Floor Lore at LeTourneau

FLOOR LORE 4

NEWS AND NOTES 12

LETU’S NEW CORNER CAFÉ 16

L E TO U R N E A U U N I V E R S I T Y

CLASS NOTES 22

WINTER / SPRING 2010 VOLUME 64

ISSUE 3

Written By Janet Ragland

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rom alternating work and school days of the late 1940s to freshman beanies of the 1960s and the Monty Pythonesque cardboard Knights of the Round Table of today, LeTourneau University students have long been known for ingenuity.

When that ingenuity collides with a strong floor unity, fun and mischief are not far behind, like the time a student left for the weekend to come back and find his room filled with balled up newspapers. Or the time the resident assistant couldn’t get into his room because the furniture had been pushed up against the door. . . only to look into his first-floor window and find it locked– from the inside.

Everyone has a favorite LETU floor lore story, but when we recently asked alumni to share, we received some very interesting questions in return–things like, “Can you rescind my diploma?”

And LETU students learn spiritual lessons from their special initiatives, as one “anonymous tipster” from Colorado conveyed when he attached Bible verses to a 1961 prank involving pink paint and the dome structures at LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. At LETU, a student’s assigned residence hall floor isn’t just a place to live; it’s a family, where students learn valuable lessons about how to get along with their new best friends. An only child might share a room with a student who comes from a family with a dozen siblings. Some students grew up in America. Some grew up as missionary kids (known as “MKs”) all over the globe.

Here, they develop a bond–one that follows them post-LETU. It is not uncommon for suitemates to become the financial and prayer sup-

porters for their friends who graduate from LETU and go into the mission field.

Though its beginning is not documented, floor unity is likely rooted in the school’s founding. “The school’s original population was largely GIs returning from war, many of whom were far from home and had learned to lean on their brothers in arms like a family,” said Dean of Students Corey Ross. “The original campus buildings were Army barracks, and that way of life has translated into a unique floor unity that has become a big factor in student life here today. It is a part of our heritage and distinction.”

Ross said students rarely move from their floors. “Our students move in and they stay put their entire tenure, even to the point that we’ve got these plush honors apartments for upperclassmen that are harder to fill because floor unity is such a draw,” Ross said.

Though the stories have changed over the years, the sense of community has not. In 1961, George Younker lived in what was known as Dorm 9 and remembers wearing freshmen beanies.

“The hat fit good because the hair on all of us had been cut off by upperclassmen,” he wrote.

Younker also remembered participating in the first Shreveport to Longview (69-mile) marathon relay that kicked off the 1962 Pioneer Days.

Today’s upperclassmen no longer shave the heads of incoming freshmen, but they still run marathons. Over the years, university traditions have evolved, with events like Pioneer Days becoming today’s Hootenanny variety show celebration with skits, music and LETU comedy.

Alumnus Richard Bellamy, from the 1960s, remembers moving into Tyler Hall when it was the newest building on campus. Today, it’s the oldest residence hall, and has been remodeled numerous times. As for Tyler Hall floor lore, Bellamy remembers LeTourneau University | 5

when his friends pushed his 1960 Fiat 500 onto the long covered walkways which connected the old barracks buildings, testing a new dean’s patience during his first week on the job.

And just as today’s generation will always remember Sept. 11, 2001, Bellamy vividly remembers Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas.

“I was the only one on the first floor who had a black and white television.

For the next five days, many of the students crowded into my room to watch TV.” Floor unity brings students together in both good times and bad.

From the days of the slide rule to the days of the iPad, LeTourneau students have changed a lot through the years; however, the most important things remain the same. From Bible studies in Mom and Pop LeTourneau’s home to floor devotionals with Chaplain Interns, the floors’ focus on developing spiritually has remained constant.

Reflecting on the mid-1970s, Doug Miller remembers “a comradeship that I have not found anywhere else in my personal or professional career.” What some term “comradeship,” others might refer to as “accomplices.” He came to LeTourneau College as a transfer student in his third year and lived in 3B of Tyler Hall. Not all the roommates on his floor got along with each other, with some being “as different as Mutt and Jeff.”

