Of all of Wesleyan’s program houses, Out House, located on 132 High Street, is likely the only one where more programs are organized to take place outside rather than in. Home of outdoors enthusiasts of every stripe, the house was established in 1982, and it has since been the headquarters of the Wesleyan Outing Club, which was originally founded in 1937.

“[Out] House has always been a place where people who share a passion for the outdoors and outdoor activities could live together and help to bring that passion to the rest of the campus,” Shane Henderson ’12 said. “To my knowledge, the only big change is that there used to be a big focus on nudity in the house. In the nineties, there was a lot of streaking and some running competition involving naked points. Today there is little to no intentional nudity, although we try to keep up the tradition of ‘the Butt picture’ which is a tradition of taking photos of house members mooning the camera when out on outings in beautiful natural surroundings.”

Out House, as the name suggests, focuses on organizing various events with the Outing Club and program houses, as well as providing outdoors-oriented students with means to go on their own adventures. With the Outing Club, the house leads various outdoor activities every weekend including hiking, climbing, biking, canoeing, etc. They also host an annual fall festival in their backyard complete with hot cider, apple bobbing, pie, and live music.

“We [also] often work with other houses or halls to organize events,” said Henderson. “Most recently, we organized a very successful World Water Day event with the members of Earth House.”

Although Out House’s activities are mainly outdoor-based, the house also practices other traditions such as weekly Sunday night bonding dinners.

“I like house dinner a lot, not just because of the delicious food we make, but also the idea of eating a meal together as a house,” Huiao Cui ‘13, another Out House resident, said. “I don’t even know what my favorite activity is, there are just so many pieces of life in Out House, and I enjoy all of them.”

Many future residents of Out House get to know the community through attendance of the Outing Club’s frequent activities and events.

“I was very involved with the Outing Club my freshman year and I got to know the members of the house fairly well,” Henderson said. “It seemed like a really great group of people and a very tight knit community, which really appealed to me. I also liked the idea of living with people who would want to go out climbing with me on a regular basis.”

Cui also familiarized herself with the house through Outing Club activities, such as WOOT!, the Wesleyan Outdoor Orientation Trip.

“I knew about Out House from the Orientation Trip and I had been to several of their meetings and outings,” Cui said. “I knew the people living there were in general very nice and friendly, [and that] they love making friends with new people.”

Residents of Out House often have academic interests leaning towards the study of environmental issues, though this is not the case across the board.

“One of my majors is environmental studies,” said Out House resident Annie deBoer ’12. “I do think that there might be a trend towards people interested in the environmental studies living in Out House, but it is certainly not a point of exclusivity.”

Due to this commonality in academic interests and passion for nature, there is sometimes a fortuitous overlap between academic and project concerns and outhouse activities.

“There were two members in this CFPA [Connecticut Forest and Park Association] programming class and they had a specific plot of land in Middletown that they had to do research on,” said deBoer.  “Last weekend, they had to go look at that plot of land…so a bunch of people just went with them and it became an outing [that began as] a class project.”

Overall, the Out House community is a close-knit one that keeps its arms perpetually open for new members. Several members remain in the house for more than one year and take on leadership roles, only further underscoring the extent to which members love the house and Outing Club.