Mon 31 Jan 2005
This is the second round of the photo-identification game.
Your job is to tell
(a) What the picture is of, and
(b) Any recollections you have of this location.
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- Monday, Jan 31st, 2005 at 7:27 am
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January 31st, 2005 at 8:59 am
I can never remember which side is Williams and which side is Sage - but I would guess that we are centered on Williams C in the Frosh quad, taking the picture from the center of it.
Mainly because of the corner in the left there, were that Sage it would be an opening there which would then round to where Baxter Hall was.
Most of the recollections I have of that would probably not be family safe.
I do recall one of my frosh telling me that a teacher he had in high school went to Williams and this was during the days you would stay in one dorm. They got the top floor of Armstrong (which would be in the distance behind this building and down the hill to the left a bit) and would get on the roof and shoot Jello balloons (water balloons with Jello in them) up into the frosh quad.
That is probably a better memory than any of the drunken ones I might have anyway.
January 31st, 2005 at 11:21 am
That’s where I lived in the hellish basement suite for the entire first year at Williams with what seemed like half the football team always in my common room.
January 31st, 2005 at 10:56 pm
Easiest. Picture. Ever.
February 2nd, 2005 at 9:30 am
Ah, Williams C. 18 years ago my brother lived there (and was guided by Nicole Melcher and Lisa Mandl, two of the finest JA’s in Williams history). 20 years ago, I lived there. 50 years ago, my father lived there.
Although first year housing is mostly random, I think that the College tries to honor these sorts of historical connections.
My recollections:
Many thanks to Diana for bringing these pictures to all of us.
February 2nd, 2005 at 9:50 am
People still don’t lock their doors, Dave-o. Except in places like Mission, where they lock automatically.
February 2nd, 2005 at 11:43 am
These two JAs, Nicole and Lisa — were they both female? Could that happen then?
Ronit, it’s only easy for you because you lived there. Eric didn’t know whether it was Williams or Sage, though he guessed correctly. Ronit did not mention that he lived in Williams B, which is also pictured in this photo. That would have been an apt recollection.
All the same, I don’t think I need to say: This is Williams C, with D and B on either side. Well done, all. Next week, it will be harder, so get ready. These two weeks were for warmup to get people engaged.
You’re welcome, David.
February 2nd, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Back in the olden days, when Dave Kane and I were undergrads, JA pairings were all same sex.
February 2nd, 2005 at 2:32 pm
Do you have any idea why they switched to one of each? Or why they did same-sex in the first place?
February 2nd, 2005 at 3:02 pm
I suspect that the original policy of same sex JA’ery, which was enforced, was mostly traditional. After all, doesn’t Williams still prevent boys and girls from sharing a suite? There was also a bathroom issue in that the bottom two floors, including the JA suite, of Williams C, for example, all used the women’s bathroom in the basement of the building. Given that the JA suite was in this portion of the building, it “had” to be female.
Actually, I am not sure how many specific entries were reserved for JA’s of a specific gender. There were at least a couple since a couple of entries were reserved as single sex. I *think* that this was driven by a desire to provide female students who wanted a singe sex entry with the option of having one. (Is this still done?) This resulted in a couple of all-male entries (with male JAs) which were occasionally viewed with pity by my male peers and me. I also seem to recall that all male entries (Sage A?) were purposely placed at the end of the building since they were assumed to be rowdier.
I believe that the gender of all entry JA’s might have been specified ahead of time, and was mostly constant over time. That is, the JA’s in Williams C were always both female.
But most of this is vague speculation. Surely someone knows the truth . . .
It seems to me beyond dispute that the current policy of all mixed-gender JA pairs is better than the prior one. Although my JA’s (Annie and Sarah) were kind-hearted souls and fine people, many of the young men in our entry would have benefited from same-gender guidance.
February 2nd, 2005 at 3:13 pm
At this point, boys and girls can share a suite — at least when they pick in. I am currently living in a coed suite. Last year, I lived in Sage A (which was mixed-gender by now) on the floor with my JAs, so our bathroom was shared by about eight female students (from Sage A and B) and my two JAs, one of whom was male. I never had any problems sharing a bathroom with him, and I have no problem this year, either, although the phrase “coed bathroom” seems to elicit horror in anyone over the age of 30.
A related question: When I came for a visit as a prospective student, I was told that no dorms have girls on the first floor. This was to limit the possibility of unwanted males climbing in through their windows. I saw the potential merits of this policy, but when I enrolled, I found that this is not true: There are girls on the first floor, even in frosh dorms where the administration assigned them (you would expect girls on the first floor in other cases, since they could pick in wherever they want). My point is: Was there ever any truth to this? Were there ever no females on the ground floor?
February 2nd, 2005 at 3:40 pm
Dave’s right. The single-sex entries in the freshman quad were Sage A and Williams A. This was very important information for me back then.
I lived in Fayerweather during my first year, on the third floor. The first two floors were all male, with the ladies on top. It was the same arrangement in the building next to Fayerweather…name escapes me at the moment and I’m too lazy to go look at the campus map.
February 2nd, 2005 at 4:16 pm
East.
February 2nd, 2005 at 5:08 pm
The first floor of Williams C, and many other entries, were female 20 years ago. The no-women-on-the-first-floor meme rings a faint bell. Perhaps it only applied to certain buildings without special windows to protect the ladies . . .