One day the guys on the floor removed “all traces of human habitation” from Mutt and Jeff’s room, with Mutt’s help. When Jeff returned to their empty room, a tirade ensued and as soon as he left the building to find the dean, a flurry of activity began. Residents replaced everything, including re-bolting the beds back into place, so that it looked as though nothing had happened, before the dean arrived.

Sometime in the mid 1970s, when LETU students operated an ambulance service with the city of Longview, some of the ambulance guys got a siren and sealed it shut inside a barrel before rolling the barrel with full siren blasting into the ladies’ hallway in the middle of the night at WRH. (WRH stands for Women’s Residence Hall, so named since there was only a need for one on campus back then.)

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Dorm 4 resident Bill Wulff didn’t know what to think of MKs when he first arrived on campus in the 1970s. “The one rule that bothered some of the MKs was the rule that you had to wear shoes to class,” he wrote. “One day, I saw a certain MK walking to class making an unusual slapping sound. I asked him to lift up his shoe, and only then did I discover he had cut off the soles of the shoes so he could go barefoot but still LOOK like he had shoes on!” Even now, a warm Texas day will still bring out the barefoot in an MK. LeTourneau students hail from all over the globe–then and now. Carlos Guerrero came to LeTourneau in the mid-1970s from his South American hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia.

He was one of 11 children from a very poor family, but God placed it on his heart that LeTourneau was where he would go to school. Originally assigned to Tyler Hall East (1B), Guerrero didn’t feel like he fit in with his roommate. “I had one pair of pants. He had a closet full,” he said. When the semester ended and Guerrero couldn’t afford a ticket home, another friend, Carl Harvey, invited him to spend the holidays in Indiana with his family.

When the spring semester began, Guerrero returned to campus and discovered Tyler Hall’s loud and rowdy Flooder floor (3A). He found an empty room and claimed it, before persuading the dean that it was the best place for him. He gained two roommates and a floor full of friends, two of whom were building an 18-foot canoe in their room. The dean came to investigate reports of an unusual odor, likely from the waterproofing sealant. “We were given 24 hours to remove the canoe and all its fragrance,” Guerrero wrote, adding that it made it out the roof access and

down the back of Tyler Hall on a cold, dark night.

“It was a fine canoe,” he added proudly. Flooders have a long, colorful history and were known for hanging orange flags atop the water tower that used to sit on the northeast side of campus–no longer an attractive nuisance.

Lee Beachy remembers in the late 1970s living in the “Guest House” on campus during days that school enrollment swelled beyond housing capacity. Originally built as officers' quarters during the days that the site was the old Harmon Army Hospital, the Guest House had in earlier years served as Mom and Pop LeTourneau’s home on campus, with a kitchen and living room with fireplace. “My favorite memory of the Guest House was a tradition that began with my roommate, Nate Saint, of making waffles with ice cream on Sunday evenings when there was no meal service.” Beachy said chancellor Dr. Harry Hardwick even joined them one Sunday.

By the 1970s, the school’s barracks buildings were old and breezy. Tim Kinney and his roommate Mark Rettig lived in Dorm 4A and dubbed themselves the “Roach Patrol,” running into their brothers’ rooms with pesticide when called. “We were in constant demand,” he wrote. Bugs figured in another floor lore theme, when students in Dorm 4B painted a student’s 1965 VW Beetle to look like “Herbie the Love Bug” for Longview’s 1984 “Wonderful World of Disney” parade. “It was very well-received in the parade, and would have grabbed top honors, but we forgot one

critical detail–to identify which floor this float was representing!” wrote Will Worman. “Even though we missed out on the award, it was a great group project that brought us together.”

Dan Fauber tells us that Dorm 41 borrowed (with permission!) a local steak restaurant’s ox statue and spent all night covering it with screen wire mesh and tissue paper for the LETU homecoming parade. “This was the last group photo taken in the old barracks of Dorm 41,” Fauber wrote.

