News for Admitted Students
Installment 9
Installment 10
Installment 11
A Warm Welcome to the Class of 2014!
What will shortly ensue is a series of missives with the history, lore, and legends of the college, information about student activities and dorm life, and answers to some of the most fundamental questions about St. John’s, like “What is it about that chair?”
Today:
Part one of an extended campus tour, a registration preview, and the first FAQ.
Campus Tour Part I: McDowell Hall
McDowell Hall is the central campus building in every respect. It is iconic, emblematic, romantic, and the solid square foundation of campus life.
Ground was broken for McDowell in 1742. It was intended, by Thomas Bladen, the colonial governor, to be his grand residence, a colossal mansion with two wings in addition to the 23,000 square foot building that stands today. His desires, however, exceeded his funding, and by 1745 the unfinished and already crumbling edifice was known as Bladen’s Folly.
After the state generously bestowed its Folly upon the newly formed St. John’s College in 1784, the board of the college set upon making it usable, hiring Joseph Clarke, the architect who was in the process of designing the dome for the Maryland State House two blocks away. By 1789 he had McDowell’s roof and cupola in place, and two rooms ready for use. Until Humphreys Hall was completed in 1837, McDowell was the only campus building, where both students and masters were housed, and all classes were held.
Most of McDowell is now dedicated to classroom space: four rooms on the first floor, four rooms on the second floor, and (given the height of the ceilings, get ready for a long climb) six rooms on the third floor. And then you’ve got the Great Hall and the Coffee Shop, two of the most important rooms on campus.
The Great Hall is the large central room on the first floor, with a second floor gallery. (It has only been called the Great Hall since the 1920s. Before that it was simply “the hall in the college building.”) It has pleasant acoustics and a feel both warm and formal. Freshman Chorus, that great solidarity-enhancer for every freshman cohort, meets in the Great Hall. Musical ensembles both rehearse and perform in the Great Hall. Plays are staged, receptions thrown, lectures read, and waltz parties held there. Many an alum has returned to the college to be married in the Great Hall; it is also where memorials are held. On the walls of the Great Hall you will find portraits of Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan, the founders of our academic program, and many of the presidents of St. John’s, but not, alas, a portrait of John McDowell, the first president of the college. The building was named in his honor shortly after Humphreys Hall was named in 1857.
The Coffee Shop is on the ground level of McDowell, accessible only from the outside of the building (entrances are in the moat). It has been, since its opening in 1938, the crossroads of the campus. Not only is it a source of coffee, the unofficial fuel of the liberal arts, and sandwiches, pizza, etc., but also it is the rendezvous point of choice, the information center, the ground of life. From official notices posted by the Registrar to personal messages dashed off on the chalkboards, you’ll find out what you need to know in the Coffee Shop. You’ll also meet your tutors here for paper conferences, meet your friends here for study sessions and other urgent business, and pick up your mail here. On weekend evenings the Coffee Shop occasionally erupts into a raucous and energetic party.
You can see the Coffee Shop (painted orange) in a scene in the 1996 Winona Ryder flop Boys. Many of the outdoor shots also took place on campus, including scenes on the quad, the ramp entrance to the dining hall, and in front of the package room door of Humphreys.
Boys was a misery. After having received assurances that the film company’s presence would be unobtrusive, the community was vexed for weeks with interruptions, detours, enforced silences, and—the final blow—the complete public non-appearance of Miss Ryder, long awaited by hopeful fans among the student body. Although a few of our preppiest-looking male students were hired as extras, the rest of the community spent the duration gnashing our teeth. The most legendary insult was (arguably) the time Mr. Pickens, the Director of Athletics, was not permitted to blow his whistle on the soccer field while they were filming indoors three hundred yards away.
The booths along one wall in the Coffee Shop are a souvenir of our otherwise regrettable Hollywood venture. They were part of the film crew’s makeover (to make the Coffee Shop look more like a coffee shop), along with the eye-stopping orange, and since we liked them we got to keep them, although we did insist on a return to a civilized wall color.
Registration
Registration Day is Wednesday, August 25, and Registration itself will be held from 8:30am to 12:00noon. Prudent students will arrive as early as possible; in any event, please present yourself in the FSK lobby by noon, and if you find that a travel hazard is preventing your timely arrival, please call the Admissions Office. The lobby will be set up with a number of stations (Admissions, Financial Aid, Cashier, Health Center, Registrar, Room Keys), and after having run this gamut you will be directed down a hall to get your photo taken for your ID, which doubles as your card key. The whole registration process should take at most half an hour, start to finish.
Orange-shirted upperclassmen will be standing by in the parking lots, at your service to help carry your stuff to your dormitory room. After lunch in the dining hall, your parents will trundle off to a meeting with the president, dean, and burghermeisters of the liberal arts, while you and your roommate relax, unpack, recite the Greek alphabet together, whatever. You’ll be due over at the FSK Auditorium at 2:45 for a Convocation rehearsal—Convocation itself is at 4:00.
Convocation is one bookend (Commencement the other) of your life at the college: it is the ceremony at which the college is called together for the new academic session, and freshmen are welcomed into the fold. Freshmen wear academic gowns and, one by one, as the dean announces their names, they cross the stage to shake the president’s hand and sign the official register of the college, officially joining the college community. The faculty also attend in academic dress, and, once the families of freshmen are seated, a standing-room-only crowd of upperclassmen (in their civvies) will be admitted.
FAQ
Q: What can I do to get ready?
A: Learn the Greek alphabet. Relax.