Fairchild Hall, the current international dorm at UNH, located on Main Street, is turning 100 this year.
For the celebration, Amanda Khampha, Fairchild residence hall director, said, “We have a 100th birthday celebration happening on April 12 at 4:30 p.m. That will be open to the public. At 5 p.m., we’ll have a student speaker, a time capsule dedication, and some cake. People can drop off a letter to the future or bring in a small item to be placed in a time capsule to be opened in another 50 years. Later that evening at 7 p.m. we will have a closed building event. We have five students cooking meals from their home and sharing it with the hall. We are also thinking of creating a display of the history of the building and putting it up for the next year.”
The hall officially became the international dorm in 2010. In the ‘90s, Smith Hall, now the admissions office, was the international dorm.
One student who has lived in Fairchild Hall for two and a half years, but is now currently studying abroad, junior Jose Bowen, said what he likes best about the dorm is, “It’s all about the people, everyone has a positive, chill attitude.”
For Khampha, “One of my favorite memories is when we were filming a music video for the International Food Luncheon. We had sent out an email and had gotten very few responses. However, the beauty of this hall is how close everything feels. When you walk down the halls, you can locate people very easily. So a few of my students and I just started walking down the hall and knocking on the doors. By the end of the knocking we had gathered 30 students to join in on the filming and be a part of our music video. We also had a part where people had to come out of the rooms, which meant we had to ask students to borrow their rooms. The students were so kind, and quick to open their doors for us. It just goes to show that this community is very close and always willing to help out. It was a joy to see the students work together, dance, and have a good time together.”
Senior Megan McIntyre said, “Fairchild has changed my time here at UNH for the better. I lived in Williamson my freshman year and felt like a small fish in a large sea. Despite having 1000 other freshmen going through the same thing, I felt overwhelmed and only had a few friends. I quickly learned the large living areas were not for me. Sophomore year I moved to Fairchild and loved it so much I stayed here until senior year. This dorm has such a sense of family and friendship that I look forward to coming home every day from class and getting meals with my floor mates. Fairchild is an international dorm, which has allowed me to meet people from all walks of life and has enriched my cultural views of the world. With only 150 or so students I feel much more at home and have more friends here than I did in freshman-land. The location is perfect: right on Main Street, across from HoCo, and in the center of campus. While all of my fellow seniors were getting apartments I could not get myself to leave Fairchild because for the last three years it has been my home away from home. I will miss my beautiful building and will be back to visit next homecoming.”