With the end of the 20th century came the end of the last clapboard building on campus dating back to the 1940s, though most had been replaced by brick residence halls long before that.

The only remnant today left on campus from the army barracks era is historic Dorothy Speer Chapel, protected by a landmark designation.

In the first few years of this new century, David Runyon lived in McKinley House (Quad 4) and wrote that his floor engaged in “competitive eating” at CiCi’s Pizza buffet on Sunday nights because it is the one night that food service is not available at the campus cafeteria. Runyon claimed triumph with 18 items one night but admitted that “the toll of winning made itself evident shortly after returning to the dorm.” He later ceded his short-lived title to Bill Ross in a “neck and neck” competition at 21 items, losing in the push to 24.

Even in new residence halls, old floors that moved together retained their names, such as “41,” which now resides on the second floor of Thomas Hall. “Thomas Hall still smelled like fresh paint when I first opened her doors,” wrote Michael Cross, who was one of the first freshmen to LeTourneau University | 7

live in the new dorm in 2002. The lobby of Thomas was “stuffed with brand new furniture standing contently on spotless carpet, completely unaware of the abuse it would soon endure at the hands of merciless children trapped inside the bodies of college freshmen,” he wrote. Though the furnishings have fared much better than Cross expected, it was true that the Thomas Hall lobby became a center for study sessions, movie nights, visitor tours, AcoustiCafé concerts, Christmas parties, video gaming, Internet surfing, napping and PVC warrior fights.

New residence hall floors required new floor names and new security protocols for the division of men and women residents. The West Wing of Thomas 1 housed “a nervous flock of freshmen ladies” Cross wrote. This floor adopted the name “Lambs.” The “zealous gang of freshmen dudes” who occupied the East Wing of Thomas 1 chose the name “Lions” for their brotherhood and promptly determined to seal an official brother-sister floor identification with the ladies.

Competition ensued when another men’s floor sought the “Lambs” for their sister floor. “What followed was a period of competitive wooing and pampering that would ultimately decide which of us would gain the honor of claiming the Lambs as a treasured sister floor,” Cross wrote.

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Claiming victory, the Lions won with “sportsman-like conduct, gentlemanly charm, thoughtful romantic gestures and a smidgen of good old ‘studliness,’” Cross wrote. Some of the brothersister floor activities involved the Lions serving as chivalrous escorts to Lambs when they attended the Longview Symphony performances, now held in the Belcher Center. Other brother-sister floor events expanded to include the Valentine’s Day Banquet, Fall Fest, school communion, photo scavenger hunts and Lions/Lambs Christmas parties. The Lions and Lambs laughed, studied, prayed, worshiped, watched movies, played games and, very probably, pulled some pranks together.

The following year, the Lambs relocated to the third floor of Thomas Hall. Lions then expanded to occupy the entire first floor. One side became a “nocturnal bunch” that kept hall lights off 24 hours a day, leading to the Star Wars inspired dual-floor identity known as the Dark Side and the Light Side. “From then on, the Lions were bound in brotherhood, but separated by preference of luminous intensity,” Cross wrote.

As new floors forged their identities, a longstanding brotherhood known as “Club” in Tyler Hall (2B) continued its reputation as good-natured scoundrels. Chris Ulrich remembers arriving in 2002 and wearing the white-lettered purple T-shirts of Club. He wrote, “If there was some prank pulled on LeTourneau University, Club was

the first floor investigated. If something turned up missing, Club was the first floor searched. If Security received a complaint about loud music, Club was usually asked to turn it down.” And it’s no wonder, according to one story Chris tells about when a “grandpappy” fish caught by Club at Martin Creek Lake wound up in a drawer in the lounge of the rival 3B floor.

“Club was full of rascals, but they all had hearts of gold, and most of us had a healthy enough fear of God that we didn’t go far beyond the beyond,” Chris wrote. “I have never been more on fire for God than I was when living on that floor. I have never known more fellowship than I knew then.”

