Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

[PhotoChick]

Ahhh... the dorms. My roommate first semester was annoying. I had afternoon and evening classes and and evening/overnight job. So I'd sleep in. (I also sometimes didn't wear a shirt to bed; get in bed under the covers, take off the shirt, when you wake up put shirt back on, take off covers.) I'd frequently wake up to the door being open. My bed was next to the door. She once let the handyman into the room and then left for class. I woke up started screaming and scared the crap out of him cause he didnt she me under the blanket and she hadn't said anything.

[BookstoreEscapee]

...and any flames or burning devices (e.g. candles, incense) are disallowed per University policy, so I guess the glow of my laptop screen will have to be delightful enough for now.

Here, try this.

Ah, dorms...

We didn't have any fire drills at bad hours (I think the latest they ever did was 10pm or so - late enough that most people were around, but not late enough to wake most people up), but we did have some burnt popcorn at bad hours. Also the bathroom door on the North hall on my floor (I lived on the South end) had to be propped open a little bit when the showers were running, or else all the steam rushing out at once when the door was opened would set off the fire alarm.

And sorry, but if there is a fire drill at work my bag with wallet and whatnot comes with me. Just in case. If I was in the library with a laptop it would come too (but I didn't have a laptop in college).

My dorm wasn't too bad. My first roommate was a bitch but we did some switching around after the first semester and I lived with friends after that. We didn't have air conditioning (some dorms do), but we did have the biggest rooms on campus. Technically the campus was "dry" but you were allowed to drink in your room if everyone present was 21. I also lived in the Senior townhouses my last year, and that was 2 bedrooms with 4 students. The bedrooms were a tad small (especially compared to my dorm that I lived in for 3 years) but we also had living room and kitchen so it wasn't such a big deal. Our desks were in the bedrooms but the bookshelves were in the living room so it wasn't too crowded.

Also, we were right next to the soccer field (we're a soccer school; no football) so we could open the window and listen to the game if we had too much work to do (my senior year the homecoming game was postponed because of rain, and by Sunday I had too much work to do to go watch it. My roommate and I opened the window and listened to the announcer, and took a couple breaks to walk up and watch a few minutes here and there).

but nothing will top (WARNING GROSS BEYOND ALL RECOGNITON PLEASE HIGHLIGHT BETWEEN LINES)

There are people who believe that they derive health benefits from doing this...

[PhotoChick]

Didn't get to post the other story (about fire drills) before.

One night roommate (the good one) didn't have classes the next day so she went to stay at her parents. I decided that would be a good time to have a boy over. In the middle of the night, in the middle of "entertaining" said boy, the fire alarms when off. I was definitely a scramble to find clothes and jackets (it was winter) as well as make ourselves "presentable."

[Sonoma]

The dorm I lived in was built in 1928, and had not had any of the wiring updated since then. Needless to say, if a fire ever started, they gave it 20 minutes. Our fire alarms would become a haven for spiders, and we would routinely get 3 AM fire 'drills'. One night they were so frequent, I gave up on the bed, since I got sick of climbing down from the loft, and just crashed on the couch.

They've since remodeled the building, so it shouldn't be an issue anymore. Loved that dorm, hated the midnight fire drills.

[Seshat]

Now, permit me a short leap of logic here: The rooms are locked, as per University orders. The windows are shut and locked, again per University orders. Students are not allowed back into their buildings until the end of break, per University orders. However, University employees are permitted, and even instructed, to enter every single dormitory room and perform a visual inspection, before leaving and locking the door behind them. And yet, despite none having access to the "lost or stolen" items during the period of their disappearance, with the exception of University employees, the University and its employees cannot be held responsible if any of those items go missing. Like, for example, when a University employee takes a television, laptop, iPod, or printer (all of which have happened on more than one occasion).

Take out contents or renters insurance. Photograph the items, record serial numbers, keep proof of ownership (receipts and whatever). Photograph the room just before you lock up and leave, showing everything that's in there, with a timestamp on the photograph.

Photograph the room immediately on return, with a timestamp, at the same angles as you photographed it when you left. If anything is missing, contact the police and get a police report. Make a claim on your insurance, giving them a copy of the university policy as well as the police report and copies of the photographs & other paperwork.

One or two legal wrangles with insurance companies will change the university policy pretty quickly.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

At our dorm, we found out that being hit with water would also set off the alarm. So water pistol battles at odd hours, heck at any hour, was strongly discouraged by other residents after a particular double alarm at 3 am incident (double alarm = alarm at about 2 am, wake everybody up, go outside, wait for them to clear building; then return to your room, & about 15 minutes later repeat).

There were a couple male-only dorms on campus. One of the stat professors, instead of using a textbook, wrote his own coursepak thingy. There is a connection between these two statements. One of the examples that he wrote: if you pull the alarm at 2 am at X dorm, what percentage of the students exiting will be women & how many of them will be wearing men's pj's? I enjoyed his class, even if statistics weren't my cup of tea.

