Students reminisce about old Napier

Although demolished over a year ago, old Napier Hall still stands tall for students at Georgia College & State University.

Having garnered an almost legendary status around campus as the residence hall of choice, many former dwellers say they miss the community Napier harbored and promoted.

Bell Hall Resident Director Will Bryan, a former Napier resident assistant, believed the community was the backbone of Napier.

“The community in Napier was just really neat,” Bryan said. “You could walk around the hallways in that square shape and there was always a door open. If you were bored, it was your own fault because when you’re on a floor with 50 people, there is always somebody else on the floor not doing anything.”

When Napier’s doors were shut for the final time, residents moved to the new Adams and Wells Halls. The same students populated the new halls, but a totally different atmosphere and community developed.

So what was so different about the new halls?

Former Napier and Adams Hall resident Ashley Jameson pointed to the differing rules on keeping room doors open or closed as one answer.

“We could leave the doors open and be more sociable (in Napier),” Jameson said. “In Adams, it was kind of like a hotel. No one really cared. The doors were shut all the time.”

Bryan explained that the rule was imposed on the new halls not by the school, but by the state.

“The newer building’s fire code says [the doors] have to be fire doors,” Bryan said. “They have to close behind the person when they leave like hotel doors. Napier was grandfathered in, like Bell is now, so they had doors that always stayed open. College students are lazy and don’t want to go around knocking on people’s door, but if the door is open they can see people walk by and say hey to them.”

Though the housing staff themselves could do nothing to students who violated the rule, the fire marshal could. If, upon a routine inspection, a fire marshal were to see a student with an open door, that student would face a $1,000 fine.

Another hindrance to community building in the newer halls is the suite style bathrooms. In the old halls, students had to use community style bathrooms with as many as 25 residents of the same sex sharing one facility. Though most students hated these bathrooms, the facilities served to build community, forcing students to interact.

Former Napier and Adams Hall resident assistant Abbey Shockley believed that the bathrooms became a common social spot.

“I would go back to community bathrooms any day,” Shockley said. “I loved having a bathroom to myself (in Adams), but that’s when you got to see people (in Napier). You’re washing dishes in the sink and somebody is brushing their teeth next to you because they’ve got class in an hour. It’s fun that way. That’s when you get to know everybody.”

Some students also felt a fear factor was present in the new halls that was not there in Napier. The walls of Napier were made of hard cinderblock, virtually unbreakable by students and veering footballs. Also, because of the age of Napier, if something were to have broken, staff members rarely noticed.

“There were several instances where there would be people throwing footballs up and down the hall,” said Paul Cressman, former Napier resident. “We didn’t worry about anything being broken because everything was block. The new halls are all drywall and you can’t play sports in the hallways because of the fear of putting a hole in the walls.”

To get an even better idea of Napier’s popularity today, a person has to look no farther than the new phenomenon: TheFaceBook.com. Though every hall has at least one group dedicated to it, no hall has as many total members as Napier’s 241. It is also worth noting that the next closest hall in total members is Bell Hall with 139. Bell is the last remaining non-renovated hall.

While the newer halls may have cost more and even look better on the outside, the heart and soul of a great residence hall will always be the community. And there may never be another place quite like Napier the community hundreds of former residents experienced.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 8 2005. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry