, and nobody is ever excluded because they’ve never participated.
Discussions veer between really deep and really inane, and both styles feel equally fun. Being serious and being lighthearted are both successful modes in Dodd-Mead!
General buy-in → Positive reinforcement: once you’ve enjoyed some of these traditions, it’s way easier to keep engaging in more of them. It feels like everything will be awesome, as long as you’re with this group of people. I think I started getting more involved in EA when I started feeling like this, because I met actual real EAs and thought they were really cool.
Dodd-Mead historically has experienced great retention, from people staying in the House all four years (very uncommon) to people moving off-campus together, to people getting married!
Also, I can’t believe I had to write this comment to recall but, Dodd-Mead was also considered’cult-y.′ So maybe I shouldn’t be so concerned about EA being considered ‘cult-y’ : )
Fellow UChicago alum here, also from a house with hardcore house culture (save Breckinridge!) and I think your comparison to house culture is useful in understanding some of the caveats of GITV moments. Being part of an intense, somewhat insular group with strong traditions and a strong sense of itself can be absolutely exhilarating and foster strong cohesion, as you say, but it also can be alienating to those who are more on the edges. Put differently, I absolutely think we should encourage GITV moments, but that spirit can go too far. Once you start saying “the people who don’t get in the van aren’t real members of [GROUP],” that starts pushing some people away.
With EA as with house culture, I think it’s important to find a balance between cultivating passionate intensity and acknowledging that folks have other things going on and can’t always commit 100%; important to cultivate GITV moments but also acknowledge and build systems and traditions that acknowledge that you can’t always get in the van—and, furthermore, that often folks with more privilege can more easily get in the van. If you have a shift at work or have to care for your kid, you can’t go on spontaneous trips in the same way that a person with fewer obligations might.
I think this comment is really good and that it better articulates one idea I was trying to get at with the original post. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed the post!
This definitely seems true to me, and is representative of my experience.
These examples are great, and I think illustrate the point really well! Common sets of unusual/quirky activities/traditions are often great for group bonding.