The transition from high school to college is a momentous occasion for any student. This transition often means leaving the familiar comforts of home and family for the unfamiliar environment of a college campus, often hundreds, or even thousands, of kilometers away. This move involves not only leaving the familiar and supportive home environment, but learning a new set of skills that affect every aspect of daily living. These skills include making the right choices about food intake, exercise, and sleep patterns, dealing with various health problems, as well as creating and following a schedule that changes on a daily basis and is dictated by classes, assignments, and social pressures. I would like to share some of my own experiences from living in Oglesby Hall during the mid-1980s to give you some perspective.
Moving into a residence hall like Oglesby Hall for the first time is a very stressful experience for any freshman, but is very traumatic for an Aspergian leaving his or her parents for the first time. The experience of living with another guy in a 3 m by 4 m room, sharing a common bathroom with 60 other guys, and eating in a dining hall with 1,400 of my “closest friends and neighbors” is not one that I want to endure again. If I only could have explained to my roommate, my Resident Advisor, and to the other 58 guys on my floor, about my condition and what I was going through, they would have learned to understand and accept me for who I was at the time. I wanted to interact with my peers but I had no idea how to do so.
Aspergian students at college or university, especially freshmen or transfer students, are under much more stress than are their Neurotypical classmates. In addition to the pressures of our studies in the classroom, we have the added pressures of learning how to live with our peers. Residence hall staff, as well as professors, teaching assistants, and academic advisors, would be well advised to learn all they can about Asperger Syndrome in order to make the transition to campus life smoother for their Aspergian students. Judging by my personal experience at the University of Illinois in the mid-1980s, Aspergians are much more likely to fail academically due to the stress of dual curricula than due to a lack of intellectual capability.
I propose the establishment of a housing unit at the University of Illinois for students who have Asperger Syndrome and other Autism Spectrum Disorders. Asperger House would be jointly operated by the Division of Housing and the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services. Residents at Asperger House (a conceptual name) would receive the academic and social support services they need to successfully complete their education…in and out of the classroom. Resident Advisors and other staff members would receive special training in the many challenges related to Asperger Syndrome and how they can best help Aspergian students relate to their Neurotypical classmates and professors. Among these challenges are the fact that many Aspergians also have coexisting conditions such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
While it is possible to locate Asperger House on a designated floor of a University Residence Hall, it would not be the optimal living situation for students with Asperger Syndrome. The excessive exposure to other students would be too stressful for Aspergian students to bear, often resulting in behavioral anomalies. A vacant fraternity house, once properly renovated, would be ideal for such a housing unit. Each resident of Asperger House would have his or her own room because a single room can provide a much-needed refuge in an otherwise stressful life. However, we must be careful to mitigate the Aspergian desire for isolation from their peers.
Many Aspergians are also very sensitive to various sensory stimuli that would not so adversely affect their neurotypical peers. A common example would be the flicker and hum of a fluorescent light bulb. It is critical that we reduce or eliminate unnecessary distractions form the academic and living environment.
Among the amenities at Asperger House would be a computer lab, a small but well-equipped gym, a TV lounge, a laundry room, a dining hall, classrooms for in-house programs, and a social interaction lab. An Academic Advising Team would be in regular contact with the various deans, department chairs, and professors to assist them in optimizing the learning experience for their Aspergian students. A Psychologist would guide the in-house staff members in assessing and providing for the various counseling needs of the residents. Future Resident Advisors would ideally be upperclassmen and/or graduate students who are on the Spectrum themselves and can utilize their own personal experience to guide the incoming students.
Unlike at the Residence Halls, the residents of Asperger House would be encouraged to live there year-round in order to maintain continuity in their lives. The in-house programs would utilize the latest in computer technology. For example, I would like to see the “Social Stories” comic strips, often used to teach children social interaction skills, converted into a Virtual Reality game to involve all of a student’s senses in the learning process.
Another critical component of Asperger House is the creation of a transitional program to assist the students in starting their new careers and post-college lives. Among the many tools that can be used to guide the students in their career choices are the Strong Interest Inventory Profile and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. With the right education and support programs, people with Asperger Syndrome and other Autism Spectrum Disorders can contribute their many and diverse talents and abilities to the benefit of the greater society.