About this same time, the men of Thomas 3 (the Tornados) were known to hold their “Finals Four Square” tournaments every finals week, starting the Saturday of the weekend before finals. Peter Kendall wrote that they would make a party out of it. “Many times, people from other floors would come and join in the fun,” Kendall said. There’s something to be said about the kind of commiseration that can develop when people find ways to reduce their stress during the academic rigor of finals week.

Before the Belcher Center was built, chapel services were held in the old Assembly Building.

One prank included about 1,000 folding chairs being hidden in the men’s and women’s restrooms in the Assembly Building. The prank was discovered only an hour before chapel services were to begin, prompting a mad rush on the part of several staff members to get the chairs out and put back in place before chapel time.

Official activities that promote camaraderie and fellowship are scheduled at the Memorial

Student Center, such as ice cream Fridays and AcoustiCafé concerts, but on some random afternoons, floor unity spontaneously erupts on the berms around the MSC. On a recent Sneau Day at LETU, laundry baskets and Café trays became makeshift sleds. Years ago, another floor decided to embed an airplane tail section on one side of the berm, looking as if a plane had crashed into it. Elsewhere on campus, the annual Rube Goldberg competition attracts floor-mates, anxious to support the engineering genius of sleep-deprived friends as they exhibit contraptions purposely created with many complicated steps, all designed to accomplish an elementary task.

At LETU, floor lore involves both brain and brawn. Homecoming’s annual Intersociety Rope Pull pits the three male societies (Alpha Omega, Kappa Zeta Chi and Lambda Alpha Sigma) against each other for bragging rights until the next year. The brawny banter includes promises of who will pull whom into the campus pond and just how quickly.

This recent Valentine’s Day, one of the men’s residence halls sur-

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reptitiously, in the dead of night, filled their sister floor’s hallway up to the ceilings with red, pink and white balloons, each filled with small candies and confetti, (with supervised access by the Resident Director to carry out their sweet prank.) When the ladies awoke to the surprises and began popping the balloons, they realized what a mess they would have. They resorted to putting each balloon inside a trash bag first, then popping it inside the bag. Ingenuity at work!

Nicknames are also a big part of floor unity at LETU. Each week students wear their floor T-shirts with their nicknames emblazoned on their backs, like “Spork,” “Bolt,” or “Sugar.” Some nicknames, like “Slope,” come from a student’s affinity for snow skiing. Others could be as random as being named after a kind of cheese if the student hails from Wisconsin. These nicknames often come after about a week-long period during the beginning of the school year known as “extended orientation” in which the floors participate in fun activities, under the guidance of Student

Affairs. Such team-building is designed to forge friendships and develop a sense of belonging for new students as they get acquainted with their new campus family. Sometimes it means wearing crazy clothing for a week, or activities like scavenger hunts or camping trips. It’s no surprise to see a Tigger the Tiger character or a cave man walking across campus during these times.

LETU floor unity is one of the distinctions that students talk about during their senior exit interviews, said Chad Melton, associate dean of Student Life. “This sense of brotherhood and sisterhood in community sets LeTourneau apart, and for many students, it is a highlight of their years here,” he said.

Whether strategically planned or serendipitous, floor lore remains a legacy of LETU culture. It provides lifelong memories and unites students with their peers, long before they walk across a stage in a long black robe, swap their tassels from right to left and officially enter the realm known as “alumni.” n

A big thank you to the following LeTourneau alumni who contributed their memories to this story: Harold Abbey ('51), John P. Cardie ('60), Harold S. Tice ('61), Lloyd & Larry Smith ('63), George Younker ('66), Richard Bellamy ('67), Bill Wulff ('75), Lee Beachy ('78), Tim Kinney ('78), Carlos Guerrero ('78), Doug P. Miller ('81), Don Bell ('84), Dan Fauber ('85), Will Worman ('87), Chris Ulrich ('98), David Runyon ('04), Sarah Hess ('05), Daniel Leatherwood ('05), Michael Cross ('07) and Peter Kendall ('09).

Photographs contributed by LETU students: Michael Wylie, Ken Misiak, Matt Barr and Brian Ho.

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