- Joined
- Dec 22, 2011
- Messages
- 54,759
Oh my lord. Watching three recent grads duke it out over "which is better, Mahoney-Pearson or Hecht-Stanford" is making me want to gouge my eyes out. And it's proof that you guys have zero perspective.
Just because one dorm was MOST RECENTLY set up for freshmen does not mean it was always that way. Or that it was preferred to be that way. I guaran****ingtee you that if Housing set one dorm as "freshmen only", it was because they were planning on tearing it down, not because it created any special "bonding experience".
Here's the reality. No matter what year, no matter what temporary reason, any designation given to any of the 5 residential colleges was an experiement. By and large, the 5 dormitories were general use. For the most part, people disliked the shared bathrooms in the Towers, and given a choice, most people would move from the Towers to Eaton or Mahoney-Pearson. A minority preferred the Towers. But those are facts built up over DECADES. UM would have torn down the Towers a long time ago if they could have built the replacements sooner.
Eaton - built in the early 1950s, it was originally a general-purpose dorm and was for most of its existence. With the construction of Mahoney-Pearson in the last-50s/early-60s and the Towers in the late-60s, Eaton fell behind in popularity AND "niceness". When UM belatedly took steps to renovate Eaton for the 1986 school year, they briefly converted Eaton into a "senior-only" dorm, which it was when I visited UM, because they wanted a fresh start with students post-renovation. At the time, there were TWO residential colleges: HONORS Residential College (later Hecht), for Honors students, and THE Residential College (later Stanford) for non-Honors students. Thus, my roommate (and best friend from high school) freaked the **** out when we got our Summer 1986 housing assignment that said "Honors Residential College AT EATON HALL", because Eaton was a ****hole on our visit and we did not know it was being converted to the third residential college in 1986. Fortunately, Eaton was near-immaculate when we arrived in August 1986, though the contractors were still installing cable boxes while we were moving in. Because Eaton had formerly been a "seniors-only" dorm, and very few people knew about the renovation, the double rooms were almost exclusively freshmen, while the single rooms had some upperclassmen. After that year, UM said they would never do "freshmen-only" dorms again, because we set a record in 1986-87 for most property damage EVER to one dorm in one year. Our RAs told us this fun factoid halfway through spring semester, so I'm pretty sure our record stood for decades.
Mahoney - second dorm built in the late 1950s, last dorm to be converted to a residential college in late 1980s. Was "male only" for the first 15 years of existence. Other than that, general-purpose dorm. Never was "all-freshmen" or "all-upperclass" (unless another dorm was a freshman dorm).
Pearson - third dorm built in the early 1960s, fourth dorm to be converted to a residential college in late 1980s. Also a general-purpose dorm that was never "all-freshmen" or "all-upperclass" (unless another dorm was a freshman dorm).
Hecht - fourth dorm built in the late 1960s (the "1968 complex"), first dorm to be converted to a residential college in the early 1980s, and that was INITIALLY designated for Honors students by President Foote. Became "Hecht" (no longer "Honors") in the 1987-88 timeframe, which was not at all confusing with the Hecht Athletic Center. However, the brief history of "Honors" Residential College forever cemented Hecht as the "preferred" Towers destination over "Stanford", which was for losers.
Stanford - last dorm built in 1969, second dorm to be converted to a residential college in the early 1980s, and outside of getting the singular designation of "The" Residential College, it never gained popularity and was always the least well-liked of the 5 dorms. Definitely a general purpose dorm from the outset. This was the dorm where a (clear) non-Honors student attempted to swing down to a lower room and fell to his death.
I can assure you, UM didn't try to designate any of the dorms by "age group" in an attempt to create a bonding experience for students. If UM ever created freshmen dorms, it was either by accident (Eaton, which cost them a ton of money) or because they intended to tear those dorms down. It wasn't some grand social experiment like "The Real World" or "Survivor".
Just because one dorm was MOST RECENTLY set up for freshmen does not mean it was always that way. Or that it was preferred to be that way. I guaran****ingtee you that if Housing set one dorm as "freshmen only", it was because they were planning on tearing it down, not because it created any special "bonding experience".
Here's the reality. No matter what year, no matter what temporary reason, any designation given to any of the 5 residential colleges was an experiement. By and large, the 5 dormitories were general use. For the most part, people disliked the shared bathrooms in the Towers, and given a choice, most people would move from the Towers to Eaton or Mahoney-Pearson. A minority preferred the Towers. But those are facts built up over DECADES. UM would have torn down the Towers a long time ago if they could have built the replacements sooner.
Eaton - built in the early 1950s, it was originally a general-purpose dorm and was for most of its existence. With the construction of Mahoney-Pearson in the last-50s/early-60s and the Towers in the late-60s, Eaton fell behind in popularity AND "niceness". When UM belatedly took steps to renovate Eaton for the 1986 school year, they briefly converted Eaton into a "senior-only" dorm, which it was when I visited UM, because they wanted a fresh start with students post-renovation. At the time, there were TWO residential colleges: HONORS Residential College (later Hecht), for Honors students, and THE Residential College (later Stanford) for non-Honors students. Thus, my roommate (and best friend from high school) freaked the **** out when we got our Summer 1986 housing assignment that said "Honors Residential College AT EATON HALL", because Eaton was a ****hole on our visit and we did not know it was being converted to the third residential college in 1986. Fortunately, Eaton was near-immaculate when we arrived in August 1986, though the contractors were still installing cable boxes while we were moving in. Because Eaton had formerly been a "seniors-only" dorm, and very few people knew about the renovation, the double rooms were almost exclusively freshmen, while the single rooms had some upperclassmen. After that year, UM said they would never do "freshmen-only" dorms again, because we set a record in 1986-87 for most property damage EVER to one dorm in one year. Our RAs told us this fun factoid halfway through spring semester, so I'm pretty sure our record stood for decades.
Mahoney - second dorm built in the late 1950s, last dorm to be converted to a residential college in late 1980s. Was "male only" for the first 15 years of existence. Other than that, general-purpose dorm. Never was "all-freshmen" or "all-upperclass" (unless another dorm was a freshman dorm).
Pearson - third dorm built in the early 1960s, fourth dorm to be converted to a residential college in late 1980s. Also a general-purpose dorm that was never "all-freshmen" or "all-upperclass" (unless another dorm was a freshman dorm).
Hecht - fourth dorm built in the late 1960s (the "1968 complex"), first dorm to be converted to a residential college in the early 1980s, and that was INITIALLY designated for Honors students by President Foote. Became "Hecht" (no longer "Honors") in the 1987-88 timeframe, which was not at all confusing with the Hecht Athletic Center. However, the brief history of "Honors" Residential College forever cemented Hecht as the "preferred" Towers destination over "Stanford", which was for losers.
Stanford - last dorm built in 1969, second dorm to be converted to a residential college in the early 1980s, and outside of getting the singular designation of "The" Residential College, it never gained popularity and was always the least well-liked of the 5 dorms. Definitely a general purpose dorm from the outset. This was the dorm where a (clear) non-Honors student attempted to swing down to a lower room and fell to his death.
I can assure you, UM didn't try to designate any of the dorms by "age group" in an attempt to create a bonding experience for students. If UM ever created freshmen dorms, it was either by accident (Eaton, which cost them a ton of money) or because they intended to tear those dorms down. It wasn't some grand social experiment like "The Real World" or "Survivor".
