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When Joanna Vogel ’06 (Ridgewood, N.J.) decided to come to Lafayette, she knew that she wanted to live in a close-knit living group that did not emphasize partying. She found that place on the Dry Surfers floor of Keefe Hall.
“The Dry Surfers is a wonderful group, emphasizing wellness and also concentrating on technology,” says Vogel, an anthropology and sociology major and secretary of the Dry Surfers. “It’s an interesting, active, fun group to be a part of. We are close-knit, yet always welcoming to new people. The more the merrier!”
A substance-free and technology-oriented living group, the Dry Surfers’ goals are to increase members’ technology literacy and examine the social and ethical implications of technological advances.
President Laura Brewer ’06 (New Castle, Del.), a chemical engineering major, says she tries to plan new activities that link the Dry Surfers with other living groups. Some of the group’s previous activities include game nights, dry parties, movie nights, and build-a-computer or clean-your-computer-out days. The Dry Surfers also host brown bag discussions on biotechnology, manufacturing, and globalization.
“I think that a living group is an excellent idea,” Vogel says. “It gives people who share a common lifestyle a chance to develop their own community. For the Dry Surfers, technological literacy isn’t something we can get together as a club and just do; it’s something we are. And living together lets us express that.”
Psychology major Kim Moore ’05 (Longwood, Fla.), former president of the Dry Surfers, joined the floor as a first-year student and encourages others to try it because it is “nice to choose not only where you live but who you live with.”
“I want to continue to see a sense of community that we have, as well as get the old and new members to interrelate more,” says Moore.