05.16.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Campus Buildings, College of Engineering, NC State History | Comments: One response |
It’s an age-old debate really, not limited to the culinary world. Some say tomato, accenting the long “a” sound. Others prefer the “tomotto” pronunciation of the word. And on NC State’s campus, a similar debate arose in the 1960s about Syme Residence Hall.
On this day in 1962, students learned that the correct pronunciation of the dormitory was actually “sim,” sounding like “dim.” In a survey by the university, more than half of the student body thought the pronunciation was “sime,” with a long “i.”
That thought is still around today, as the university’s facilities website lists the pronunciation as “sime.”
Syme Residence Hall in 1955. Photo courtesy of NCSU Libraries.
The residence hall was named for George Frederich Syme (prounounced “Sim,” like “him”), a civil engineering student who graduated in 1898 and garnered a reputation when he worked with C.L. Mann, an NC State professor of civil engineering, to survey the prospects of building a canal across Nicaragua after the turn of the century.
But as Hardy D. Berry writes in Place Names on the Campus of North Carolina State University, “It is said the heat, insects, and hostile surroundings discouraged their enthusiasm for the canal location.”
Syme, who was the first president of the Raleigh Engineers Club, came back to North Carolina as a highway and bridge specialist with his reputation, but apparently not his name, intact.
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09.08.2010 | by Sam Dennis | Filed under Campus Buildings, Campus Events, NC State Events, Sports, Student Contributions, Student Life | Comments: One response |
This is me making the walk towards the stadium.
Update:Read the Technician story on the trial live mascot here.
This is the first post from Sam Dennis, a junior biological sciences major from Jamestown. He’s one of four students who will be blogging for us this fall. Learn more about them here.
While many people look forward to a beach trip and a day off of work at Labor Day, I savor that weekend because it means the start of college football. There’s something magical about NC State football games; there’s an energy that seems indescribable, but I’ll try here to tell the story of one of our university’s most important traditions.
Students can get football tickets in two ways. The first is through the Student Wolfpack Club, where you get up early and get your tickets at Reynolds Coliseum. The other way — the one I use — is through entering an online lottery for tickets. My friends and I stay up until midnight to be the first ones to enter the lottery. This year it took us 15 minutes to get into the system due to the large number of people trying to access it! That got me pumped.
After agonizing through a week of classes, Saturday finally came. Unfortunately, we can tailgate for only five hours, so in the morning I walked around my house screaming “GO PACK,” much to the dismay of my roommates. To tailgate, you have to be prepared. A few hours before the game my friends and I meet and load up. It’s quite the scene. People running around packing coolers, loading up the grill, throwing chairs in the car and getting “Stated Up”. We throw on all sorts of red clothes, red stickers, red buttons and anything with a NC State logo on it. If people can’t tell where we are going from just looking at us, we have not done a good job.
Tuffy, NC State's newest mascot.
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