Freshman Year Experiences
Memories shared by alumni in commemoration of Founders Day 2006. Share your memories with us too.
1953-54 - When I attended East Carolina College (ECC) I lived in Cotten Hall my freshmen year. There was no air condition, vending machines or TV, but there was a pay phone on each floor whereby we were assigned phone duty. Girls could only wear Bermuda shorts while working on decorations for homecoming. If I wanted to wear my gym suit - which was down to my knees - to class I had to wear a skirt or raincoat over it. However, I loved my days at ECC. Life was simple and the school prepared me for a very successful career in the field of education. ~ Jeannette Nichols, class of 1957
1972-73 - My greatest memory of East Carolina University is my entire Freshman year. It was the learning experience of a lifetime as well as a wonderful place to meet some of my best friends. The Attic was in the alley behind the Elbo Room and the band Mother's Finest was playing. I thought they were the best, they went from little old Greenville, NC to make 2 of the best rock and roll albums of all time. Greenville and ECU, 2 of the finest places in the world for fabulous memories. Good luck with the centennial. I hope everyone, past, present and future can remember the happiness as I have from one of the best universities in the nation. ~ Debby Godwin, class of 1976
1974-75 - Annie Morton was in a postiion of Dean of Women back in the 30's. She was my Grandmother's cousin, and ran a tight ship in the women's dormitories. My Grandmother graduated from ECTC with her teacher normals degree, and then went back to ECU in the 50's for her BS in Education. But back to my memories, I was a freshman at ECU in 1974-75, and at the end of my freshman year, several dorms were becoming co-ed. As I would write letters to my dear Cousin Annie, I mentioned this was occuring. Her letter was written as by Eleanor Roosevelt, counseling me about the changes of our society, and advising me on the concerns she had about my choice to stay in my dorm which was becoming co-ed. I will always treaasure my family's legacy at ECU, as over 15 family members have degrees from ECU.
Other memories are the wall at the old student union, where you met everyone and all parties were planned on the wall. I miss the fruit of the berry trees that were in front of the old Business Bldg and Austin, the Math Bldg. The fruit was great to eat before class and after class.
I remember walking across campus and having friends wherever I was. The campus was friendly, and I have never experienced a friendly campus in my travels to campues across the US.
I made life-time friends at ECU, and that is my greatest memory of all.
~ LuAnn Bryan, class of '77
1978 - It was hot that summer of 1978. Wow! What an exciting summer that was as my sweet mother drove our over-flowing dorm room-supplied family car from Oxford to start my first semester at ECU! I decided to come to Summer school and not wait for Fall - the excitement was too great I guess. As we approached "the Hill" for the first time, and I laid eyes on Tyler Hall, it is an image that will be enblazened in my mind forever. I still get chills thinking about it and all the things that were going through my mind that day. My future was so bright I had to wear shades. And to think it all started that summer of 1978. It was the beginning of a wonderful experience and a lifetime of pride. I work at NC State now and play the ECU fight song occasionally to tease folks here and also to continue to keep that song playing in my heart. Go EC! ~ Julia Clark Brooks, class of 1983
1992 - I remember the first time I visited ECU. I was a freshman in high school and I traveled to Greenville for the Parents Day game with my aunt and uncle. My cousin was a freshman at the time, he was the first
of four grandchildren in my family to attend ECU. As soon as I stepped on campus, I knew it was where I wanted to go to school. We visited Scott Dorm where my cousin lived and I was first introduced to life on "the hill." I fell in love with Tyler Dorm that day and made it my
home the first two years I was a student there. Throughout the day we strolled through the beatiful campus and I made a point to remember where everything was because I knew it would serve me well in the future. I went back for several visits throughout high school and when the time came to apply to college, there was only one place I wanted to attend. I remember how excited I was to get my acceptance letter and I couldn't wait to be a true Pirate! I spent 3 1/2 years in Greenville and worked in the Athletics Media Relations Department during that time. I loved every minute of it! I'm honored to call myself a Pirate and I wear the purple and gold with pride! ~ Nicole Inman, class of '95
1995-96 - My memory revolves around my freshman year at ECU, when I was blessed to live in Jarvis dorm. Though none of us knew it then, we would be the last group of women and men to live in the old Jarvis dorm -- as it would be closed in the Spring of 1996 -- making us all displaced students.Jarvis will forever be my favorite memory at ECU. From the friends I met (and still have) that lived on the second floor with me, to our housekeeper Willie (we love you Willie), to the laughs I still think about everyday that filled those halls.
