The Dykstra Days

Thursday evening marked the start of a mid-year move-out weekend for residents of Dykstra Hall. Over the next three days, nearly 900 students will move out of the Hill’s oldest dorm to the Hill’s newest additions, Holly Ridge and Gardenia Way, as Dykstra prepares to undergo its first renovations since it opened in November 1959. With change on the horizon, students, alumni and staff reflected on their time spent in the residence hall.

Darlene Fish Doto, staff
Darlene Fish Doto, a 2002 alumna, found a home away from home in Dykstra Hall.

She began working as a move-in assistant her first year, giving her entry early on into what she described as a small group of dedicated people,

From there, she continued living in Dykstra for the next four years. During her second and third years in Dykstra she became the president of the hall. She also worked as the program coordinator during her third year.

Doto remembers endless late night conversations in the lounge, which helped her figure out what she wanted to do with her life. During one conversation, the question “How many people on the 405 are excited to go to work?” came up.

That prompted her to pursue a career she was interested in ““ working with children.

Today, she works as one of the faculty in the UCLA Lab School, a school for children ages 4-12 that focuses on fostering intellectual development and researching new ideas about teaching.

Doto still keeps in contact with many of the people she met in Dykstra, even though they live in different parts of the country.

And after some consideration, Doto decided there was no better person than her Dykstra resident director Rick Wan ““ still the current Dykstra resident director ““ to officiate her wedding ceremony in Covel Commons.

Her first roommate in Dykstra was her bridesmaid.

Wendy Kramer, alumna
For Wendy Kramer, a 1964 alumna, moving to Dykstra Hall in her second year meant she could be sure of eating dinner.

During her first year, Kramer fractured her kneecaps in a skiing accident. The injury made scaling the stairs in her all-girls Hershey Hall dormitory, today an academic building, on Hilgard Avenue, a problem.

The hall did not have elevators, and there was an unofficial hall rule that if students could not reach the dining hall, they would not have dinner.

“(It) was like the Oliver Twist story,” Kramer said jokingly.

She transferred to Dykstra, and while she only lived there for a year, it was a huge improvement, she said.

Besides its elevators, Dykstra boasted a more varied and substantial selection of food, she said.

In Dykstra Hall, Kramer was able to meet people of both genders and international students ““ an advantage that the all-girls Hershey Hall did not provide.

One international astronomy student from Japan even fell in love with Kramer’s roommate and named a star after her, Kramer said.

“I was thrilled to go to Dykstra,” Kramer said, “There was nothing about it that I didn’t like.”

Rajani Bansal, current student
Early during fall quarter, Dykstra students heard of a strange occurrence in the seventh-floor washing machines.

“There was a story going around that someone had peed in the seventh-floor washing machines, while there were still clothes in there,” said Rajani Bansal, a first-year chemical engineering student. “We don’t know whose laundry it was.”

That’s just one of many odd stories Bansal has heard around Dykstra Hall this year.

One of those stories is her own. One late evening, Bansal and a friend were waiting for the elevator. When the doors opened, they revealed a lanky man wearing all black clothing and white face-paint.

As the girls walked in, the man started screaming.

Bansal and her friend quickly hurried off the elevator on the next available floor. They still don’t know the man’s identity.

Despite the dorm’s quirks, Bansal said she cannot wait to be able to use the new rooms and bathrooms.

“And the new laundry machines,” she added. “No more quarters.”

Eddie Kim, current student
Eddie Kim, a first-year business economics student, said he was initially disappointed that Dykstra wasn’t clean, new, or big. But with time, he found he liked it as residents became more acquainted with each other.

“Now that we’re moving I actually don’t want to move, because I got to know all these people,” Kim said.

Kim affectionately remembers D8 Defined ““ a Dykstra tradition where people on the floor get together and discuss their personal life stories ““ as a key bonding experience.

“That’s the one moment where I was like, “˜Oh, we’ve got a really nice family here,'” Kim said.

Kim, who also works as a student leader in the Office of Residential Life, said that while the ORL team is close, it will be difficult to see team members because of their different floors and conflicting schedules.

Kim, however, said he was still excited for the move to his new De Neve residence.

“I saw the interior and it’s like a hotel, especially the bathroom,” he said. “Here (in Dykstra) it is so small, you can’t even take a shower, but back there, oh my gosh.”

Yet, he does wish other students the same close experience in the new residence halls that he was able to have in Dykstra.

“I just hope the people who’ll be moving in … have the same experience we had, bonding together, forming a relationship.”

Cherie Creager, alumna
A surprise greeted Cherie Creager, a 1979 alumna, when she moved her daughter Arielle into her Dykstra dorm room fall quarter. Her daughter’s room was just across the hall from her old fourth-floor bedroom.

“When she moved in, I couldn’t believe it,” Cherie Creager said.

She said she remembers her floor being a “close-knit” community.

“I had the best time (there),” Creager said.

One memory that sticks out: piling into a room to watch Saturday Night Live the first season it aired. And certain parts of Dykstra have stayed the same over the years.

“(The hall) looks like they haven’t touched it in 35 years … It hasn’t changed, honest to God,” Creager said. “It has the same stuffy smell.”

The bonds Creager made in Dykstra reappeared recently, when she was shopping in Newport Beach. A past floormate who was also there cried out Creager’s name and said, “UCLA, Dykstra.”

Cherry Manipon, former resident
Cherry Manipon, a third-year psychobiology student, leapt for apartment life after her first year.

Some of the charms of Dykstra Hall life were lost on Manipon, who wanted a quieter lifestyle.

She said living in Dykstra always forced her to study in the library.

“Yes, it’s very social, yes, it’s a good environment ““ yet it drove me into an apartment my second year,” Manipon said. “(Dykstra) was way too crowded.”

But Manipon said the hall was good for getting to know people. Some of her current roommates are girls she met on her floor, she said.

Arielle Creager, current student
While Cherie Creager recalled that the place hadn’t changed, her daughter Arielle Creager, a first-year human biology and society student, has witnessed a few alterations to floormates’ rooms.

This year, one group of friends “aluminum foiled” another friend’s room. They were detail-oriented in wrapping the room in foil, even covering pens and pencils on the desks, Creager said.

“There’s a whole prank war going on,” Creager said.

In a more frightening escapade, someone put a large spider in the men’s bathroom.

Creager said her floor’s closeness was one of the best parts of living in Dykstra. Her floor, however, is going to be split up after the move, which she said has been upsetting for her.

“It’s supposed to be half and half, but (fewer residents) got on the floor I’m on,” Creager said. “They shouldn’t have made us move.”