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Submitted by stevenl on Sun, 10/16/2005 - 9:45pm.
Yes, the rumors are true, the college was designed to be riot proof. The first new building constructed on the campus was the steam plant, which included "riot-proof" windows (Daily Olympian, 9/9/70, p. 3). The steam plant is also the building where vehicles have access to the maze of tunnels under campus. We used to take off our shoes and sneak past the guy in the little glass office and roam around in those vast steam tunnels. When we were down there, every now and then we'd come to a ladder which went up to those brick boxes you see here and there on campus. Then we could observe people walking around on Red Square through the grates. The original Red Square, a wide area surrounded by berms and narrow exits, had an incredibly slippery surface in the 1970s. We always felt it was that way on purpose for crowd control. The bricks were replaced in the 1980s. During the time the campus was designed, student unrest around the country was widespread. An article in the Daily Olympian for Oct. 18, 1968 (p. 6) entitled, "Evergreen Officials Probe Reasons for Student Unrest - 'It Won't Happen Here," discusses the fear of "anarchists" causing trouble and some hint about the plans to contain that threat.
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Please keep the stories comin

Please keep the stories coming, they are invaluable. Was only a few days ago that someone asked me about the legendary steam tunnels under TESC, and I had to admit that I did not know the story.

Now I do, thank you!

Steve, I recognize your name now, I was at SPSCC at the time.

If memory serves, you told us about the SPSCC ghost, was that you? (Storyteller, not ghost.)

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Yes, Sarah, I remember you. I

Yes, Sarah, I remember you. It was probably me who related the story of the Lady in White at SPSCC. Evergreen has a ghost as well, a young man. Maybe those two should get together? They could find a third ghost to pal around with, and when they went out drinking they'd get three sheets to the wind. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Get it? Three sheets? Oh never mind. I'll tell the Evergreen ghost story in the near future.
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In fact, it is my understandi

In fact, it is my understanding that the ubiquity of a "red square" at every state campus was specifically due to utility for crowd control. Any demonstrations in these squares could be controlled with water from a firehose which would make the brick slippery and allow the force from a nozzle to topple people to the ground. I believe I heard this for the first time on a campus visit to WWU many years ago.

At the University of Washington, the Suzzallo Quadrangle, which was, I believe an open field, was replaced with red brick in 1969, at the time the undeground garage was built. There turns out to be a wikipedia article about UW's Red Square, but it claims the brick was used because there was fear that rain would leak through grass and soil into the garage beneath. I suspect that may have been the politic reason.

As an aside, and here's my most precious bit of trivia about Red Square at the UW, the chimney stacks are the height of the pyramids on the Giza plateau in Egypt.

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Interesting. One thing that m

Interesting. One thing that makes TESC a little different than the other schools is that it was the only state college to be formed in the 20th century. So campus unrest was a fact of life at the time of original design. No retrofitting required. I went to grad school at the UW and if I had only known those chimneys were the same height as the pyramids I would've ... I would've ... well, I don't know what I would've done. But I'm sure just KNOWING that would've made me wonder a bit every time I passed them.
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Those chimneys are close enou

Those chimneys are close enough together that it's possible to climb up between them just by pressing against two stacks. People have climbed up there and had to be rescued several times over the years. I remember hearing that it was actually pretty frequently, in fact.
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Maybe the UW could name those

Maybe the UW could name those chimneys the "Darwinian Magnets."
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Indeed, but at least people w

Indeed, but at least people walking on the Red Square at the UW don't have to pass between the Grassy Knoll and the Clock Tower! The diagram that is given to graduates that shows the procession passing between those two landmarks is a pretty heavy unintentional frisson, an allegory for the coming transition to off-campus life?
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Beautiful! Actually, my own g

Beautiful! Actually, my own graduation ceremonies didn't mean all that much to me. I even skipped my UW commencement. But years later, when I was a member of the faculty at a community college and had to be part of the exercises, I saw the value of the ritual. In hindsight, I realize just how weird and wild the TESC grad ceremonies really were.
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1st post

I think this is our OlyBlogger of 2007's first post.
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