Berea College Campus

Here are just a few photos of buildings on the Berea College Campus.

Its funny that several of the dorms have been renovated/rebuilt since I was a student.  Dana and Bingham seem to be the most dramatically changed to me. 

I never lived at Dana, but a lot of my friends did.  That dorm was famous, while I went there, for fining residents all the time.

I did live in Bingham for a time.  It was the men's study dorm, and it was MUCH calmer than many of the other dorms.  I was a janitor there for a while, and I served on the house counsel. 

I remember a couple of pals of mine had the room on the second floor right over the main entrance to that dorm.  We would fill up some glasses of water, and wait for someone to come to the door.  They would have to get their keys out and it would take a few seconds to stand there and unlock the door.  We would have the window open, and we would pour a glass of water out next to the person.  We would purposely miss them, but we would get close.  EVERYONE had a good laugh over it.

I got a job as a monitor at Danforth after living at Bingham for a bit.  Danforth was a VERY fun place to live.  I had a single room (I know of much larger closets), but it was plenty of space for my needs at that time.  Danforth still looks the same.  It was two towers, each 6 suites tall, connected by a lobby area.

My first semester at Berea, I lived at Blue Ridge.  It was the most secluded dorm on campus- you had to walk farther than other students to get to your class.  It really wasn't that big of a deal, except when the weather was bad.

I know school books are a whole different thing these days, with e-books and all.  Back then, you had to scramble and hustle to find the books you needed, at the best price possible.  I remember early on, going to the campus bookstore, and just buying whatever I needed.  You paid for them by signing a thing saying you would pay the school back when you could.  Later on, you learned to network with your friends, to check with the libraries (college and local), and to visit the used bookstore in town.  I remember once getting a syllabus that showed I would only need to read 40 pages in a 300 page expensive book.  I photocopied those pages.

Also, if you owed the school money, they would take it out of your check.  You got paid once a month, and they would take ALL of your money to pay towards your debt, EXCEPT for $15.  So, pretty much everyone would be walking around campus with $15.  Trust me, we ALL got good at stretching $15.

I am not complaining.  Berea College is a great, charitable place and I love it.  I loved my time there too.  I talked to a lot of friends these days who went there too.  We all talk about how lucky we were to have the opportunity to go there.