Building Community

For the fourth year in a row, Dordt University has experienced record enrollment. The institution’s overall enrollment for the fall 2024 semester was 1,943, the largest in Dordt’s history.

“Dordt’s record enrollment reflects the value students find in both the education and the community here,” says Greg Van Dyke ('02), director of admissions. “It speaks to the meaningful connections they build with professors and peers, creating a supportive environment where academic rigor and personal growth go hand in hand.”

Record enrollment also includes a 84.7% freshmen-to-sophomore retention rate—one of the best in Dordt’s history. Registrar Jim Bos ('85) says an excellent retention rate shows that Dordt recruits students “who fit. They feel comfortable and enjoy their Dordt experience enough to come back. This is very encouraging.”

Van Dyke says students and families continue to connect with Dordt’s commitment to the institutional mission. “They seek a truly Christian environment where they are both challenged and encouraged in their faith, and I think they find that here at Dordt.”

What are some ways Dordt faculty and staff are focusing on growing the people and places that make Dordt "Dordt"—where students can live their faith, become what God has created them to be, and connect with others in purposeful relationships?

If you drive through Sioux Center on an evening in early fall, you might spot students walking in groups of three toward Sandy Hollow. This practice is called the Walk to Emmaus, a 20-year tradition that helps Dordt residence life staff create community together.

Nia Boentoro, a community development assistant (CDA) in the Squares Apartments, appreciates the entire structure of the walks. “There’s no other time during the school year where we would have the opportunity to walk for a couple hours with two other people we don’t know very well,” she says. “It’s a refreshing and enjoyable way to get to know people, because we talk about anything and everything.”

During some walks, Boentoro and other residence life staff have talked about deep, intense questions; other walks have been more lighthearted and fun. “Either way, I leave the walks having made new friends,” she says.

The Walk to Emmaus is engineering major Luke Schmidt’s favorite part of residence life training. “We set aside time to intentionally get to know the other people we’re walking with,” the East Campus CDA from Grand Rapids, Michigan, says. “These conversations have almost always led to deeper relationships throughout the school year.”

It’s helpful training for the CDAs, who are (as their titles imply) tasked with helping to build community in the on-campus residence halls and apartments. Amanda Johnson, a nursing major from New Brighton, Minnesota, enjoys getting to interact with the “Squares neighborhood” as a CDA, “whether that’s in passing conversations walking to and from class, or taking awkward roommate photos for weekly email challenges. Being a CDA is a special opportunity to get to know other upperclassmen within their close friend groups, and it's sweet to see them interact together within their home on campus is awesome.”

With full-time enrollment hitting 1,600 this year at Dordt and more than 90% of undergraduate students living on campus, it’s more important than ever for Dordt student services staff to ensure that students connect with others in purposeful relationships so they can become all that God has created them to be.

“With on-campus housing, we want to foster and support the physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and academic health of Dordt students,” says Robert Taylor ('99), vice president for student success.

Students have different needs and wants, depending on what year they are. Where students live and why is intentional at Dordt, built on the foundation of a tried-and-true housing philosophy method that’s supported by key connections with residence life staff.

“Housing freshmen and sophomores in the dorms provides an initial step into independence, while also optimizing opportunity to meet many people and create meaningful relationships,” says Derek Buteyn ('11), director of students and residence life. “As those relationships strengthen and deepen through the first few years, they’re ready to move as upperclassmen to more independent housing with their closest friends.”

Residence assistants (RAs) in the dorms serve as community builders, first responders, and agents of referral for the students living on their floor or wing. Not only do RAs build community by engaging students in regular wing activities but they also find ways to connect with every student on their wing each week. They help direct other students to useful resources as needed, and they can help with quickly assessing situations that might need other professional staff.

CDAs are also seen as community builders, first responders, and agents of referral, but in a different way that’s geared more toward juniors and seniors living in apartments. CDAs find ways to connect with their apartment neighborhoods through events, activities, regular communication, and more.

“It is always challenging but rewarding to plan events with the purpose of developing relationships with those on campus,” says Schmidt.

That’s partly why having group building activities like the Walk to Emmaus is so important for residence life staff: it’s a way for the staff, who provide such integral support to their fellow students, to build deeper relationships with one another.

“The intent is to create a foundation of relationships so that when life happens and the difficulty and stress of the year hits, they have those connections to fall back on—to share with one another in their joys and struggles," says Buteyn.

This small, seemingly random practice is deliberate in its own way, much like how Dordt staff determine on-campus housing.

“Our housing is intentionally random,” explains Buteyn. “We want students to get to know a wide variety of students—people with all kinds of different experiences, backgrounds, and majors. We want the engineering major to get to know the soccer player to get to know the theatre performer. It’s important that students learn from and grow among different people. I think that’s really good.”

Living with people in a dorm setting (having roommates, sharing community bathrooms) as well as in apartments (splitting refrigerator space, rooming with friends) can be an uncomfortable adjustment for many students, but it develops life skills and friendships that last long after college.

“And students often find comfort in what initially made them uncomfortable. Sharing a room, for instance: they might go into sharing a room with some trepidation," says Taylor. "But when put in a position where they need to figure it out, they often make lifelong friends, or they end up asking to room with that same person the following year. There’s something beautiful about that.”

For Boentoro, being involved in residence life has had a big impact on her faith. “My coworkers are people who are on fire for Christ, and that has been refreshing to see,” she says. “It has been valuable to serve the campus community as a CDA because not only do I get to pour into so many people, but I am also impacted by those relationships. I can’t imagine my Dordt experience without residence life.”

