Thanks to many 4-H trips and various camps, I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like to live in a dorm room. Every Spring, 4-Hers from all over the great state of Oklahoma gathered (or gather…I think they still do this) on the Oklahoma State University campus for three days of speech contests, elections for state officers, rallies and the novelty of having pizza delivered to a dorm room. Pizza delivery is a big deal for kids like me who grew up in rural America, where there is no pizza delivery. They always housed us in what was probably the most run down dorm on campus, with two to a room and large communal shower/bath on each floor. It was gross, but it taught me a very important lesson when it came time to shop for a university.

Look for campuses that have better dorm rooms.

Of course, curriculum is important too. And atmosphere. If I had to give a kid a list of things though, I would put ‘nice dorm rooms’ on that list. If you think about it, living space is incremental to academic success. So that should be pretty high on the list when considering colleges. The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) had two dorms: Sparks Hall, the guys’ dorms and Willard Hall, the girls’ dorms. They were located at opposite ends of the campus from each other and there were strict “no boys after midnight” rules for the girls’ dorm. The girls dorm rooms where set up with four girls sharing a bathroom in sort of suite. Willard Hall is closed now with “NO TRESPASSING” signs pasted to all the doors. Several years ago, USAO gutted Sparks Hall and renovated it into coed dorms. They also built apartments on one side of the campus. Willard became obsolete. Buildings that were empty and boarded up when I attended school there are now repurposed and functional. I am sure there are plans to bring Willard Hall back, just maybe not as dormitory. For now, it sits eerily empty with a plaque out front that tells the history of Willard Hall from it’s beginnings in 1920 as a residence hall for the women attending the Oklahoma Women’s College to it’s brief home for children attending the Jane Brooks School for the Deaf. It reverted back to a women’s dormitory in the 60s.

My Freshman year, I lived in room #227 (no lie) with three girls, one of which lasted only two weeks so I don’t remember her name. Karen and Jenese and I shared that space for our first semester. Then it was just me and Jenese until I became a resident assistant (RA). Being an RA entitled me to my own room, no shared bathroom or nothing. It was a pretty sweet gig except for the occasional crazy stuff that would happen like the occasional fight or boys in rooms after hours. There was that one time a fire started in the basement. The girl living in the room right above the fire had snuck her boyfriend in for the night. He stayed hidden under her desk when we evacuated the building. Once we were all outside and the firemen were on their way in, someone said something about so-and-so’s boyfriend. Four of us RAs went running back into the building, shoving firemen out of the way so we could drag that boy out of the building. We were lucky. No one was hurt and the fire was caused by a faulty boiler and easily put out. It didn’t cause any damage to the rooms. That girl and her boyfriend had to go to student court and I think she ended up being kicked out of the dorms.

There was a plague of crickets one summer and we were all pretty much convinced the place was haunted by the ghost of Nellie Sparks, the daughter of the rancher who donated the land for the school. But it was our home. It was our first taste of independence and the beginnings of adulthood. We had the freedom to explore and figure out what kind of people we wanted to be. Willard Hall was the first mold for the casting of the woman I would one day become. Sure, I got a little misty eyed when I walked up to that building over the weekend and peeked into my old room. I briefly thought about all of the times Chris walked me to that door. But then I thought about all those moments living in the building with women who would become life long friends. Later on, after posting that picture, the comments started rolling in. “Hey, remember that time…” We all have memories of that place, good and bad and silly. Living in the girls dorm was like attending the longest, weirdest slumber party.

I made a number of valuable friendships in that dorm.