You’ve heard rumors of the ‘Brady Bunch Floor;’ a legendary residence hall inhabited by students with the names of Brady Bunch characters. You may have even heard about two students named ‘Cain’ and ‘Abel’ rooming together. But have you heard about Agnes and Agnes?
While the Brady Bunch Hall and Cain and Abel remain part of Wesleyan folklore, Agnes Koczo ’09 and Agnes Baik ’09 are alive and well, living together on the first floor of Fauver.
The placement of two roommates who share such an usual name spark the imaginations of conspiracy theorists across campus.
“This is a game that ResLife is playing,” said Petra Groeneveldt ’08, a Butt B Resident Advisor (RA). “A crazy lady sitting in the ResLife office cackling to herself at two in the morning [decides roommate placement].”
According to Rich DeCapua, assistant director of ResLife, said that roommate placement is not based on similar names. He said that freshman room assignments are based on what dorms students request, and roommate assignments are completely random, with the exceptions of hometown, high school and gender.
“Any common name is a total random occurrence,” said DeCapua. “That would be harder for us to do.”
Random or not, roommates with same name are common around campus.
Katherine Heller ’09 and Katherine Johns ’09 live in Butterfield A without any difficulties.
“It’s a pretty standard relationship so the fact that we have the same name doesn’t affect it,” said Heller.
However, for Sara Hirsch ’09 and Sarah Orkin ’09 in Clark, confusion has ensued. When Hirsch’s parents came to visit, they mistook a picture of her roommate for one of their daughter.
“People have said we look kind of similar,” said Hirsch. “People confuse us a lot.”
For Nicholson 5 roommates Laura D’Iorio ’09 and Laura Eppstein ’09, nicknames have prevented an identity crisis. The roommates have been dubbed ‘D-Block’ and ‘EZ-E,’ after two rap artists.
The two Agneses have been christened with more straightforward nicknames: ‘Asian Aggi’ and ‘Caucasian Aggi.’
“It’s almost not as weird [to be named Agnes] because my roommate is named Agnes,” said Koczo ’09.
There has been an abundance of other bizarre roommate and hall combinations in past years as well. Jess Sullivan ’08 lived in the ‘Kiddie Hall’ of Nicholson 6.
“Everyone on my hall last year who wasn’t a sophomore, with one exception, came to school not yet having turned 18,” said Sullivan. “We had a lot of birthday parties for people turning 18.”
Last year, Groeneveldt’s Clark hall alone had three Rebecca’s, while another three lived in other halls through out the building.
“Now I know how my RA felt last year,” Groeneveldt said, who has three residents named Max. “You have no idea how much havoc it wreaks when I want to send out mass emails to my residents.”
Joe John Sanchez ’07, a ResLife student receptionist, tried to create a comical pairing of his own while working in the office this summer.
“[My co-worker] and I were sitting [in the office] on Facebook and we noticed that there were two guys with the last names, Burger and Fries. We said to [our ResLife boss], ‘Angela you have to do this. This is monumental. It’s like the Brady Bunch hallway.’ Unfortunately, Rich DeCapua vetoed us,” said Sanchez.
Luckily for Fries, this placement didn’t happen.
“I think it would be pretty cool actually, but it would perpetuate my name being said incorrectly,” said Gabriel Fries ’09, whose name is pronounced ‘freeze.’
For the Agneses, however, dorm life couldn’t be better.
“[Agnes is] one of my closest friends here,” said Koczo. “I don’t think anyone would have thought we would have fit together so well.”
Baik completely agrees.
“If she’s down for it next year I’d love to room with her again,” said Baik.
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