Dordt is intentional about building purposeful community, and it shows, she adds.

“Through residence life, clubs, campus ministries, and other activities on campus, there is a lot of outreach happening within the campus community. Having the students live on campus creates a culture of hanging out on campus, which builds community.”

Given that Dordt has experienced record enrollment four years in a row, it may not come as a surprise that this is also the fourth year in a row that Dordt has committed to constructing more on-campus housing options for students. Additional rooms were added to Covenant Hall in fall 2022. The Squares Apartments, located south of Southview Apartments and completed in fall 2023, consist of four new buildings that house a total of 96 students. The Fourth Avenue Townhomes were built by fall 2024; the two buildings each have three 2-bedroom units and two 1-bedroom units (as well as a rooftop patio). This fall, construction began on a series of cottages located on the corner of 7th Street NE and 4th Avenue NE; the cottages will likely be six units housing six students each.

Braelynn Kamstra, an exercise science major from Rock Valley, lives in the Fourth Avenue Townhomes. She appreciates the split-level design, which allows for a private and restful environment. Upstairs, two spacious bedrooms sandwich two bathrooms, while downstairs a large kitchen island divides two living rooms. The open floor plan allows for flexibility when it comes to arranging the space.

Kamstra especially enjoys the extra space the townhomes provide. In fact, the first thing she noticed on move-in day was how large and spacious the new apartment was. High ceilings create a modern, clean atmosphere and enormous windows allow plenty of light to shine in.

The townhomes uniquely blend campus life with community. Ellie Janda, an engineering major from Blue Hill, Nebraska, lives with one roommate in a smaller unit. Though her apartment has only one bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, Janda loves the sense of community.

“You know your neighbors. We live right on Fourth Avenue, so it feels like you are part of Sioux Center.”

The townhomes, situated three minutes from the Campus Center, provide students with a glimpse of what life after college might look like—right down to having a front door that opens onto a small-town street instead of a university sidewalk. Janda and her roommate, who are both on the cross-country team, enjoy having easy access to run through Sioux Center in the mornings.

Vice President of Operations Fred Verwoerd ('85) appreciates the variety of housing options on Dordt’s campus. “We try to meet the housing needs of different students. For example, the Fourth Avenue Townhomes provide a nice hybrid of on-campus living while also being closer to the greater Sioux Center community.”

Dorm living has changed over the years on Dordt’s campus, too. Now, East and North Halls (located kitty-corner to each other) are both dorms for males; Covenant Hall is for females only. This was an intentional choice in recent years.

“Guys and girls will always find each other,” jokes Verwoerd. “So, having guys in proximity to one another in the dorms and having girls on the other side of campus doesn’t keep them from interacting. In fact, we’ve found that students’ social circles have widened, because they often must go out of their way to see those of the opposite gender.”

With more than 60% of Dordt students originating from outside of Iowa, most students hang out on campus on the weekends. Parking, although important, isn’t the central focus of what makes Dordt community unique.

“Every year we add more parking, but it’s always on the periphery of campus,” explains Verwoerd. “We want to make Dordt a pedestrian campus, not a vehicular one.”

Making Dordt a pedestrian campus requires keeping fickle weather in mind. That was certainly a factor in Dordt’s decision to build the new dining commons in a more central location.

“The old Commons was on the west side of campus, which was not convenient for those living on the east side,” says Verwoerd. “Having the dining commons connected to the Campus Center is perfect, because students already gather there. We hope it will be a hub for students to gather.”

The new dining commons will hold about 400 people for meal service at a time and will be open to students more hours per day than the current facility allows. It will also connect the Campus Center to the B.J. Haan Auditorium, continuing a trend of connecting Dordt’s buildings through skywalks and other connected walkways.

“When the decision was made to connect the Science and Technology Center to the Campus Center through a skywalk, it shifted our philosophy of spaces on campus,” says Verwoerd. “During the winter months, students don’t have to rush in the cold to get to class; once they’re in one of the connected buildings, they can walk to class, grab a coffee at the Bunsen Brew, stop and have a conversation with a friend, or find a study spot in the library. It opens up new possibilities for creating community.”

Another area of growth is in athletics, adds Verwoerd. “I think it’s fair to say that we need to expand our athletic facilities. They were designed at a time when we only had about 200 athletes on campus.”

These days, more than 700 students are also athletes. “We are almost out of space and need to expand,” he says.

This spring, work will continue on the interior of the Rozenboom Family Athletic Center. A new training room, offices, and other facilities will be added. The goal is to complete the work by fall 2025, at which point construction will be paused for the athletics season. Then, officials hope to work on a complete remodel of the De Witt Gymnasium, including a new entrance as well as heating and cooling.

Alumni who walk on Dordt’s campus will notice that things have changed since they were in college. Every year, more updates are made, all in an effort to purposely foster community.

“We are created to live in community,” adds Verwoerd. “These days, there are fewer opportunities for people to learn how to live in community well: how do we learn to compromise, communicate needs, work through differences, and respect others? In our society, there’s too much ‘you and me’ and not ‘we.’”

There is so much isolation and loneliness in the world these days, he says. By encouraging students to connect to others in purposeful relationships during their time at Dordt—by creating welcoming spaces as well as intentionally instigating interactions between students—Dordt faculty and staff, including Verwoerd, want to set students up for lifelong community.

“We want to show Dordt students what living in community looks like, so when they graduate, they know what they want, and they can recognize what good community looks like when they see it, because they experienced it firsthand while at Dordt.”