MAY 8, 2025 | OPINION | By Grant Loui
Over the course of this year, I have often joked that I got to experience the joys of Loomis. The heating isn’t working? My room reached 80 degrees in September because of how hot the building can get. This is just one of the many joys of Loomis.
But with the year ending, I have been reflecting on my housing experience, and I don’t think I would have wanted to live anywhere else my freshman year.
The oldest of the three dorms, Loomis is often the butt of many jokes I overheard during orientation by Priddy leaders and other first-year students. While it’s true that Loomis may not have A.C. or direct access to the C-Store, it does have one of the greatest communities on campus.
That may sound lame and cheesy — I know it did to me.
When I was touring Colorado College, I rolled my eyes when my tour guide said Loomis was one of their favorite places on campus, despite its many flaws. I thought this was someone who just couldn’t admit they got put in the lame dorm, and overcompensated for it.
I hate to admit it, but they were right; Loomis’s community is truly special. Living in a first-year-only dorm gives the building such an amazing atmosphere. I can’t imagine what it must have been like in South or Mathias during Orientation Week. With so many sophomores and upperclassmen not having moved in yet, it must have felt so big and lonely. But in Loomis, the building was alive, with new students filling every room, each with their own fears and hopes for their first year in college.
And this energy made Orientation Week feel a lot safer. We were all just trying to figure things out, and many of us were living on our own for the first time.
Looking back, a moment early on that really stood out to me was on move-in day. I went into the lounge, and I began tearing up. I saw someone else who did too. We looked at each other, smiled and started a conversation, neither of us acknowledging our sadness. We just talked about movies, like everything was normal, and for a moment, it felt that way. Then someone else walked in, also looking for a place to cry. They tried to leave, but we invited them to stay. Before long, we had a small group sitting in the lounge, just talking. That night, I visited someone in South Hall and saw someone crying alone in the hallway. No one stopped to talk; the building was so large and empty that if I hadn’t gotten lost, I would have never seen them.
In Loomis, there is nowhere to hide. It is a building of people all experiencing something new together. That’s one of the joys of Loomis. The grace and acceptance that we gave each other didn’t stop after orientation. To this day, I still see people being more friendly in the halls of Loomis than in any other dorm. I spend a lot of time in South and Mathias because most of my friends live there, and while there are certainly communities there, they feel more cliquey and isolated.
I understand that I’m making it sound like living in Loomis is nothing but sunshine and rainbows, but believe me, I’m no fool. I know that not everyone in Loomis gets along, and there are cliques. But generally, the people in Loomis tend to be more friendly. And for people who didn’t get to live here, I understand why they may not feel like they missed out on anything, thinking that “Loomis is old and I found my community somewhere else.” But to me and many others, Loomis is a special place that reminds them of a special time in their lives.
Maybe it’s just that you had to be there, and those who weren’t will never understand. While it is true that Loomis is an old, crusty building lacking some of the luxuries other dorms have, it doesn’t matter because it has something better. It has an amazing atmosphere and a great community. And for me and many others, that’s enough — that’s the real joy of Loomis.