Dear Diary,
It rose one day in the spring of 2015, dividing campus in half — from the Bear Habitat to the Carroll Library.
Green tarps wrapped around chain-link fences lined either side of Fifth Street. It not only separated the North of campus from the South, it also made any commute from one side of campus to the other twice as long.
When it was not raining — and I remember that spring being especially wet — sometimes the panels would be separated and students could cross over planks through the middle of the fence.
We called it the Civil War. And a new social media platform, YikYak (rest in peace, sort of?), documented the event in anonymous detail.
All of this chaos and consternation for what, you might ask.
The new Rosenbalm Fountain.
For several decades Bears walked Fountain Mall without a fountain. It was one of those things you might have thought of, but didn’t think twice about. But there was promise behind the tarps of a new view for campus.
When the wall came up, we fretted, though. How would we make it to class on time? How would we make it to Moody before the Starbucks line wrapped through the entire first floor?
Looking back, it was all so funny. And I will never forget to many, many, many jokes we made about the Bear-lin Wall
Jonathon Platt (’16, MA ’19)
Waco, Texas
