I didn’t have a lot of classes in Woodward Building, but I do remember how the lecture halls felt like concrete bunkers. IRC3 is one of the little ones.
IRC2 was the big one…with 500 seats. That’s where genetics took place….and it was always full, because there were more than 500 students registered. You could see students literally running from different points on campus towards Woodward because there weren’t enough seats.
That one was a horrible lecture hall to take classes in. The auditorium was so big and so tall/long that you could put your hand up and never be seen by the professor far below.
If you were slow getting there your only option was to sit on the steps.
IRC3 seats 88, only 25 students writing my exam today.
When I came in the building I came through a back door and I stopped at the stairwell. Some things don’t change. Like I said before, I didn’t take many classes in this building, but I did have one on an upper floor, during my undergrad, and I don’t think I’d been in the stairwell since then….and that is a very, very long time ago.
But that red railing…I remember it. And it stopped me in my tracks when I came through the door. Funny how memories flood over you, some bad, some good, some simply great.
University was tough, but it was also really great and more memories are fond than not.
I hope they did well….I do want them all to do well and succeed. I remember being in their shoes, and life is harder for students now than it was back then. Tuition was lower, housing was less costly, and we didn’t need three jobs to make ends meet if we were living far from home. Competition was tough, but we didn’t have the fear of failure that they do now. Maybe competition is greater these days, maybe it’s pressure from home, I don’t know.
We were stressed…but I don’t think we were as stressed as the students today are.
It’s definitely easier being on the giving side of this booklet rather than the receiving side.
