New Tour Guide Dorm Showroom Located in Adams Hall

A new showroom for student tours has been created because of a “spike in feedback about limited availability of rooms from both our guides and our visitors,” according to Molly Boegel, director of admissions programs and services. 

The room, located in Adams Hall, is currently unavailable as a living space for students, whereas tours that go through Drayer Hall showrooms are occupied with residents. 

“While we love working with Drayer residents,” Boegel said, “we also know that the day to day life of a student and their comings and goings from their room mean that for many of our tours it’s possible that a room would not be available for show.” 

Tours run at various times of the day which sometimes results in student rooms not being available. “One of the most consistent pieces of campus visitor feedback has always been the want to see a dorm room as part of the campus tour,” Boegel said. 

Boegel contacted Amanda George, director of residence life and housing, to discuss the possibility of using an open room as a showroom for student tours and continue “valuing the importance of showing a room that would reflect a traditional first year living experience at Dickinson,” said Boegel. Adams is located on the tour route, and Boegel explained that they will still show rooms in Drayer hall during “high volume times.” 

George said that the process of creating the showroom is “similar to what happens in the summer months” because of admissions offering student tours when the campus is empty of students. 

Boegel worked with Amanda DeLorenzo, director of design services, to design the room, and Jessie Doyle ’19, program intern for the Liberty Cap society, who managed the showroom process.

“I made a [P]intrest board of dorm rooms to get the ball rolling on what we wanted [the] room to look like,” said Doyle. “I helped provide some things like clothing which I mainly got from Dickinson’s [Free Exchange].”

Residents of Adams have mixed reactions to the new showroom. 

Keyshana Edwards ’21, the Resident Advisor of the floor with the showroom, said that the room is a good idea because Admissions  “can access easily” the room in Adams “because the show rooms in Drayer were a hassle sometimes.” Edwards said she has not received complaints from her residents. 

Ashley Russo ’22, who lives on the floor, said Adams is one of the nicer dorms on campus and “if prospective students got to look inside, they would have a better idea of what type of room the average first year lives in.” 

Darcy Bromley ’22 expressed her frustrations and said “I could take or leave it. But I don’t really think they should be bringing them here,” as the residents are not prepared for tour groups to come through the hall. 

An email sent to Adams residents from Mallory Griest, area coordinator of Morgan field, explained that tours will not be in their hall long, but to expect that “there may be a large group of people moving throughout the building.”