Bonds grow, strengthen during college years

By CAROLYN CLICK - cclick@thestate.com

They arrive on campus in late summer, brimming with vigor and curiosity, and armed with the particular combination of confidence and naivete that so poignantly marks the young.

Some college freshmen wave off their parents’ tears and admonitions with bravado, others dissolve in waves of homesickness as the family car disappears down the street.

But slowly, these incoming students develop social and academic connections — with roommates, classmates, sorority and fraternity members, through campus and service organizations — that grow richer each passing year.

So when the lives of seven students are cut short, as they were in Sunday’s devastating fire on Ocean Isle, N.C., all in the campus community are affected, even in a university as sprawling as USC.

“It’s a very tight community,” Dan Berman, director of the school’s University 101 program, said Monday as he and other professors waited to learn the identities of the six USC victims and one Clemson student who perished.

“Whatever comes out of this, it is going to touch every student in the university.”

University 101 brings together incoming students in a small seminar setting to learn how to navigate college life. In meetings two or three times a week, the students develop a deep camaraderie and understanding of their place in university life.

“They just do so many things together,” Berman said. “It is a very holistic experience, not just dealing with the student academically, but helping them to achieve better (life) management skills.”

By late afternoon Monday, instructors had learned that at least two of the deceased are among the 3,000 students enrolled in University 101.

“Everyone seems to be pulling together admirably to offer support and consolation for each other,” Berman said in an e-mail. “Those of us who so love working with college students — with so much promise, intelligence, and vitality — find it so difficult to contemplate the loss of life.”

For many students, including those who perished in the blaze, the Greek sorority and fraternity system provided an early campus navigation system into collegiate life.

Most of those who died were associated with the USC chapters of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Diana Brown, spokeswoman for USC’s Sorority Council, said girls in a sorority truly develop feelings of sisterhood.

That bond is almost instantaneous during “rush,” the weeklong recruiting ritual that takes place in August, she said.

“I really feel that through the recruitment process girls find out where they immediately feel at home,” Brown said. “I really would say it is immediate, and after that the bond just gets stronger.”

Monday afternoon, the president of USC’s SAE chapter, which is believed to have lost several members in the fire, spoke of the depth of that bond at a university news conference.

Amid the tragedy, “there is a small part of my soul that is smiling today as I witness the spirit of our community as it comes together to support all those in need,” Jay Laura said, as he described the outpouring of spiritual and material support in the hours after the devastation.

“This is the same spirit that brought these students together at Ocean Isle, one of love, caring, fellowship and a shared sense of belonging.”

As Laura faced the television cameras, he recited the “True Gentlemen” creed that distinguishes those who pledge the fraternity, founded in 1856.

In coming days, the victims will be remembered well in memorials and vigils — and in simple one-on-one communication.

On Monday, one instructor wrote to his “little U 101 community” and asked that they be present for class today to remember a male class member who died.

“Our class, our grief, our time, our way. If you are unable to attend, I ask that you call and speak with me,” the professor wrote. “I really need to know that you are doing OK. No one should be on their own at a time like this.”

Reach Click at (803) 771-8386.