Fun fact it would have been helpful for Derek to know before writing this column: UW can’t house every freshman on campus and the law requires them to give preference to in-state students, forcing out-of-state students into Statesider, Towers, and other private housing.

Fun Fact for Anonymous: One of the most recent private buildings, Lucky, was originally suppose to be purchased by the UW, but Steve Brown sued the University, claiming that instead of building residence halls, they should focus on the quality in the classroom (As if he had been donating to the UW for years or something). UW soon pulled their bid for the old University Square site, and wouldn’t you know it, Steve Brown ended up buying the site himself to build the private housing today known as Lucky. I wonder how many in-state and out of state kids could have shared the public dorm UW envisioned. O well.

Well said Derek.

Very nicely put, man. I was honestly just thinking about this phenomenon this weekend when I was out partying. It makes me sick.

Ok, but you are way off about Michigan. They have a huge divide, they just don’t call the out-of-staters “coasties,” they call them the “Jews” and do so with an overt air of animosity. This problem exists anywhere you go, and while the private dorms may perpetuate it some, it will never disappear.

I completely agree that the private dorms create unnecessary segregation and cause this divide. UW had a beautiful opportunity to create more beds in the new Ogg and Smith Halls. More beds would’ve accommodated every incoming freshman that chose to live in University Housing. Instead, due to pressure from private landlords like Steve Brown, the total number of beds in the new Ogg and Smith Halls only matched the beds that existed in the old Ogg.

Q: What�s a semi-derogatory name for a Michigander? A: I’m going to suggest “mitten-head”

People are comparing coastie vs. sconnie to 1950s racial segregation? Where is this parallel even coming from? Seriously, how can a group of people who all dress the EXACT same, come from the same states, and open their wallets for the same things not avoid stereotypes? The only way I can think of is for “coasties” to get out of their Greek bubble and actually mix with other people. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, nobody is going to judge you in a negative way if you just try to show the “real you.”

I agree with comment 1:15. The real question is why does anyone care about this divide at all? Who cares if many students coming from the coasts live one place while students coming from Wisconsin live in another. Jews, throughout history, have chosen to live amongst each other- and we see no difference here. Thus, others have used this as an opportunity to create stereotypes about the Jews, and, unfortunately we have seen no difference here. I know you are Jewish and had a bar-mitzvah (mazal tov), but the truth is, that the coastie sconnie divide really would mean nothing if it weren’t for the obvious anti-Semitic feelings that it causes. Put simply, the whole thing is bs, because a bigot is a bigot wherever they live, this just gives them an opportunity to mask it by calling it something other than blatant bigotry

1:54- I think you make a good point about a bigot being a bigot wherever they live. However, misperceptions about coasties mostly stem from the divide in social groups, not staunch bigotry. A mixing of social circles would decrease the amount of these misperceptions because sconnies and coasties would realize that they are way more similar than they think and the immediate divide between the groups is just based on aesthetics. I think that a forced mixture of sconnies and coasties in dorms would lessen the social divide and misperceptions.

With that said though, the divide is not solely the fault of the buildings. I think that, as 1:15 said, coasties need to put more effort into diversifying their social circles. However, 1:15 you completely ignored the fact that sconnies and other midwesterners must put in the same effort. I live in towers and I am from New York City (big surprise, right?). Last weekend one of my friends who lives in sellery came over with some people to hang out in my room at towers. We were hanging out and talking, I said where I was from, and this one girl replies, “so your spoiled, right?” I know that not all sconnies and midwesterners would say or think the same thing but it seems like small groups of people (both sconnies and coasties) with these misperceptions are ruining the relationship between the two groups for the rest of us.

