For women who want a sense of home and
community near campus, the Trinity House provides an ideal solution. Established in 2000, the house is a Christian co-op that provides housing to 44 young women each term.
The Trinity House vaguely
resembles a sorority because it used to be one, but few other similarities exist. It
was originally the Tri-Delta sorority until the chapter closed. The First Baptist Church, which also runs the Alpha Omega House for male University students, first leased the house from the sorority and last year was able to buy it.
The large brick house is located in the neighborhood behind campus on University Street. The inside of the house is as charming as the surrounding neighborhood. On the main floor, wide-open rooms — one with a baby grand piano — lead to a kitchen, dining room and the house mom’s apartment. The house has a basement with a Ping-Pong table, laundry room, TV room and plenty of storage space.
The house has 10-15 bedrooms and a large bathroom on the second and third floors. There are eight single rooms, 12 double rooms and two quad rooms. The rooms have large windows that provide plenty of light and creative storage space, and girls can decorate their rooms.
“Bedrooms are either assigned at random or you can choose a roommate. The longer a girl has lived in the house, the more choice she has in choosing a bedroom,” junior Kelsey Bernert said. “This year a lot of the freshmen were placed in the quads.”
From freshmen to fifth-year seniors, the individuals in the house are diverse. They differ in age and interests, but all residents share one aspect: their faith.
“We’re a Christian co-op, so all the women who live here are believers. Within that, we have members of all backgrounds, years and majors, some who like to play DDR, some who like to watch “The Apprentice,” some who bake cookies every night of the week,” second-year resident Heather Froemming said.
Like most communal living situations, many of the house activities are group-oriented. They eat dinner together every night and do activities with the AO House like dinners and softball.
“Every once in a while we’ll have something fun like a spa breakfast where we eat breakfast then give each other facials,” Froemming said.
Other activities are central to their faith. As the First Baptist Church of Eugene operates its College Christian Fellowship out of the house, the residents are involved in youth group activities.
“We hold Sunday night youth group in our living room for all college students and try to make our house available as a campus ministry center. We also organize girls and guys Bible studies so that all the house members and other CCFers can get plugged in with some small group ministry,” Froemming said. “Part of our contract is participation in the ministry of the house through CCF.”
In addition to work for the church, tenants have weekly chores, kitchen patrol and other household duties.
Chores can range in frequency from every day to two or three times per week. Chores change every term, and the methods for assigning chores this year included house seniority, how well residents did their chores
and choosing at random during spring term, according
to Bernert.
Luckily, the tenants receive benefits for completing their duties. The package deal costs $535 per month for the 2005-2006 school year and includes room, utilities and DSL.
During the week, the girls are provided three meals per day. Residents make their breakfast and lunch with food from the fridge. This year, lunch was served at the AO house because it was closer to campus. Dinner is served group-style following a devotional at 5:30 p.m. every day. According to Froemming, the food varies from burrito bar to lasagna to teriyaki chicken but always includes alternative choices for special diets.
Individuals who are interested in living at the Trinity House can apply by calling the First Baptist Church Eugene. Froemming said ladies should apply before March, and Bernert recommended getting applications in before January. However, the house does have a waiting list and occasionally spaces open after spring. Most girls say the living experience was worth their efforts to apply.
“This year I transferred to the University of Oregon and by moving into the Trinity House I was able to connect with great men and women who share my beliefs,” Bernert said. “These connections turned into many different friendships that I would have had a harder time of finding if it weren’t for moving to the T-house.”