senior thesis
It Will Always Be There
The RHP Family: Group Structure
Although completely unplanned and relatively unpredictable, the friendships of RHP became organized into a discrete social structure. It brings up a chicken-or-egg sort of question: did the social structure come about first and influence RHP’s activities, or did the activities of individuals facilitate a social structure to form? I believe it to be a little of both.
Several people mentioned that RHP started off as two separate groups, then blended into one. However, opinions on exactly who made up each group vary. One person saw one group as centered around Raj, Abby, Cassie, Greer, and Caylon, and the other centered around Brad, Smackie, Kat, Jason and me (this conception is interesting because these were the five who originated the fountain-hopping tradition. While this person did not mention that particular night in their narrative, it clearly left a lasting impression on their imagining of the group's social structure). Someone else saw the two “centers of our universe” as Brad and Kat. Yet another person felt the difference was between those who lived in Marks Hall and those who lived in Trojan Hall. As for the reasons behind the two groups blending, some cite Brad and Katrina’s romantic relationship, while others feel the group dinners brought us together. However, everyone agrees that the “RHP amoeba” formed very quickly.
For two months, this amoebic structure flourished. Everyone went around in a big human puddle with no particular assigned status structure of which people were particularly aware (this is not to say there were no statuses or roles). At Halloween, one person assigned Chinese family names to everyone. According to her,
“it brought a little bit of structure into the group... I don’t know that people drew on it very much, but I think there was some [sense of] ‘okay, that’s who you are.’ It helped define relationships in relation to others. Even though it was mostly from my perspective that I gave these names, it was still something that may have been incorporated into the way the group felt.”
Indeed, while the social roles the names described already existed, no one had thought much about them before. The group entered a new phase of social accretion in which they thought about their relationships with others within the RHP group and began to organize more actively around them. At this time, some people also began to actively seek friends outside of RHP who shared more common interests with them.
The participants in the Resident Honors Program comprised a discrete group with specific insider/outsider boundaries. It was within these boundaries that the original RHP social group emerged; in the beginning, an insider status was assumed for anyone in the program. Within two months (by Halloween), however, that assumption dissolved and membership was based on behavior and personality. Later, the social group outgrew its RHP boundaries, but its social structure for the first six months had a lasting impact.
This structure was described as a non-hierarchical, egalitarian “web,” “network,” or “family.” One could even say that the structure was similar to a molecule: a stable nucleus of people with others “out there buzzing” around them, still a part of the whole. In varying degrees, each member held a sense of affection for and connection with the other members, despite differences in academic major, interests, and cultural background. Within the central part of the group, some members acted as caregivers, advisors, and guardians, while others acted more like dependent children (I will cover roles with more depth in the next section).
I have found it difficult to illustrate the social structure of this group
in two dimensions, since there were so many varying connections, interactions,
and relationships within the group. However, based on observations, memories,
a social census (see appendix), and interview responses, I have conceptualized
a workable model. There are four levels of involvement with the core group,
whose criteria are:
· Full: these people comprised the core group. The RHP family was
their primary circle of friends. Although they participated in outside activities,
60% - 90% of their time was spent with RHP. They were extremely enthusiastic
and had an intense pride in the group.
· Partial: these people were connected to the core group through a close friendship with one or more of the core members. RHP was a secondary group of friends, and they spent 30% - 60% of their time with the group. They were positive and supportive of the group mentality, but held other activities at greater priority.
· Peripheral: these people had acquaintances with the core or partial group members. They participated sporadically in group activities. They either had a neutral attitude towards the existence of the group, or an ambivalent or embarrassed attitude at the antics of their classmates.
· None: these people were part of the Resident Honors Program, but not considered members of the RHP social group. They participated in few or no RHP events. They either had a negative attitude toward the social group or did not recognize its existence. Some were not easily identifiable by members of the core group.
Based on these levels, I have created the following diagram:
I have represented the RHP family as a series of concentric circles, within an outside boundary. Each level of connection to the core group is represented by a different intensity of color (full -- red; partial -- orange; peripheral -- yellow; none -- white). The edges of the circles blend into each other because there were no discrete boundaries within the official RHP class. I have arranged people by their proximity to the center, and besides adjacency to friends, their placement on the circle is arbitrary.
Brad and Katrina were the center of the social group, so I have placed them at the center of the diagram. Surrounding them are the two other foundation couples, Erin and Owen and Caroline and Richard. Branching from Brad are his closer friends, Jason, Raj, and myself. Abby had more of a connection to Raj than Brad, so she is a bit farther away. Branching from Katrina are her closer friends, Serena, Misha, and Susan.
In the partial connection circle, I place Greer near Serena because they were dating, and Audrey was a close friend. Matt is in a similar area to myself because I was friends with his non-RHP roommate and spent time in his room. Nate is placed relatively near Brad, his rommate. Swu was close to Raj and Abby, and from him branch off two groups who participated in many of the same activities with varying degrees of connection to the core group. In the peripheral circle, Chris is in a vaguely similar area to Jason because they were roommates, but Nandi and Mark are placed in arbitrary positions. Tara, Ethan, Robert, Abby S., Sara, Allison M., Jennifer, Eli, Nels, Michelle, and Lauralee had negligible or no connection to the core group. I have placed Allison M. in a lump extending from the circle because she lived on the other side of campus.