A tongue-and-cheek account of some of the factoids and occurrences from my four years at West Virginia University. Without further ado...
Everybody smokes. Well, not everybody (and definitely not me, for that matter), but more people than you'd expect. It seems as if every other person you walk past outside is flicking ash. There seem to be several hundred cigarette butts outside the entrance to Bennett Tower alone.
August 27, 2003: There is scaffolding and fencing surrounding the entire Towers complex. Why? Apparently, "they" are working on the roof ("necessary repairs"), and it is possible that they could drop things to the ground below. So they are physically preventing anyone from getting too close to the building, except around proper entrances that are covered For Your Protection. Never mind that I haven't noticed any work being done. (Of course, it's on the roof, and all I see is the ground.) Of course, one day I noticed that one of the gates within the mass of fencing was unlatched, but never mind that.
UPDATE: As of August 19, 2004, the scaffolding and fencing has been removed from the entire northwest face of the complex. Rejoice! The restrictive fencing appears to have been moved to Mountainlair Plaza. I feel safe in saying that in a year's time this structure will look entirely different from the lackluster concrete-and-astroturf slab it is now.
Rumor has it that the ventilation system in the Towers dormatories spreads communicable diseases between rooms. I don't know how true this is, but I will mention that I have not achieved a single cold or flu since moving out of Towers, versus falling prey to several during the two years I lived there.
There are approximately 95 steps between the Beechurst PRT system station on the downtown campus and University Ave. The exact number varies depending on the staircases you take, and in some cases can go way above 100.
Some of the concrete stairs leading from the level of the PRT platform to University Ave. are currently fenced off because they're adjacent to Brooks Hall, a building that is currently being renovated. I don't know what specifically they're doing to the building, but they've managed to remove pratically all the windows while covering up the openings with plastic and duct openings, apparently reduced the entire interior to a sanctuary of wide empty spaces, hanging utility lights, and rubble, all while leaving the exterior walls practically untouched. I wonder if they'll leave the ancient spring-loaded sink faucets in the bathrooms?
Whatever you do, be sure to eat your breakfast at a WVU dining hall before 10:30 a.m. (for towers; 10:00 a.m. downtown). Why? Obviously, because that's when the powers that be stop serving breakfast and move on to lunch. And although they do serve cereal all day, if you walk through the door after 10:30:00.000 a.m. your meal will be marked up as lunch, not breakfast. Since your meal plan is limited to one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner a day, you'll then have to forfeit your meals until dinner.
Speaking of food, you know that something's wrong when the barbecue sauce at Boreman Bistro looks like French dressing, the French dressing looks like thousand-island dressing, and the thousand-island dressing looks like something someone upchucked.
They show movies at the Gluck Theater, located in the Mountainlair, once in a while. Sometimes groups from the dormatories are even organized to attend movies together, inevitably on Thursday night. This is a bad thing because major quizzes inevitably seem to come on Friday mornings. Also, by the time the movie is over the PRT has shut down for the day, so you're stranded at a street corner at midnight waiting for a bus that only comes at 45-minute intervals. And the official West Virginia University buses always seem to be full of people crammed in like sardines, with drivers who seem downright crabby after driving around the same campus for hours on end, and country music unavoidably piped into the interior. Fortunately, the trip back to the Evansdale campus from downtown is only a half-hour's walk.
Epilogue: I graduated from West Virginia University on May 12, 2007. And not a moment too soon!
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