Campus Resources
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[ Athletic Facilities | Banking | Colby Museum | Dining Halls | International Activities | International Club | Health | Housing | Holidays | Religious Services | Postal Services | Safety | Transportation ]
Safety Precautions Colby is quite a safe environment, as is most of Waterville. Nonetheless, it is always wise to take precautions. There are several poles located throughout campus that have a blue light. These poles are equipped with call boxes. The call boxes are connected to the campus Security Office. Walking at Night Walk in well-lighted areas after dark; if possible, walk in groups of two or more. Avoid dark areas, walkways between bushes, and recessed doorways. If you think that someone is following you, get to a well-lighted public area. show the person that you are aware of his/her presence. Do not lead the person to where you live. If possible, call a taxi to take you home. Never let strangers give you a ride. Do not carry large amounts of money or important documents with you unless absolutely necessary. Security It is the responsibility of the Department of Security to ensure order at Colby and to respond to emergencies. The officers can help students deal with problems, such as being locked out of their rooms with no hall staff to help out. Security also serves as a "lost and found" center. Call Security at 5530 or stop by the office (first floor of the Roberts Building) if you have lost something on campus. Escort Service Security provides an escort service for students who are afraid of walking at night. If you need to use the service on campus, you can call the department at any time. If you need a ride from off campus to return to Colby, you can call the department from 10pm to 2am, or at any time during an emergency. Personal Property Car owners: Bicycle Owners: Always lock your bicycle. Use a high-security lock. Lock your bicycle properly; for example, to a bike rack or any immobile object. Register your bike with the Security Office. Residences: Lock your room every time you leave. Make sure that your windows are closed and locked when you are not in your room, especially if you live on the first floor. Avoid showing your valuable items to people. Do not leave large amounts of money in your room. Health Care and Health Insurance Health Care While you are at Colby, you will probably need to use the Health Center. When you go there, you will find a friendly and helpful team of doctors, physician's assistants, nurses, and counselors. Service is free for Colby students, as are some of the medications. If you are too ill to stay in your room or to go to the dining hall, you may stay at the Health Center and be cared for 24 hours a day by the nurses on duty. The Health Center also houses Counseling Services, which is available to help you with any psychological or emotional difficulties you may have adjusting to the U.S. in general or to Colby specifically. Health Insurance Colby offers families the opportunity to enroll their Colby students in a comprehensive insurance plan or to waive enrollment due to comparable coverage at home. Commercial Travelers Mutual Insurance Company underwrites the Student Accident and Sickness Insurance Plan. Cross Insurance Agency, which services the Plan, specializes in providing high quality affordable student health insurance. The Plan offers coverage at a reasonable cost. It supplements the services provided by the on-campus Your care at the Health Center, whether physical or emotional, is confidential. That means that your consultations there will remain private. Faculty, deans, and other students will not be aware that you have sought help at the Health Center unless you tell them. Additional Health-Related Information Banking Information Banks offer many services such as checking and savings accounts. They are competitive in rates and in services offered, so comparative shopping is important. There is no need to have an appointment to open an account, but you may need to speak to someone in Customer Service. Most banks require two forms of identification to open an account. Your Colby ID card and your passport are acceptable. A Social Security Number (see below) is required to open an interest-producing bank account. When you open an account, you should ask the Customer Service representative for a W-8 form to fill in. This means that they will not send an interest statement to the Internal Revenue Service, since you are not required to pay taxes on bank interest (see the section on Taxes). Banks vary in their hours of operation but most are usually open Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, with slightly longer hours for the drive-throughs. Check with each bank for its hours. Checking Accounts It is convenient to have a checking account in a local bank so that you can pay your bills by check. Banks offer different types of checking accounts designed to fit individual needs. The cost of a checking account varies from bank to bank. Some banks charge for each transaction, some have a basic monthly fee, and others offer free services and interest if you maintain a certain minimum balance in your account at all times. Each month your bank will send you a statement, which lists your account activity during the previous month. Be careful to keep an accurate record of every check cashed to avoid overdrawing your account. Be sure you have sufficient funds in your account for every check you write to avoid additional charges. The checks you have written will be returned to you with your statement each month. Savings Accounts Cashing Checks Automated Teller Machines and Bank Cards International Holidays What is your favorite holiday? if it is not listed or if the information should be adjusted, please send Sue a note so that it can be included. January: Transportation The Jitney Safe Ride and Taxi Vouchers Bus Car Rentals Driver's License You can get a copy of the Motorist Handbook and Study Guide from the International Student Advisor. The telephone number of the Department of Motor Vehicles in Augusta, the capital city of Maine, is (207)-624-9000. Bicycles Housing Residence Halls The Colby experience is shaped by the fact that virtually all students live on campus and eat in the three dining halls. This ensures that people of different backgrounds have opportunities to get to know one another well and contributes to the campus ethos that values differences. There are