Diving into the Waltonian Archives

Like every community, Eastern University has a history that is exciting, heartwarming, and occasionally, a little bit strange. After digging through The Waltonian’s archives, we are pleased to report that this is what was happening at Eastern about ten years ago:
“Dorm opens in Bryn Mawr, is long-term plan”
For those of you who think Eagle is far from main campus, at least it’s in the same zip code. Faced with a lack of on-campus housing, in August 2002, nearly sixty upperclassmen moved into Harcum College’s Pennswood Hall, which is five miles away from Eastern in Bryn Mawr. At the time, Pennswood Hall also housed students from Harcum and Villanova, which could have allowed for some inter-college mingling. However, according to the article, “Eastern students are not allowed to visit Villanova students in their rooms in the floors below, where…drinking, smoking, and 24-hour visitation is allowed.” Despite this and other strange limitations, the housing arrangement lasted for several years.  
“Biology major blind for three days”
Just like Carol, Paul Lilley never wore his safety goggles. Or rather, while working on his senior thesis in December 2002, the enthusiastic biology major forgot to put them on. Consequently, Lilley’s eyes were exposed to UV rays from a light box for an extended period of time. When they began hurting later that night, he was taken to the emergency room and told that there was a 50 to 75 percent chance that he would be permanently blind. Although he did not recover in time to take his finals, Lilley’s sight was restored completely within a few days.  
“Car explodes on campus”
During fire-safety week in              October of 2003, Hainer students were evacuated in the middle of the night for what many assumed was an untimely fire drill. But sure enough, moments before, a car had exploded in the parking lot. The explosion also caused the two cars next to it to catch on fire, and caused minor damage to a fourth. Around that time, Eastern was dealing with a streak of vandalism incidents, and apparently many students thought that the explosion was some sort of terrible prank. However, it was caused by some faulty wiring, and the fire was put out by the Radnor Fire Department within a few minutes.    
“Sen. Santorum visits, presents $300k check”
During a small ceremony in the Baird Library, Republican Senator from Pennsylvanian Rick Santorum spoke about faith, politics and immigration. “We need to work with institutions to build a better infrastructure for the immigration population,” he said. Then he whipped out one of those giant checks, written in the amount of $300,000, funding that was actually in the form of a congressional earmark which was “to be used by the nursing department, specifically for its program that couples nursing with learning English as a second language.” Thus, the Korean Nursing Program was born.
Other gems in the archives include headlines such as “Survey says students dig Sunday dinner,” “[Course] Registration online loses ease,” “Radnor police officials examine alleged goose abuse case on campus,” and “Poker rules vary by residence hall.” In February, 2003, The Waltonian debuted its first security report, which included the gripping tale, “Feb. 3 – Van stuck in mud. Released.”