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st. lawrence university magazine | spring 2015
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“As I recollect, the window was
just over the bed, and a clothes
closet was to the right of the
chair in the photo. The new Kirk
Douglas Hall rooms look very
comfortable. I hope the students
appreciate what they have.”
—John T. Kahler Jr. ’51
“One item that came with the
room, which probably isn’t in the
hotel-like rooms of today, was a
black rotary-dial telephone.”
—Jamie Ross ’73
“One spring day in 1946 I
returned to my room to discover
several tadpoles swimming
around in my sink, courtesy of
one of my friends. The urinals
in the bathroom were covered
with white wooden boxes. Too
much for teenage girls to look
at, I guess.”
—Jean Kring Tews ’49
(The writer alludes to the fact that
immediately after World War II,
with few men enrolled, women
were housed in “Men’s Res” for a
period of time. —NSB)
running economics experiments that I
can use down the road,” she says. “Not
many universities provide their students
with these tools and facilities, and I’m
excited to be one of the first students to
take part in establishing our lab.”
ooking forward, Motika hopes
use of the lab can expand to other
departments. “There’s a surprising
amount of experimental research that’s
happening in the corporate world
today,” she declares. “If our students
have an idea of how to set up a well-
designed experiment, they can use that
in any sort of job.”
n
interact virtually through the comput-
ers in the lab, providing insight into
individual and group behavior under
different types of economic situations.
Professors and students can create their
own computer programs to test con-
cepts such as trade, prices and produc-
tivity. “Usually, we’re creating a market
or we’re looking at interactions between
people, because that’s mostly what trade
is,” Motika says.
Emma Flemming ’16 is creating her
own experiment involving potential pay-
offs. “This is such an amazing oppor-
tunity to gain experience designing and
here’s a new
laboratory on
campus that will
give students the
opportunity to
participate in and
conduct their own
experiments through interactive, hands-
on research. Sounds familiar, but what
might come as a surprise is that the lab
is for economics.
“The Experimental Economics Lab
tests economic theory against real-world
behavior,” explains Meryl Motika, assis-
tant professor of economics. Lab users
“I had many close friends that
year, but having a single room
afforded me a sanctuary to which
I could escape the madness.”
—Dick Colantuono ’71
“The rooms in 1954 were
really quite well worn and
yes, they were that Spartan.
There were also a desk with
a two- or three-shelf hanging
bookcase and one very narrow
bed with an ancient mattress.
With that sink and an illegal
toaster-oven, I
‘
augmented’
the Residence’s dining room
offerings, (and) your foot-
locker acted as a sofa.”
—Alexander Wallace
(Wallace Douglas) ’58
“Looks like my room in my
freshman year, 1962-63.
Although clean and comfortable,
it was somewhat cloistered and
claustrophobic. Being upstairs
from the dining area made it
very efficient to get to eight
o'clocks on time.”
—Bob Riemer ’66
T
No Test Tubes
in This Lab
The Experimental Economics Lab allows students to test
economic concepts they may face for real someday.
The “From the Archives”
picture in our winter issue
generated an abundance
of recollections.
By Kara McDuffee ’15
‘Hey, I bet that was my room!’
our alumni were
on campus in
February as
Laurentians
in Residence.
From left, they were
Phoebe
Kornfeld ’77
, retired from
careers in law and education;
David Schryver ’05
, pharmacy
services executive;
Katherine
“Kat” Bagley ’07
, science
writer and teacher of science
journalism; and
Michele
Fazekas ’93
, a TV showrunner,
writer and producer.
F
Laurentians in Residence, Spring 2015 Edition