no dorms exclusively for first-year students.All of the residence halls are coed and, except for the senior apartments and the pilot program in the Green House and Spanish House, all of them mix students from all four classes. Because class years are integrated in the residence halls, students are more quickly acclimated and better immersed into the life of the College. While great effort is taken to ensure that you and your roommate(s) will be compatible, sometimes the arrangements do not work. Should you find your living situation intolerable, visit the campus life office in Cotter Union and ask to speak with Kelly Wharton, Director of Campus Life (extension 4280). The dorms offer a lot of variety, not only in location and style, but with several housing options available. Substance-free halls provide an environment free from alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. More than 15 percent of students choose to live in substance-free halls each year and sign a pledge agreeing to adhere to this philosophy. A quiet dorm with extended quiet hours is available for interested students. Students with special dietary restrictions are eligible to live in the Co-Op in Mary Low Hall with access to a kitchen for meal preparation. Dialogue Housing is offered in a Green House and a Spanish House. The program gives students the option of spending two semesters directly linking academic, residential, and social experiences. The Green House is open to upper-class-students who are interested in environmental issues. The dorm serves as a model to initiate and strengthen campus wide greening efforts both through setting an example and through activities for the rest of campus. The Spanish House is open to upper-class students who are interested in learning more about the Spanish culture. The cluster serves to engage residents and the community in experiences and programs to further their knowledge of the Spanish culture. Depending on the size of the residence hall, each has between one and four head residents, who are student hall staff available to help you in various ways. They assist in building community as well as the residential life in your residential hall (respect of quiet hours, conflict between residents, etc). They also provide opportunities to engage in campus events and the campus community. They are a good source of information about what is happening on campus and the community rules that apply within your residence. They are also able to connect you to a variety of resources on campus such as library resources and counseling resources, but are also there to lend an ear. Some dorms also have faculty/staff residents, a faculty member or family who has an apartment in the hall. They eat in the dining halls and assist in planning events for the students in their dorm. If dorms do not have a faculty/staff resident, they may have a faculty/staff associate. This faculty/staff associate assists in the community building of the dorm. Faculty/staff residents/associates work with the hall council to create a dorm community.
Dining Halls Colby, together with Sodexho, the food contract service, offers its students an expansive choice of food service options to meet their diverse dietary choices. For those of you not familiar with our Dining Services, Colby operates three dining halls during the school year—Dana, Foss, and Roberts— each striving to create a flavor and atmosphere all its own. Students also have the option of grabbing a fresh, ready-made salad, sandwich or dessert at one of our Market Cafe locations in the Colby bookstore or at the Mary Low Coffeehouse. If organic, shade-grown coffee is more of what you had in mind, visit Miller Library for Street Coffee. Supporting all of these locations is the bakeshop where all of our breads and desserts are prepared fresh daily by the Colby bakers.
Religious Service Many religious faiths are represented at Colby: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and others. Catholic mass is celebrated every Sunday at 10:30 am. (Catholic chaplain: Father Phil Tracy, ext. 4272). The Catholic student organization, the Newman Council, plans meetings and social events (ext. 6287). The Protestant organization on campus is the Colby Christian Fellowship (CCF). It meets every Friday (Protestant chaplain: Ronald E. Morrell, ext. 4273). The Jewish organization on campus is B'nai B'rith Hillel. Meeting hours are announced at the beginning of the school year (Jewish Chaplain: Rabbi Raymond Krinsky, ext. 4271). For Muslims, a mosque is available in Sturtevant residence hall. Athletic Facilities Colby provides a large athletic complex for its students as well as its staff. The athletic complex includes a 25-yard-by-25-meter swimming pool, an ice hockey arena, a field house, two basketball courts, several squash and handball courts, two Nautilus and free-weight rooms, a modern center for athletic training and physical therapy, and several tennis courts. Colby Museum The Colby College Museum of Art, located in Bixler, is composed of the Jetté Gallery, the Davis Gallery, the Schupf wing, and the Lunder wing. Excellent exhibitions of painting, sculpture, and graphic art can be seen in the museum. Postal Service Colby's post office, located on the ground floor in Cotter Union, provides a broad range of services. Stamps may be purchased at the post office or from vending machines. Mail within the U.S. costs 41 cents for the first ounce; mail to Canada costs 69 cents for the first ounce. Airmail to other countries costs 90 cents per ounce. The other services provided by Colby's post office are money orders, fax services, priority mail, certified mail, registered mail, venda cards, insured mail, parcel post, notary public, and package pickup. During orientation you will receive a box number and key. When your family and friends write, ask them to include your name on the first line, your box number and "Mayflower Hill" on the second, and city, state, and zip+4 on the third. Waterville's zip code is 04901. All zip+4 codes begin with 88, and the final two digits of the zip+4 match the first two digits of your box number. A sample address is: Everett Fairbrother If you need more information, just stop by the post office Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, and at certain times of the year seven days a week (exams periods, graduation time, etc.). The mail arrives once a day, generally in the morning.
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