[Pezzle]

Now you guys are scaring me! I have to go live in the dorms in the Village in order to go to art school. Holy crap. Lucky me tho that they have suites and not public bathrooms.


Please dont steal my macbook.

[Pagan]

I lived in the dorms for two semesters. Apparently it was either not very memorable or very horrific, 'cause I really don't remember much. Either that or it's just lost in the mists of time (1988-89).

I do remember sitting up one night, roomie came stumbling in around 1am (this was when you could still party down at the river) and decided that she had to have something to eat. Well, she was sitting not 3 feet from my head and this woman never chewed with her mouth closed. Now, I had an 8am class the next morning. After about 5 minutes of listening to her, I sat up and said, "Would you please close your goddamn mouth when you chew!" She is the reason that I get completely grossed out to this day seeing people people eat....like the Carl's Jrs commercials (love their burgers, but OMG!).

This is also the same roomie that had such a pile of clothes on the floor of our closet the cockroaches were breeding under it!

Sometimes I wish...

A man came up to Sam the other day and asked "What happened to your gun?" I couldn't exactly explain how the University wanted the mascot to look "friendlier" so stripped him of his completely awesome musket, nor could I berate him for not noticing since the musket has been gone for about TEN YEARS. Instead, I just pretended to shoot him with said absent musket. He chuckled. Fool.

NMSU's mascot is Pistol Pete. Well, a little over a year ago, the powers-that-be took away his guns in a PC fit. We went from this:
http://www.nmsu.edu/~advance/ucomm/s...istol_pete.jpg to this:
http://cache.nmn.speedera.net/pics3/...0815174335.jpg
(Whom we dubbed "Lasso Louie" or "Politically Correct Pete")

Well, there was a lot of unhappiness about it. Alumni and boosters pulling support, etc. Well, Pete got his guns back and now we've got this:
http://a855.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...d9994c181e.gif

They also started going after the fight song. A couple of the lines mentioned drinking, so of course we were all going to become alcoholics because of it!

"And when we win this game
We’ll buy a keg of booze
And we’ll drink to the Aggies
‘Til we wobble in our shoes" (I learned it as "boots")

[MMATM]

They also started going after the fight song. A couple of the lines mentioned drinking, so of course we were all going to become alcoholics because of it!

"And when we win this game
We’ll buy a keg of booze
And we’ll drink to the Aggies
‘Til we wobble in our shoes" (I learned it as "boots")

Our fight song is practically lost to the sands of time. The music is still the same, since the band plays it every time we score a touchdown, and at odd intervals during basketball games, but nobody remembers:
Fight, down the field, Massachusetts
The Stars and the Stripes will gleam...
Fight, fi-yi-yight, for ol' Bay State
Fight for the team, team, team!
(Go...Go U...Go UMass...Go UMass!)
...has been shortened to just "Go...Go U...Go UMass...Go UMass!" which I must say isn't very original.

Our alma mater is good though:
“When Twilight Shadows Deepen”

When twilight shadows deepen
and the study hour draws nigh,
When shades of night are falling
and the evening breezes sigh,
'Tis then we love to gather
'Neath the pale moon's sil'very spell.
And lift our hearts and voices,
in the song we love so well.

Chorus:
Sons of old Massachusetts,
Devoted daughters true:
Baystate, ol' Baystate,
We'll give our best to you.
Thee, our Alma Mater,
We'll cherish for all time.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Massachusetts, yours and mine.

– Fred D. Griggs (Class of 1913)

And apparently hasn't disappeared. Yet.


Recently the Alumni Association tried to get students to sing the fight song by giving out shirts with the fight song printed on the back at one of the football games. I got a shirt (I was in the suit for the second half) and donned it for the first half, but nobody sang the song.

[LadyAndreca]

Everyone at my college thought the fight song was part of the alma mater, because at some point in time the head of the music department put the two into a four-part vocal arrangement for the choir. Not many people outside the choir know the words to either, though...

There's a college of engineering
That is known as the Old Stone Mill
Every part of it is dear
To a Stevens engineer
From the shop to the Castle on the hill!
And where her sons and daughers gather
You can bet your life they'll say
(men) The engineers! (women) The engineers!
Are in the lead! Again! Today!

I'm a rambling wreck from Stevens Tech
A mechanical engineer
We can hear that old song still
And it means we're going to fight! Fight! FIGHT!
For the Old Stone Mill!

I didn't know before then that fight songs could be bellowed in four-part harmony, but still be both rousing and on key.

[Geek King]

I didn't know before then that fight songs could be bellowed in four-part harmony, but still be both rousing and on key.

You've never heard an authentic Irish Pub, or a Rennie after-party really get going then.