Hello Dennis,
I read the issue of the newsletter discussing the pits in the
dorms.
I found a picture of the pits from page 257 of the Keweenawan for
the Winter 1977–Spring 1978 school year.
John Pozega
class of 1980
***
John: Thanks for the great photo, which had this caption: Only someone
who's lived in them could describe it, but to those of us who have walked
by and stared in the windows at them, even our three-man closets looked
pretty luxurious.
***
Wadsworth Hall pits were a phenomenon for 2 years that I am aware of.
Yes, they were overflow inhabited usually until mid October
when the
'party boys" saw the writing on the wall and flunked out leaving rooms
for the dedicated freshmen to inhabit. Co-Ed Dorm opening was
destined
to alleviate some of the pits.
S Messinger Roling "67
***
Dennis
John R. Baker, '71, description of "The Pits" in Wadsworth
Hall is
mostly right on, but he is in error on one small point. He
said that The
Pits was a '66 phenomena, and the overflow in '65 was handled
by adding
a third person to what were normally two-person rooms. I clearly
remember that in the beginning of my freshman year in '65 there
were
both triple rooms and "The Pits" in Wadsworth Hall, as well as
standard
two-person rooms. I was lucky enough to to be placed in a triple
room,
but some of my new classmates were relegated to The Pits, which
were
located in the basement of Wadsworth Hall.
There mush have been a very high attrition rate during the fall semester
of '65. About six weeks into the semester I was transferred
to a double
room, and my somewhat foggy recollection is that The Pits were
emptied
out by the end of the semester.
By the way, I recall that placement in either a two-person room, a
three-person rooms, or The Pits depended on when you accepted
your offer
of admission. If you accepted early enough you were placed
in a double
room. If you were late you got "The Pits." Living off campus
was not an
option for freshman. All freshman were required to live in
school-provided housing, even in face of overflow conditions.
Tom Bozack, ME '69
***
I was a freshman in 1980 and the Wads Pits were still needed that year.
I'm not sure about fall quarters 1981-83, but the Pits might
not have
been used those years. I don't remember how many lived in the
pits, nor
how many rooms were involved. There may have been a room for
women and
another for men. I think the last of the people were finally
out of the
pits by the end of the fall quarter, but most were out within
a few
weeks of classes starting. I was fortunate to spend most of
my dorm
days in two-person rooms, but I did start out two years as
the third
person in two-person rooms.
-- Kathy Dudrick, Blair, QA/PQDB Team
