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Folklore played a major part of Antenna’s experience in college as it provided her avenues in which to study the culture of college students. One example of this folklore was the “Expressive door art” that students would decorate their dorm room doors with. This type of art was part an informal culture going against the formal culture of the RA bulletins. They would usually contain topics centered around youthful activities such as partying, drinking, pop icons, etc. The Era’s never required he students to create some sort of door art; they chose to create it themselves.
Another example of Folklore was the college management that most students would pass along and grew accustomed to. This college management was broken down into managing classes, professors, and time. There was a set of unspoken guidelines that most students shared when picking classes such as not choosing morning classes or Friday classes. Also, how to manage professors to give them extra help and hints on what material to study. Finally, the creative use of time to minimize the amount of work needed to be done.
These three aspects were shared amongst most students and were not passed along by the college administration. The Sexuality class was very popular amongst the college students at Any. While the class was administered by the college, the class itself grew a cult-like following and had a great appreciation by the student body. Due to this the class receiving such praise by the students it became the go to class for students when looking for a good class. The commendation to take the class was passed on from student to student due to its popularity.
Overall, folklore played a great part in Antenna’s time at Any because it allowed Nathan to better understand the culture of the students without directly asking. While Nathan thought of community in college to be a far-fetched idea there were still some communities that prevailed through the chaos of college life. One of these communities was “Community Living Agreement” that was created by the Era’s and students on Nathan dorm floor. It involved a set of rules for each person living on he floor to abide by, such as keeping your door open and being friendly.
Most of these rules never were actually followed but many of them were still agreed upon by the majority of students on Nathan floor; they had a common interest in these rules. Another type of community was the “individual community’ described by Nathan. This community consisted of small groups of individuals, most likely friends which did all their activities together. For example when the Era’s tried to make a big community super bowl watching event no one showed up, they were all with their individual communities watching the game together.
The small groups of the individual community also helps lead into the final community of the “ego-centered network”. The ego-centered network is similar to the individual community except it was generally determined before college even began. These networks consist of close friends from high school and sports teams that rely on each other throughout day to day college life such as picking each other up from classes. Overall, while the created their own types of community within their lives.