Hey Ram Fam!

For the last 50 years, the Lory Student Center has provided a useful and safe place for students, and the community, to come together.  This mission is continuing through the building’s upcoming revitalization project as it was student feedback that fueled the designs that will be put in place starting Spring 2013.

Now that I’ve got your head in the right place, let me take you back in time to when the LSC was still a baby.  

While you Rams were warming your fur and toiling away through summer classes and jobs, I was parked at the LSC getting a head start on my work for the school year.  I met with a really interesting alumnus named Thomas Roberts. With his help, I’m going to take you on a trip down memory lane.

Seated in the Sutherland Sculpture Garden, which used to be the campus ice rink, I was able to spend 90 minutes with Thomas Roberts as he told stories that transported me back in time.  I didn’t feel out of place, though.  To me, CSU’s essence is something trans-generational.

I did struggle to relate when Roberts shared with me his memory regarding the first on-campus microwave.  I’m sure I’m not the only student who can’t remember a life without one, but at the time, curiosity was sparked by this new-fangled contraption, now affectionately termed the microwave.

One interesting connection Roberts has to today’s students is talk of a new stadium.  When Roberts attended CSU, Hughes stadium was not built yet; the Rams still played in the “Lumber Yard,” termed so because the bleachers were all wooden.  Students then were extremely resistant to raising student fees to accommodate the new stadium. 

In the 1970s, students were being charged an additional $8 per term to fund the new stadium.  Roberts and his fellow resistors decided to boycott paying this fee.  Since students could still register for classes with an outstanding debt of $25 owed, they could avoid paying the fee while still attending CSU as full-time students. They eventually paid their debt when University policy lowered the amount.

So while students don’t play backgammon in the Ramskeller anymore, and the LSC has a full-fledged food court instead of just a cafeteria, there are links that bring generations of Rams together under the banner of Green and Gold. 

Another quality that has stayed true through the years?  CSU and the LSC are great places to create great memories.  Join a student org, run for ASCSU office, or just grab lunch in the Ramskeller; whatever you do, make this building yours. 

‘til next time!

Yours,
Allison