Weinberg sophomore Rick Contino used to spend about 2 1/2 hours driving to see friends at the University of Illinois. Now, thanks to Norris University Center administrators, U of I is just a five-minute walk from his dorm room.
Norris administrators renamed the building’s 14 conference rooms after Big Ten universities, from 1A (now called Wisconsin) to 3A (Michigan State).
Monica Rudzik, associate director for operations at Norris, said the signs to the conference rooms needed to be enlarged and lowered to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. When administrators ordered larger signs with braille writing on them, they decided to spice up the names of the conference rooms while they were at it.
“Northwestern has a long tradition with the Big Ten,” Rudzik said. “We thought this was a fun, school-spirited idea.”
But some students were confused by the change. Weinberg sophomore Terry Bailey almost missed a chance to be an extra in a new Will Smith movie because she couldn’t find the room where auditions were held.
“All the signs said it was in the Purdue room, and we were like, ‘Where the hell is that?'” she said. “We went all around the second floor and the main floor until we found it.”
To combat such initial confusion over the name change, Rudzik said Norris administrators have posted both the new room name and old room number on all invitations and the notice boards next to the elevators. Rudzik said people will pick up on the change quickly and the double-naming will end fall quarter 2001.
Rudzik said renaming the conference rooms was only the first step in the plan to pump school spirit into the conference rooms. She sent letters to all the Big Ten schools asking for school logos, pictures of mascots and other artifacts with which to decorate the rooms.
But don’t expect any pictures of Sam Simmons’ Hail Mary catch in the Minnesota room.
“We realize the Big Ten is an athletic conference, but there’s a lot more to it than that,” Rudzik said. “We want the visuals to be reflective of the schools overall.”
Rudzik said that though she hoped to get the decorations for free, Norris administrators will buy them if they have to.
Because they didn’t want to ruffle any feathers among the other universities before asking for decorations, Norris was very careful in choosing which school got which room. Rudzik said they didn’t want to show favoritism by giving bigger rooms to certain universities, so they drew all the room names out of a hat – except two.
“We named 2E and 2F ‘Northwestern’ because those rooms have a long tradition of holding ASG meetings and alumni gatherings,” she said. “And Michigan State got 3A because of the green carpet.”
