LaFollette Complex, which was completed in 1967, houses approximately 1,900 students per year. As LaFollette is set to be demolished and replaced with new residence halls, students and alumni reflected on the memories they’ve made at the legendary dorm complex.
Sally Saydshoev and her husband Safar met in LaFollette on Feb. 11, 2010 during an International Conversation program. At the time, Mysch/Hurst was the Living and Learning Community for international students. Sally’s now-husband is from Tajikistan.
“We were asked to introduce ourselves and just mingle and network.” Safar Saydshoev said. “She introduced herself and said, 'my name’s Sally' and I said, 'my name’s Safar' and I was like, ‘oh, they sound alike.’”
The two continued to meet.
Safar Saydshoev was in the Intensive English Institute because he didn’t know a lot of English. He and his friends would ask Sally to have conversations with them to help with their English skills.
“I found out, I think it was probably after we even got married, he told me that he really wasn’t interested in learning English and tutoring, he was just interested in meeting with me,” Sally Saydshoev said.
Later, she became an resident assistant in Mysch/Hurst and Safar got a job at Out of Bounds, one of Lafollette’s dining areas. After work, the two would hang out in the food area and when Sally would work the desk, Safar would spend the rest of the day to spend time with her.
“LaFollette is definitely special to us. He went back to Tajikistan at some points and then came back, so that’s when LaFollette really became home to us because we spent a lot of time there and I was living in LaFollette when he was living over in Tajikistan,” Sally Saydshoev said. “We really enjoyed that time and every time when we walk on campus, we definitely reminisce about what happened in LaFollette and we’ll point out where we lived.”
Safar said it is very unfortunate that LaFollette won’t be there for future generations, but knows that new memories will be created in the new residence halls. The couple got engaged in 2012 and married in 2014.
AJ Owens, who graduated in 2015, was an RA in Mysch/Hurst for the 2014-15 school year and still remembers one resident’s weekly complaints of craving toast.
“One night, I was on duty and noticed the floor's kitchen was open. He was making toast in the oven. He was so proud of himself for getting around the no-toaster policy, and, to be honest, he made some pretty bomb toast,” Owens said.
Sam Householder, a 2010 alumnus, lived in Brayton/Clevenger for two years. During his freshman year, the Colts and Bears played in Super Bowl XLI.
“It seemed like half of LaFollette was either a Colts or a Bears fan, so naturally there was a lot of friendly ribbing and trash talk going on,” Householder said. “During the game, my group of friends had to separate myself and my good friend Zach because I am a huge Bears fan and he's a huge Colts fan and our obnoxiousness probably would've led to an ugly argument.”
Householder’s now-wife lived in Schmidt/Wilson, but mutual friends brought their two friend groups together. Out of the around 12 people in the group, three marriages have resulted.
Householder’s floor was without an RA for the last two weeks of the spring semester of his sophomore year.
“Our floor was pretty good about being responsible, acknowledging quiet hours and the like, but I think the last two days of finals week a bunch guys on my floor [Clevenger 4] built a massive fort out of all of the furniture in the study lounge and used like four or five sets of sheets,” Householder said. “The thing took up like 80 percent of the lounge.”
When Jerry Durst, who graduated 1970, attended Ball State during his freshman year, room and board was $100 a month and a host took students to a table to eat dinner. He lived in LaFollette for two years and during that time, the bottom four floors were male and the top four were female, and visitation rules were very different from today’s.
“There was no women allowed in the men's dorm, ever. My senior year, on Sunday afternoons from 1 to 4, you could have your girlfriend or friend in your dorm room, with the door open,” Durst said. “You had to sign them in and sign them out.”
When Durst heard LaFollette was being torn down, he said it made him feel old and surprised. Durst moved into LaFollette the second year that it was open and knew that both Johnson A and B had been renovated.
“I always thought [renovation] is what they’d do to Lafollette,” Durst said.
McKenzie Price, a senior photojournalism major, lived in Mysch/Hurst during her freshman year and became close with a group of girls on her floor, who have since gone off campus to continue their memories.
“We have all continued to live together since moving out," Price said. "We're all about to graduate and still recall the nights we spent in the study lounge, where we got in trouble for bringing our mattresses in."
Moving mattresses isn't Prices' only memory from her freshman home, but what means even more is how she and her floormates have continued to be friends.
“I have plenty of other memories but the fact that we continued our LaFollette lives outside of Mysch/Hurst [is] an interesting way to remember one of our favorite buildings on campus,” she said.
Emma Schultz, a sophomore child development and family studies major, lived in Brayton and participated in a Bible study through Campus Crusade for Christ, which allowed her to create friendships while growing in her faith.
“We challenged ourselves to have prayer time every morning at 7:30 a.m. and the convenience of living down the hall or up on a different floor of the same dorm was something that made that possible,” Schultz said.
Schultz said while LaFollette isn't the fanciest dorm on campus, her experience there is something she wouldn't trade for anything.
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