It’s good that Derek didn’t mention the residence hall portion of Lucky in this article since a vast majority of residents come from the midwest.

notice he’s talking about statesider and towers “The root of this assimilation problem lies in the foundation of two large buildings overlooking State Street, one on top of Potbelly�s, the other on top of Urban Outfitters.”

he probably did his research. Some of the commentators here, 12:52 am, should get a clue. I live in Lucky101 and it’s a perfect mix of in and out of state students. I’m from Wayzata, i have a handful of friends from PA, but most are from chicago and milwaukee.

the only people perpetuating this stupid divide are those that refuse to educate themselves.

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best coastie-sconnie article in recent memory.

There is nothing revolutionary about this article, and it is dumb. Every three months or so there’s a writer who says the same thing about this issue and provides no new or interesting developments. The buildings may seem like the problem, but they are just symbols of the problem. It took you a lot of balls and a lot of speculation to say this problem does not exist in Michigan. It exists in Michigan as much as it does at Indiana, Penn State and UofI (though with a more NE suburb of Chicago “coastie”). Even if these two buildings did not exist, the people who need that comfort zone would naturally find each other and the “coastie” and “sconnie” scenes would exist anyway, just as they do at those other schools. Though the coasties may seem more flashy, the sconnies segregate just as much. If I did not go to this school and was first reading about this social problem, I would think there are only two different types of people. Those who are identified as neither are never pointed out and should be congratulated. There is a huge part of the student population who have the power and need to break out of their predetermined roles and make friends with whoever they care to. The people who are able to comfortably say they broke away from either of these monikers, are the ones who challenge themselves to find people they actually want to be friends with, regardless of their background. They are the ones who can think creatively and outside a group mentality and therefore will actually go places in life. So basically, these articles should advocate individuality and not the battle between two groups of very uninteresting people.

Very insightful Mr. 8:28 and I for the most part agree that the buildings have little to do with the creation of this divide. It inherently exists as as self-perpetuated cycle: older kids advertise the liberties of partying that goes on in the private dorms (towers and state-sider) to their newly high school graduated relatives or friends. It’s too tempting to say no. Freedom to drink, smoke, have your own room and be surrounded by other kids that grew up with similar backgrounds like you - it serves as the most comfortable solution to the fear of traveling 1,000-2,000 miles away from home. I am guilty. I am a coastie and lived in towers and loved every second of it, while I was there. Once I got out and experienced something other than the coastie scene, I realized that this town has so much more to offer than spending $15 at Mad Ave or Orpheum to dance with guys and girls who barely have a command over the english language - especially when drunk. The divide exists on an everyday basis, from how the girl with the thick Long Island accent treats the barista at Starbucks after screwing up her drink to their incessant and obsessive need to text message even during class and conversations at the bar. The only reason I’m capable of even coming close to befriending most mid-westerners, who have it out for us is because I am aware of the bad wrap we coasties have. I have to point it out and expose a social disclaimer that “it’s okay, I don’t bite.” I wouldn’t suggest that midwesterners give us a second, third or fiftieth chance because from my perspective we don’t really deserve it. Most of us are rude and disrespectful in ways we aren’t even aware of.
The buildings only perpetuate an already existent situation. If you want to fix it don’t take the rudeness of coasties so seriously and if you do decide to give us a chance - the worst that could happen is you get to laugh at our retarded social antics.

^^^not a coastie

People are just envious that coasties are generally smarter and better looking. What good has come out of Wisconsin? Jack shit. How about the East Coast? Yeah, we owned your little bitch asses.

Although I know this doesn’t hold true in every instance, it seems that the term ‘coastie’ is attributed to the rich, trendy and obnoxious from the coast. In contrast, many of my friends from the coast are none of these, and thus are not labeled as such. (Obviously, I do not mean that in-state kids are all poor, but I would like to point out that our fellow students from the coast SEEM to be all rich — it’s all about appearance)

So maybe the problem isn’t geography but socio-economic divide. For example, I’ll admit it’s hard for me to relate to even someone from the affluent suburbs of Minnesota when they seem to be spoiled rotten with ‘more cash than taste’ as Mother would say.