Until the mid 1990's, Rose-Hulman was an all-male institution.
Visiting girlfriends and sisters invariably reported feeling hundreds of
eyes watching them from the moment they stepped on campus until the
moment they left. If you had a giggling
schoolgirl or two in your room,
you could
be sure your neighbors would call you or hammer on your door so they could at least get a look. Rosies weren't usually the most socially adept members of
geekdom, and generally failed to be discreet in their
stalking. Many evolved the ability to recognize a woman's footsteps from two floors away.
This super-concentration of testosterone did have some inspirational side-effects.
- The stories of bomb-building that other noders have posted are not exaggerations. I distinctly recall three different styles of bombs being set off in one day. (These were a dry ice bomb, a Drano bomb, and even a
thermite bomb.)
- Freshman were forced by upperclassmen and faculty alike to uphold the great tradition of building the Homecoming Bonfire. The wood was generally stacked a few stories high, and burned so bright that planes landing at the local airstrip were rerouted for the evening. Few neo-engineers can resist the temptation to walk up to the massive bonfire and touch the burning wood. Impromptu contests of stamina and resistance to heat exhaustion were an annual phenomenon.
- Handfuls of freshmen who had not yet had their will to live sucked dry banded into Laking Squads. The sole purpose of a Laking Squad is to seek out a target (often a Resident Advisor or some other student official) and toss said target into the waters of Speed Lake. Polite laking squads gave the target a chance to change into something more comfortable before immersion. The more despicable frats occasionally tossed targets into aptly-named Scum Pond.