Ubuntu at a Glance

Green, community, simple living, what do these themes all have in common? These are three main ideas in which Ubuntu sees as central to its intentional community. What is Ubuntu? Inspired by former Bluffton University student, Teresa Hershberger, the community’s online blog describes the group saying: “The inspiration for our name comes from a Zulu word meaning “I am because we are.” They have chosen this because they want to live as a community, appreciating the gifts that each brings and developing a group identity. Other important aspects of the group include a focus on "simple living and green initiatives and a commitment to working on conflict resolution in our daily lives."

In the community, located on the second and third floors of Schultz Hall in Riley Court, there are fourteen members, seven guys and seven girls. The guys live on the second floor and include; Robert Hooley(Junior),Eli Passage(Junior),Ethan Hershberger,(Sophomore), Devin Matthews(Senior),Jason Frey(Senior), Shawn Yoder(Sophomore) and Judah Weinhardt(Senior). Above them on the third floor are the girls who are; Andrea Flack,(Senior), Christine Amstutz(Sophomore), Erin Weaver(Senior), Kelsey Smith(Senior), Kristin Shelley(Senior), Karla Nofziger(Senior) and Jennifer Arnold(Sophomore). Though the community is a group effort with no official leader, Jennifer Arnold serves as the group’s resident adviser.

At a glance this group’s living space may seem like an average college dorm, but with a closer look there are a few intentional differences they have decided to implement within the dorm to promote community among the members of the group. One of these differences is that the TVs are in the lobbies of each floor, instead of each set of roommates or individuals each keeping a TV in their room. This action promotes community by causing individuals who want to watch TV at any time of the day to have to openly communicate and cooperate with either other individuals who want to watch TV or who are studying in the lobbies. A second difference between Ubuntu and other dorms on campus is that they share custodial duties among the groups members instead of having one person per floor clean by themselves. Each member of each floor has a job which they do each week to help clean the hall. Since they all help clean their hall, the money that would originally go to one person as their campus job paycheck, goes to the whole community into the “Ubuntu Fund”. This fund is money that is used to help different charities or church groups and also used to buy food for the group.

With the food the group has a community meal each Sunday evening where a group of cooks and a group of cleans up. This meal helps members interact intentionally as well as communicate business ideas or needs. Often the community invites their faculty mentors or friends from campus to this meal. In doing this, the group likes to share what they have as well as let others see and hear what they are doing. The meal also allows the mentors to keep the community accountable to their goals.

Ubuntu is an important community who is trying to practice an alternative lifestyle, which can definitely be continued outside of college to sustain the natural world. This community is also offering an alternative living situation for students on campus that could be continued in the future if the school feels that Ubuntu has succeeded.