For those of us who want to combat that stigma, maybe naked parties aren’t the way to go. Miss Reicher, along with myriad high school seniors across the country, was eagerly awaiting a college acceptance letter. ''That is the point of Westco. Another entry recorded a discussion weighing a collective hair-dyeing session just before parents' weekend ''just in case your parents thought you were normal. Officially, I think all of Wesleyan actually is "clothing optional", as are the campuses of any other private institutions, because there is no RULE that says you have to wear clothes! If so, please email me as soon as possible at Update: Women's Cross Country Speaks Out (Made its way to the New York Times) But residents swear that the disrobed gradually become part of the background tapestry in a dorm teeming with musicians, painters and political organizers. ''University officials said the written rules did not specifically ban nudity, out of concern that anything so specific would only encourage it. Insights and guidance from experts that will smooth the path during your college admissions journey. It is part of being not judged at all, I can be who I want to be. ''The tradition, according to Adam D. Hurter, a sophomore and onetime resident, stems from the fact that in the late 1960's the dorm was devised as communal housing for students and faculty where they could delve more intensely into issues of the day. It's not as though residents shed their garments as they walk in the door.Westco requires freshmen and sophomores to compete for spots in the dorm by writing essays about their interests.Last year, the statement that students were supposed to work from said, in part: ''In the past, residents have organized musical and artistic events, planned mid-semester festivals and been committed to artistic expression, political and social activism and community responsibility. ''At least once last fall the weekly telephone messages summoning all students to Guidance trumpeted that particular meeting as clothing optional. Gone are the days of Art House naked parties (and Art House, for that matter). Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04 All of these options are within a 5-10 minute walk to campus. Wesleyan has a bigger "out there" contingent I think. toggle menu Forums Community Discussions Schools Find Your Best Fit Articles Expert Advice & Insights ''But Miss Reicher doesn't recall yelling anything. Gone are the days of Art House naked parties (and Art House, for that matter). Nothing officially starts on the hour -- or even the half-hour or quarter-hour -- in Westco. She was ecstatic when Wesleyan ... once last fall the weekly telephone messages summoning all students to Guidance trumpeted that particular meeting as clothing optional. Each residential unit includes a laundry room with card-operated washers and dryers.As students move through their years at Wesleyan, they have an opportunity to choose an increasingly more independent living option from residence hall doubles to singles to program houses, apartments, and eventually wood frame houses. Participate in discussions and get candid, authentic advice from the world’s largest college forum. But I guess when I try to describe it to my parents or relatives, they can't see how it can be an acceptable thing. Finding herself assigned to what is often dubbed The Naked Dorm came as a shock to Martha Reicher, but now she would rather not live anywhere else.
''People aren't just generally wandering around naked just for the sake of being naked,'' said Matthew D. Lerner, 18, one of the dorm's five elected presidents. ''TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. There are still whispers about WestCo being clothing-optional, but aside from the occasional streakers or Olin prank, people aren’t exactly running around campus in the nude. That particular experiment ended in 1974, he said, but some of the wackier traditions prevail. ''Still, it is definitely the part that gets the most attention. Download our FREE Living in residence halls includes living in communities with at least one upper-class student who serves as Student Staff. (The dorm's … The freestyle minutes are kept in a series of journals called ''The Book of Love,'' kept in the head resident's room.Amongst prodigious doodling, the books brim with notations of resolutions taken in recent years, like, ''Make people aware of injustice on and off campus.'' (The only idea there that is vaguely accurate is that it took four months for the dorm consensus and the reporter's schedule to coincide. The story also said there is an ``unofficial clothing-optional policy at the West College dorm'' at Wesleyan University in Middletown. That's a bummer. Participants remained studious and stoic, tour guides cool and collected, librarians kept a bemused distance, and all culminated with an impassioned take on the Wes Fight Song.Because really, corny as it sounds, nothing brings the Wesleyan community together quite like messing with unsuspecting prefrosh.Some photo highlights after the jump. ''There is no life there other than beer,'' she said. Smoking is prohibited in all University Housing.