There is a myth circulating that there was once at UR a tunnel from the Susan B. Anthony Residence Halls to the ITS Center and that it was closed down because of a rape.
Rob Rouzer, former director of Wilson Commons and Student Activities, has set us straight. Rouzer admits to having heard the rumor and says the truth is that the school is connected by tunnels ? but not tunnels that could ever hold the traffic of all the students.
“Tunnels connect every building, but they are solely for utility reasons,” Rouzer said. “They house the pipes and wires that connect the school.”
Those tunnels run under the tunnel system that the UR community uses. There is also a tunnel that connects Hoeing and Lovejoy Halls.
There are pipe runs that connect almost all buildings on campus,” Logan Hazen, former director of Residential Life, said.
“I can also dispel the myth that there were tunnels from Towers to Sue B., because if [there were] it would be a free fall, because of the steep incline between the dorms.”
Another interesting fact is that there is a tunnel running from the River Campus to the UR Medical Center campus. This is, however, also a utility tunnel.
Students are not allowed in them under normal circumstances. In fact, the Campus Times had to get special permission to get a picture of them, because as Don Brown, a mechanic at Central Utility said, “the tunnels are locked up like Fort Knox.”
The sad truth is that the only way to get around most of River Campus is outside in the cold.
Reprinted from the October 14, 1999 Campus Times.
