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Yikes, nice chunk of change for the engineering school. I can't even imagine how many pocket protectors that could buy!
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https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle...lord-corp.html
Yikes, nice chunk of change for the engineering school. I can't even imagine how many pocket protectors that could buy!
Very cool. I was not a Pratt man myself but I seem to recall weekly engineering kegs...so, pocket protectors and kegs.Quote:
Originally Posted by budwom
Interesting. I had no idea that Chris Pratt was an engineer.
And slide rules. 😂Quote:
Originally Posted by budwom
I wonder if they still sell that special powder that kept slide rules moving nicely...Quote:
Originally Posted by Indoor66
Quite a donation!Quote:
Originally Posted by budwom
However, it wasn't a gift to Pratt. In fact, it was completely unrestricted, which is very rare. Duke has said they're going to use it primarily for Pratt as well as undergraduate financial aid across all schools, but that was not a stipulation of the donor. It's totally Duke's choice.
It's remarkable how much money has been invested in Pratt in recent years. When I was there, they opened the Fitzpatrick Center my junior year (called CIEMAS at the time) which I thought was enormous and transformative and engineering would have plenty of space/labs for years to come, but somehow I think they've built another building already with plans for yet another. Obviously, as a research institution, it's "easier" to spend money on engineering and the sciences as that is what costs a lot, but I would like to see it spread out some, which I'm sure it will be to an extent. And some simply used to boost the endowment.
Come on now, get with the times and give us Pratt grads a little respect...there's an app for that!
The ROI on engineering also tends to be more quantifiable than some...other...studies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluedog
I nearly always stipulate that my (rather small) donations go to Pratt. I once added a comment to the online form saying that I wanted it spent on beer (for the engineers), but I'm not sure they took me seriously.
There used to be kegs on the engineering quad at Twinnies on Fridays that was University sponsored. That was basically the only place I ever saw a keg on campus given the near universal ban. That place (Twinnies) still exist? I too usually stipulate my small donations go to Pratt but also throw in Trinity for my other half.Quote:
Originally Posted by BLPOG
Wrong thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by BLPOG
Yes. The tradition pre-dated CIEMAS/Fitzpatrick Center and Twinnie's, but was re-branded as "E-social" once the Fitzpatrick center opened and it was moved to Twinnie's. When I was a student, typically you'd get your beer at the counter there, but sometimes there were larger E-socials ("E-Picnic") that would have actual kegs, generally between Twinnie's and Hudson. I believe that is still the present state of affairs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluedog
Fun story time:
It's senior year and getting on in the Spring semester. My group in the senior design class has been progressing relatively well on our project, but we hit a bit of a wall working in the lab on Friday afternoon. Frustrated, we decide it's time for a break and head to E-social for a beer or six.
Standard procedure for getting the beer at Twinnie's is to flash your (engineering) student ID card. While waiting in line, a middle-aged guy in front of us pulls out his driver's license and tries to use that to get a free beer instead. We thought that was a little odd in and of itself, but it seemed like he was really pointedly trying to get the employee (a Duke student, but not an engineer) to take a closer look at the license. In any event, she shut down his dreams of free beer, and he bought one instead.
We got our beers and went outside, and eventually this guy approached us and started up a conversation. He expressed his approval at the fact that the engineers still had "Beer Fridays." We asked when he graduated (early 80s, I think). At this point he broke out his driver's license again and we took a look at the name: Kenneth Schiciano.
Now anyone who was a Duke engineer in the last 15 years, and a great many of the students in the hard sciences, had at least one class in Schiciano auditorium, the main auditorium/classroom on the first level of the Fitzpatrick Center. So yeah, we recognized the name.
We had a great conversation with him. When we wrapped up, we returned to our lab to continue working on the project. And whadya know? Everything fell right into place.
*I think I have the timeline right there. So far as I know, it was the only student event that routinely had kegs post-implementation of the keg rule. My guess is that the eventual conversion to the usually-kegless E-social hosted at Twinnies was an attempt to bring the engineers into compliance with general university policy without causes a mass revolt.