Talk:List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduate dormitories

Floors with Silly Names

I heard that there are either dorms or fraternities where the floors have additional (and mathematical names). For example instead of floor 2, it might be called floor sqrt(4), etc. Or there might be a floor pi. Is this true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.22.224 (talk) 07:33, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

In some dorms, yes. They have additional names, though not necessarily "geeky." East Campus is an example [1]. --Seventhnewsound (talk) 02:56, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Opinions

I think we should try to avoid stating editor opinions. "Random has a rather nice roofdeck", for example. Instead, replace it with facts about the layout and popular uses of the roofdeck. I would say that "Opinions remain strongly divided..." in the Simmons Hall section though is okay because that reflects major groups of public opinions, doesn't reflect the editor's opinion, and I can, as a student, assert the strongly divided part. Dheerav2 17:08, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Move

This is better than a (bullet) "list". Propose move to MIT undergraduate dormitories —Dogears 14:10, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

If you do so, I would suggest also moving List of MIT Graduate Dormitories to MIT Graduate Dormitories for the sake of consistency. Dheerav2 11:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Dates on Burton-Conner

The article states that the Conner side of Burton-Conner opened as a dorm in 1970. However, I moved into Conner as a freshman in 1969. I don't know when Conner actually opened as a dorm, but I did know upperclassmen and recent graduates you had lived in Conner as early as 1964. There certainly was no sense of it being "new housing" in 1970.

Burton-Conner was completely closed for renovations during the 1970-71 academic year, and the residents were assigned to temporary housing off-campus. The dorm was re-opened for the 1971-72 academic year and the current interior design dates from then.

• BC was acquired in the late 1940s (1947?) as the Riverside Apartments to house GI Bill students. MIT retained the property without significant renovations until a new dining hall was built in the early 1960s and the rooms were refurbished in the 70s. See Simha's "MIT Campus Planning." Madcoverboy 16:27, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Trim

I gave this article a good trimming, removing all the obvious original research and college humour. Please make sure that anything here is properly referenced to reliable sources before adding it. Thanks. --John 20:22, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

External Links

I trimmed the external links: I think things like the Putz webcam are, while amusing and fun, not relevant to this article, which aims to describe the differences between dorms. I have also added links to all of the dorms for which I could find homepages, for consistency, and also because most of them have some degree of informational material. Dheerav2 23:21, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

I moved the external links to each dormitory's section for (I feel) better usability. I also did a half-assed job semi-formalizing the intros with addresses. Madcoverboy 06:45, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Move

I am taking down the Split tag since there is not enough notable, NPOV, and verifiable content to warrant each dorm having its own article.Madcoverboy 06:47, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Photographs

I notice that some of the buildings have photographs while others do not. Would it be worthwhile for me to take and upload pictures of the others? I'm somewhat concerned that this might be overstepping the bounds of notability for this article. My concern is particularly raised by the fact that this page is referenced in clause 12 of [[2]]. That's a joke, of course, but would adding more pictures be going overboard? William Ackerman (talk) 20:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC) (Alum of Burton House, 1967.)

Random House / Random Hall

I was told, way back when Random was a new addition to the MIT dormitory system, that it had been proposed to be named "Random House", but had to change the name to "Random Hall" because of legal issues with the publishing company of the same name. Does anyone know about this? Should I try to track down a source? Also, it might be worth pointing out that the name fits in very well with MIT jargon. "Random" is an extremely common buzzword in MIT folklore. William Ackerman (talk) 20:13, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I've heard that story, too. If it can be documented, it's worth noting in the article. Also, there is a story of the portrait labeled "J. Arthur Random" that was hung in Random Hall for years, before the MIT Museum identified it and reclaimed it for their collection. This latter tale is definitely documented, in The Tech and/or Tech Talk articles. Reify-tech (talk) 16:02, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Bexley Hall

Please don't make changes that you think are grammatical unless you are certain of the writer's intent. Old housing guides (1970-1986) really do refer to being "a stoned throw", not "a stone's throw". The placement was quite deliberate and was never a typo--either in the housing guides or here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alex.deWitte (talk • contribs) 20:58, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Notability

Can someone explain the notability of some of those to me? at least two seem to be bog-standard tower blocks. --Cameron Scott (talk) 23:50, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

> Some of whats? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.161.236.165 (talk) 18:44, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Some of those halls - they exist - so what? What's notable about them? --Cameron Scott (talk) 17:16, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Several dorms are notable with regard to their architectural design (Baker and Simmons), others are notable because of their age (East Campus and Senior House), but each is not individually notable outside of the context of MIT buildings necessarily. As a part of an exhaustive list, there will be some buildings included that are less notable than others, but that does not impugn the notability of the list as a whole. Madcoverboy (talk) 17:26, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

So I can start a list on the dorm blocks of every UK university? - they mostly have one building that is notable and then a series of non-descript tower blocks put up in the 1990s - from what you say, that will be fine as a list.--Cameron Scott (talk) 17:52, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Somehow I can't help but feel like I'm walking into a procedural/logical trap by responding to this, so I'll just respond by giving the standard boilerplate that as long as its neutral, verifiable, and encyclopedically notable, go for it. Madcoverboy (talk) 22:06, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

No it's not intended as such, it's just an example - the article has just got me curious about what's permissionable - I don't stray into this area of content and it just surprising to me what gets a pass. --Cameron Scott (talk) 22:11, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Individual articles

Some of these buildings such as Simmons should be split off into their own articles, there is only 1 picture for each building right now. Bachcell (talk) 19:28, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Magnetic core memory

MIT Professor Jay W. Forrester is generally credited with inventing magnetic core memory, not Kenneth Olsen. Olsen did co-found and lead Digital Equipment Corporation for several decades. The listing of Baker House alumni has been corrected accordingly. Reify-tech (talk) 15:45, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Why I removed letter-number indicators from article headings

I removed the map codes (apparently keyed to the campus map) from the headings in the article. These are not elements of the names of the buildings, and Wikipedia is not a guidebook that would include that sort of information. Anyway, it's not obvious how encyclopedia readers were supposed to know what the parenthetical letter-number combinations in the article subheadings indicated, since the numbers weren't explained in the article. --Orlady (talk) 14:59, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Dorms or single rooms?

Maybe the use of the word dorm is some kind of Americanism. Are these places really dormitories or student residences? I mean, if they're dorms, this means that many students are sharing the same living quarters? If that's the case then it seems quite archaic as students would expect separate rooms or apartments in most countries. The article should clarify the use of dorm.--ЗAНИA ^{talk WB talk}] 20:45, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

If you follow the link in the first sentence of the article (or this link to Dormitory), you will find ample coverage of the subject. There is no need to duplicate it here. And yes, many MIT students do share living quarters to a greater or lesser extent, as described in this article. Cheers! Reify-tech (talk) 21:28, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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New House reflink not accessible

As of now, the reflink for New House is locked, and completely inaccessible without an MIT certificate. It has been flagged as such, until somebody fixes this or comes up with an accessible weblink. Reify-tech (talk) 18:05, 2 April 2019 (UTC)