Each week, Amy examines a small group of students in order to understand the individual Dartmouth experience as part of a whole. This week, Amy talks with Kaan Senaydin '09 about branching out, even as a senior.
I spent the last four years in such a predictable way. I had a core group of friends my freshman year, dictated by where I was living. Rushing sophomore year expanded my friend network tenfold. Then I partied hard sophomore summer and felt like I knew everyone on campus. By junior and senior years, I transitioned from crazy party scenes to tight-knit friendships and more low-key fun. Alright, maybe not entirely. But isn't that supposed to be the general trend?
In fact, there are plenty of people out there that don't fit this mold. Still, when I started going through my mental FiloFax, it was a little hard to come up with someone. Until I thought of Kaan Senaydin '09, who was a resident of East Wheelock Residential Cluster for three years before joining The Tabard his senior fall.
To say the two seem like an odd combination is an understatement. When I heard that Kaan now lives in The Tabard after three years of the most pristine lodging on campus, I have to admit I raised an eyebrow. But Kaan is not unaware of the strangeness of his situation.
"I lived in East Wheelock for three years, and then I moved to the polar opposite," he said with a smile.
I asked him what caused his sudden interest in going Greek after three years of what is stereotypically considered to be the antithesis of frat culture.
"The Greek system was always something I kept at an arm's length," Kaan explained. "I wanted to know the whole Dartmouth experience, and this was the one thing I was missing."
This, I suppose, is the holistic attitude that Dartmouth admires. But why Tabard?
"I'm not literary enough for Panarchy," he joked.
Gaining a more serious tone, Kaan explained what he liked about his new house.
"The big word of the day for Tabard is inclusivity," he said.
Kaan described what he saw as the difference between inclusivity and the standard buzzword of tolerance.
"Tolerance implies that you're ignoring [someone] ... inclusivity is talking with them, learning from them," he said.
Kaan also pointed out that his big leap to the coed fraternity and sorority system, though drastic, was not a complete change from his former existence.
"I've partied so much in Zimmerman [in East Wheelock] ... making limoncello in a f*cking closet," he said. "We were ragers who nerded out."
Kaan has loved both of his homes, though for different reasons. He said that living at East Wheelock gave him "all sorts of opportunities, and leadership opportunities." He also pointed out that every act that comes to the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts first has a small performance for residents of East Wheelock. Of course, the quality of the rooms and the cluster's proximity to the gym did not escape Kaan's pro-Wheelock list.
When it comes to living in Tabard, Kaan said that he loves it, but that it isn't easy to have a regular schedule when you live in the house.
"Living on frat row is awesome, so much fun. You're living in a house and you own that place," he said. "No one's going to clean it for you. If I'm not going to get five colds in two weeks, I have to keep it really clean."
Kaan said his life has changed since joining Tabard.
"I learned to assert myself," he said. "You come to grips that there are sort of violent interpersonal interactions [in life], and you can learn to navigate them in a safer way."
He also described an attitude switch in his last year at Dartmouth.
"[Before pledging], I didn't take myself seriously sometimes, but at the same time took myself too seriously."
Kaan said that the changes he has seen in himself are some likely mirrored in many others.
"I'm pretty sure it happens across campus -- the college experience does that," he said. "I just happened to do it kind of late."
