Well everyone, it’s that time of year again. Freshmen are finally emerging from their comfort zones. They are finding friends and venturing out of their dorms to explore. They are starting to break into normal routines (living in Washington, going to Shively to eat, class in Bentley than back to Washington). But with great exploration comes great responsibility. There’s still a lot to learn about Ohio University and Athens in general, especially our confusing lingo. It can be overwhelming when someone asks you to, “Meet me a MemAud, so we can grab dinner at ShiveDive and then play some volleyball by the Front Four.”
Well freshies (and all those new to OU), we are here to help! Every week, we will build a comprehensive lingo guide to Athens and the OU campus, hoping to help you navigate the next four (or five, or six, or whatever, no judgment) years.
Up first, some basic campus lingo:
Alden/The Stacks: Officially known as “Vernon R. Alden Library,” Alden is the giant library right across from Baker Center. It has seven floors of books, computers, reference material, printers and a café. The sixth and seventh floors are known as the “Stacks.” They contain rows and rows of reference books for research projects and a nice quiet place to study (or to hookup in, whatever).
Dirty South: The deepest dorms of South Green. So south, you are practically living in the river. I’m looking at you Cady Hall. Other kinds of dorms flooded by the Hocking include: Dougan House, Ewing House, Fenzel House and Hoover House.
Front Four: These dorms are the entryway to South Green. They include the stairs to the catwalks connecting the green and are on the same platform as Nelson Dining Hall, all above a parking garage. They are the background to South Beach (see South Beach) and are infamous for some serious dorm parties. These dorms are: Crawford, Pickering, Brown and MacKinnon Halls.
Howard Hall Site: Howard Hall used to be a classroom building. Used to be. Now it is a tiny green patch of grass across from Old Baker, RTV and Campus Care (so much lingo!). It is located on the corner of College and East Union Streets next to Voight, the all girls hall.
Hudson: Hudson is the former name of the Campus Care building (tucked behind Voight Hall). Before being taken over by the College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2010 and being completely remodeled, the building was known as “Hudson Health Center.” If an upperclassman tells you to go to Hudson, we just mean the health clinic. We call it that out of habit.
MemAud: The shortened version of the very lengthy and inhaler inducing “Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.” It is the big auditorium in the middle of college green. It is where most plays, concerts and other events are held. MemAud is a combination of memorial and auditorium. Please don’t ask me why that is.
Old Baker: You see that gutted building across from Voight Hall on College Street that is making your walk to class a pain? Yeah, that is old Baker Center. It was shut down in 2007 after the completion of new Baker. May also be referred to as “new Scripps,” as it will be the home of journalism majors starting in 2014 (maybe).
RTV: Short for the Radio and Television Building. This is the home of WOUB news and the School of Media Arts & Studies. RTV also houses the School of Information and Telecommunications Lab. It is the building covered with antenna on College Street next to Old Baker.
ShiveDive: The nickname for those who remember Old Shively. The old dining hall, pre-renovation, was known as a “dive” hence the affectionate name.
South Beach: The green outside the Front Four on South Green that sees many sun bathers during the warmer months. The name refers to the two beach volleyball courts that are housed outside the green.