Yes, some people may think that Jarvis was just a dorm. But to me, that dorm signifies when my life actually began. I feel like I started becoming the person I am today in Jarvis. Life was full of new events and old ways of thinking.
It was a joyful time and I will always be grateful to ECU and Jarvis for that year. Jarvis forever!
I attended ECU from 1995-1999. My freshman year I stayed at Aycock Hall and then moved to Jones Hall my sophomore year. I was fortunate enough to have a single room at Jones and loved not having a roommate but not too fortunate to have air conditioning which it has now. Before coming to ECU, I was accepted into Virginia Tech as well as NC State. But as soon as I visited ECU, I knew that it would be home for me. It was pretty, not too much spread out, had very friendly people, etc.
When I mention to people that I went there, they assume it was a huge party school. I was in originally in the Nursing Program and switched to Community Health Education and did not go out until my Junior year downtown to party. My favorite hangout was the Sport's Pad since it was very laid back, played a variety of music depending on what room you were in (Tiki Bar, Sharky's, etc.), and people remembered you there.
I greatly enjoyed my experiences at ECU. There are many friends that I still keep in touch with (including my RA) that I met there and they are a huge part of my life and helped to get me to where I am today.
1996-97 - I lived in Belk dorm with my best friend and neither of us will ever forget the fire drills. There were at least 3 a week and always in the middle of the night. We decided it was the school's way of making sure we were always prepared! We would go down in our pajamas and have 20-30 minute conversations with all of our fellow dormmates about which idiot had pulled it this time. We complained about it then, but looking back it was just one of those things that made ECU dormlife so memorable. ~ Sheri (Gilreath) Lewis, class of 2000
It was the spring semester of my freshman year (1997), and at the time I was living in Cotten Hall on the first floor. One afternoon while hanging out in my room, I heard a knock on the door, which was ajar. This was really odd to me because I had developed really close friendships with my hallmates and they usually just walked in if the door was open.
I called for the mystery knocker to come in and, to my surprise, standing in the doorway was an older couple (possibly in their 70s-80s). The woman looked around my room, then looked at me and
said, "I hope you don't mind my stopping by. I just wanted to see my old dorm room."
We started talking, and she told me that she used to attend ECU when it was known as the East Carolina Teachers College. She shared some really facinating stories of her years at the school, and we laughed when she said, "this room really hasn't changed all that much since I was here!"
Looking back on it now, thinking about the memories I made in my four years at ECU, I am glad that this alumna (I wish I could remember her name) stopped by and shared some of her experiences. It makes me realize how rich ECU's history is and I am glad to be part of it!
~ Nina Dry, class of 2000
1999-00 - My memories of ECU are among my fondest remembrances. The one that stands
out in particular is my first day on the campus at Freshman Orientation. I was literally overwhelmed, especially coming from a
small city. The mass number of people from different races, religions, cultures, and different walks of life was an experience that I will
never forget. I fell in love with ECU at this moment, and knew that I had made the right choice. I lived in Tyler Hall and being away from
home was exciting and brand new. I met a lost good friends at ECU, but overall it all worked out for the best. I would take nothing for the
experience and would do it all over in a heartbeat. Thank you ECU!
2001-02 - I started attending ECU as a freshman in 2001. I had been living in Belk dorm for no longer than 2 days and I was loving it. My boyfriend,
at the time, and I decided to go down to main campus to find where our classes were so that we wouldn't be lost on the first day.
