Grads Share Memories of Hewitt Union

‘Hewitt Union was our home, our snack kitchen, living room and den of fun social activities’

By Stefan Yablonski

Lee Weinstein ‘77

My fondest memory of Hewitt Union was my first date with Dani Katz. I had met Stefan (Hawkeye) Yablonski a few weeks before this and I needed a bowler for my mixed team. He introduced me to Dani. I called her up shortly thereafter and asked her if I could help her with her bowling. Truth is, I could have cared less about her bowling. We went bowling and afterwards we went to Hewitt Union The Tavern for food and maybe some drink. We went there many times over the next couple of years. We were married in ‘79 and are still married.

That’s the fondest memory I have of Hewitt Union!

Carol Pouliot ‘72

I was at Oswego from the fall of 1968 to the spring of 1972 when I graduated.

I remember they were building Onondaga and I think Oneida halls. I don’t remember the union being built. I seem to think that it was already there my freshman year.

I remember going to the bookstore a lot! Saying to friends “Meet you in the union after class,” sitting around having something to drink (probably soda) and talking with friends. I would have been talking about some favorite French writers with friends who were also French majors.

And I remember conversations about marching for peace, against the Vietnam war, against the incursion into Cambodia. I remember sitting around hearing from people that students all over the country were taking over college campuses and having sit-ins in administration buildings.

Matt Arnold ‘78

I enjoyed my experience at Oswego State — including the times I spent in Hewitt Union.

I remember Shep Narkier ‘77, Stefan “Hawkeye” Yablonski ‘77, Chris Birdsall ‘78 and Dave Barthelmes ‘78, among many of Funnelle Hall second floor dorm friends during my freshman year.

Hewitt Union brings good memories of the Friday night movies, many guest speakers, dances and events. Much of our student life outside and after classes was spent there.

The lower level had The Tavern (“The Rathskeller”), rec center with the bowling alley, billiards, pinball and more — managed by Hawkeye when we were there in the middle 1970s. I could still run the rack in 13-15 shots!

The union provided space for many student organizations, snack shop, ballroom/performance and lecture venue and meeting places. Our fall ‘74 halloween dance was particularly memorable. A lot of fun, dancing and beer, (amid the irony that the ‘Nam war was still going on until late that year).

Hewitt Union was our home, our snack kitchen, living room and den of fun social activities. I’m sure it will be a different home, studio-den — in the years and decades ahead, albeit with magnificent digital state-of-the-art studios, virtual reality and animation labs, real-world newsrooms and creative design spaces.

During my senior year, I created and built the Campus Information Center for an environmental design course in professor Nick D’Innocenzo’s class. From soup to nuts, page one to the bibliography — I enjoyed my concept of how the finished installation wrapped around visitors like a book opening up. It was located opposite the snack shop bar on the west end of Hewitt.

I vividly remember the fall in Oswego. Every fall at Oswego was a chapter in the Book of Life that you write. And that book is on a shelf in the library of your life. Each page was slowly and gently written in the ink of our experiences each day.”

Bill Smith ‘77

Before it was Hewitt Hall, it was the Hewitt Student Union — a multipurpose building, a center of campus life outside of the dormitories, classrooms and laboratories. It was home of the college bookstore, the student newspaper, the college radio station, a cafeteria, a ballroom, lockers, a sweet shop and the rec center. There were also meeting rooms for the student association and student-run organizations. There was even a rathskeller (the Tavern).

A few have mentioned that the building was flawed in that the ballroom windows faced nothing in particular and the cafeteria windows faced Culkin. Either one should have faced Lake Ontario.

The ballroom was used for concerts, public speaking, movie showings, blood drives and other events. I donated my first pint of blood during one of the blood drives in the ballroom.

After his concert, Harry Chapin signed autographs at the back of the ballroom. He only asked for a dollar to donate to World Hunger Year. After Isaac Asimov gave his talk, I obtained his autograph. I still have the book he signed, “Earth is Room Enough.” Other notable speakers were Shirley Chisholm, William F. Buckley and Rod Serling.

The bookstore was in the basement. Besides textbooks, official apparel and other supplies, it had paperbacks for sale. I bought books by Larry Niven such as Ringworld and Protector and I bought my copy of “Earth is Room Enough” by Asimov there.

WOCR, the student-run college radio station, was in the southeast corner of the basement. There was an office and a two-room studio. I was a DJ there for a few months. I learned how to cue records, do segues, play ads from cassettes, keep logs and read copy. We obtained copy from the AP teletype to read the news. We got live updates from the Evel Knievel Snake River Canyon Jump off of the teletype. I also made mistakes, like playing an LP at 45 rpm and not noticing. My playlist selections weren’t appreciated at times. I received an obscene phone call as a result. However, that’s what learning is all about. It was there that I met Al Roker, when he was a fellow student before he started doing live TV.

I remember a protest in the courtyard between Culkin and Hewitt over the botched signup for the Onondaga Hall suites in the spring of 1976. Dr. Purdue, college president, was addressing the situation in front of many angry students. Days before, they had waited outside, in a snowstorm, only to receive a slip of paper to verify their place in line.

Steve Sheffield ‘78

I remember so many things about the Union. It was one of the most important buildings on campus for me! The downstairs had the rec center with the bowling alleys, a lot of pinball, shooting pool. The tavern was just a great place to hang out — as the drinking age was 18 for us; we were in there all the time. I still remember some of the beer specials they ran in there, like the Schlitz buckets of beer. I still have a couple of Oswego Tavern beer mugs, cherished tokens from that place. Also in the basement was the bookstore, where I remember spending probably a few thousand dollars!

On the first floor there was the massive dining gathering room (facing the administration building) with the tables, many of which were claimed by fraternities and sororities. My fraternity’s table was in the northwest corner of that room. I spent a lot of time there. A lot of crazy stuff happened there.

There was a large ballroom on the other side of the building. I vividly remember the Greeks holding dance marathons in there. Those were a lot of fun! Also, the food service department there held banquets for various entities. Food service was led by Tucker Lassiter, a very nice man who hired me to bus tables and wash dishes one year.

Upstairs, were a lot of student government rooms. I remember participating in that at one point. Other than this, I don’t remember going up there for much of anything else. I think they had other rooms up there, maybe for the student newspaper and other stuff.

Hewitt was a multi-purpose building and I remember it fondly (and miss it as it was). I look forward to seeing the refurbished version of it sometime.

‘The Night I Lost Some Quarters’

By Stefan “Hawkeye” Yablonski (’77 and ’78)

Back in the 1970s, I was managing the rec center in Hewitt Union.

I waited on customers, handled the money, worked on schedules and fixed many pin jams on the bowling lanes among a variety of other duties.

The rec center had a plethora of pinball machines and other games. On the wall just outside the control desk was the dollar bill changer — slide in a dollar bill, receive four quarters and go play some games.

Because of the heavy traffic, the changer would run out of change from time to time. Students would then have to come to me and request change. Some would come with a Sacagawea coin and ask for another quarter because it didn’t work in the pinball machine. D’oh!

After closing up late one Saturday night (Sunday morning, actually) I had locked the doors and turned out most of the lights. I grabbed a big bag of quarters and cranked open the changer. I unlocked the compartment that held the bills. I grabbed a big wad of bills and prepared to pour the quarters into the chute . . .. when BANG! The doors burst open and I was hit in the eyes with the beam from a flashlight.