After almost 50 years, former students of Bakersfield College who lived in dorms on campus came for a reunion and tour of the current campus on Oct. 23. Ex-students came from all over the country to visit the Bakersfield campus.
The tour began in the library, moved to the farm, admissions, then the Levan Center. After that, they took them to the Humanities building, the Child Care center, the indoor/ outdoor theater, they went to the Horticulture Lab and came back around to Levinson Hall, which was the main attraction for the tour.
Levinson Hall used to be the women’s dorm, and the men’s dorm used to be where the Grace Van Dyke Library stands today.
During the tour, BC alumni reminisced about living in the dorms that used to be on campus. They talked about squeezing three people in a room that was meant to house two, jumping locked gates to get to the pool or the cigarette machine that used to be in the Humanities quad. They also spoke of pulling all nighters and the practical jokes they played on each other.
Ben Casey, former SGA president of the fall of 1962, reminisced about the pranks. Casey spoke of a particular prank they played on the women’s dorm where the men turned off the hot water while the women were showering.
In retaliation, the women called the men’s dorm and pretended to be part of the U.S. Army, stating that they needed every able-bodied man to get their warmest clothes on and wait out front for a bus to pick them up.
Casey explained that this was during the Cuban Missile Crisis when President Kennedy was talking about going to war. Waiting out in the cold, Casey said they noticed the curtains of the women’s dorm open up and, he said, “Every woman that was in the dorm was looking out at us, laughing.”
John Wittig talked about how back then BC was the richest community college district in the state because of the oil money, and the equipment and student body budget surpassed UCLA’s. He also talked about how the football team won the Junior Rose Bowl.
Ginevra Waterhouse and Bill Packer met while they attended BC and have been married for 48 years. About the campus, they said, “We’ve seen it grow, and it’s really amazing to see the changes. It’s to our amazement that it really is still here, but it’s not. Everything is kind of familiar.”
Many things about the campus are different from how it used to be, but there are many buildings that still remain, Priscilla Aquino explained.
About the old campus, Aquino said, “It was a unique situation, you don’t find dorms at community colleges at all anymore.” The former Renegades went out to dinner after the event to further catch up on past memories.
Three former students who kept in touch over the years said they came up with the idea after meeting several years back. At first the idea was to gather together a group that would go walk around campus and see how different it is now. They ended up getting driven around by SGA in carts and getting a catered lunch, courtesy of the food department.
The alumni that organized the event were Aquino, Caroline Davis and Judy Cooke. Together they all e-mailed those they kept in touch with and contacted BC to get approval.
A letter was also sent to the Bakersfield Californian that helped get the word out. They said Patricia Rapp was especially helpful along with Amber Chiang and Becki Whitson.
SGA President Lisa English, General Counsel Sean Hill and Ramona Benavidez, a student assistant in CC4, led the tour.
English and Hill said Chiang and Cooke asked if they would participate in giving a tour to former students via e-mail. This idea was one they were excited to take part in, “we felt this was a great opportunity to reach out to people who have been here in the past, and we looked forward to helping them,” Hill said.
Hill thought it was very interesting to hear the stories of the former students and listen to the similarities and differences of the campus.