Unfortunately freshman couldn't park at the dorms so neither of us had our car and we had to walk. We were walking on central campus around Jarvis dorm when it started to pour. We had no umbrella's and no way of getting back up to the dorms except to walk. For some reason instead of going in a building and waiting for it to pass we just started running. Now if you are a student at ECU you know that Jarvis dorm is a long way from Belk dorm on the Hill. It was a long, wet trudge but we finally made it. When we walked in the room my best
friend looked at us and just laughed. Our clothes were soaked and looked like we had just jumped straight in a pool. This memory is a good
memory for me because it reminds me of one of the first things that happened at ECU as a freshman and also reminded me that I was entering a new stage of my life. I had 4 more years of getting caught in the rain on campus and this wouldn't be the last time it happened.
no date ~ I grew up with flying saucers. My year of birth coincided with the famous saucer that landed (I'm quite sure) in Roswell, NM in 1947. It was around that time that other flying saucers were quite popular--plastic ones. When Wham-O bought the rights in the mid 1950's, they were renamed "Frisbees." We had lots of them through the years. When I was a freshman at East Carolina College, I took my frisbee with me. We lived in Jones dorm up on the hill. The first day we were up there my roommate and I climbed out on the cafeteria roof and ran all over throwing the frisbee. One of the dorm henchmen (what'd you call those guys who were in charge of the dorms?) threatened to kick my butt out of school. Heck, it was the first day! Recently, Frisbees celebrated "40 years of flying fun", and ECU has one of 1,600 disc golf couses in the country. I was out at a nearby "frisbee" golf course this weekend, throwing discs with another visiting Pirate who graduated in 1971. Hard to believe it's been over 30 years. Time isn't the only thing that flies, when you're having fun!
2004 ~ I remember the first time I walked on campus in 2004 as an incoming freshman at orientation and the movie they showed totally made me go, "DUUUUUUUUUDE!!!". The city dumbfounded me because I grew up in a small-city atmosphere and Greenville was HUGE to me. From the second I stepped on campus, I fell in love with the cupola and the singing columns by the library. As time flew by, the fall semester finally started and I fell in love with the atmosphere there. Banners flying everywhere advertising events, rush, concerts, etc. People were ALWAYS in the walkway by the student store. The university was so alive that I felt renewed strength and a new breath - it was me beginning to live. ECU gave me a chance to stretch my legs and learn how to live on my own and living in Slay Hall (this was the last year it was open as a dorm) provided that for me. God knows, I loved living there because everyone was so awesome and not to mention, if it weren't for its location, I would NEVER have made it to my lab on time! ECU provided me with memories, experiences, opportunities, and lifelong adventures that I will carry with me for life. Due to money, I had to leave, but I'm not letting that stop me coming back for grad school in 2008. I'm a pirate for life, there's no doubt about that! ARRRRGH!!!
I was chosen as an incoming freshman girl to be a part of a new
experiment in dorm living. There were about 17 of us who were chosen to live in Woman's Hall on 5th Street - it was an old home made over into dorm rooms, and it was called an Honor Dorm. We did not have the restrictions that other freshmen had, such as supervised study, not being allowed to leave campus to go home for the first six weeks, no members of the opposite sex after certain hours, etc. I suppose that we were the guinea pigs on which those freedoms were applied to see if we would remain good citizens, keep up our grades, and otherwise not disgrace ECC by running wild, or taking advantage of the lack of restrictions. I feel very privileged to have been a pioneer in the movement to more individual freedoms and treatment as an adult. ~ Jane Montgomery, '67
Jennifer Saxby, class of 2005 remembers: East Carolina as a whole was a wonderful experience. I attended the University from 2000-2005. I lived in Garrett Hall, Fletcher Hall, the Delta Zeta house, on 4th street, Tar River and Dockside. I think living in the dorms though freshman year (Garrett Hall) was the most memorable. I meet some great friends there, I am still in contact with most of them. We were all freshman, so we were going through the transition together. ECU is the perfect place to attend college from the football games and tailgates to the campus that is ideal for its
size.
