Jobst Hall was given a goodbye party on Oct. 4 as the completion of the Business and Engineering Convergence Center (BECC) comes closer. The bottom floor was packed with students, alumni and faculty with little mementoes to both leave for and take from the building.
Almost everyone at the event got a novelty cup with a rootbeer float. There were markers handed out for attendees to write their names, final thoughts, memories and farewells to the building before classes and offices are moved to the BECC.
“We wanted to give students and alumni a chance to come back and say ‘goodbye,’” undergraduate student adviser Tara Suzuki-Nguyen said. “I know that there’s a lot of memories for a lot of people in this building. While it’s exciting, it’s bitter-sweet for a lot of people.”
A lot of reminiscing took place. Some students even recalled their first experience in the building throughout their years of study at Jobst.
“I got lost [here] my freshman year after my first day of classes and found a door that leads to nowhere,” senior mechanical engineering major Amanda Heard said. “I have yet to find that door again, and I’ve tried.”
There was even more sharing on the wall. Quotes scrawled out on the wall included, “My home for the last nine years,” “Jobst will be the best parking lot,” “The month-and-a-half [here] was amazing” and “R.I.P. Jobst. Thanks for the stress and memories.”
With homecoming week also taking place during the event, some Bradley alumni came back to walk through the halls one last time. They also shared their memories in Jobst in its earlier days.
An alumnus and former professor, Max Wessler, talked about his experiences here in Jobst. During his commencement in 1952, the building announced as a gift. Wessler left for the Air Force, but when he came back he was interested in a teaching job on campus.
After four years of teaching, Wessler took a two-year leave to earn his doctorate degree. He decided to make a career out of teaching and returned in 1966. From there on, Wessler taught Mechanical Engineering for 41 years until he retired in 1997.
“When I retired, in my last class [room] 201,” Wessler said. “I was conducting the class and midway through the class, here comes this clown. He’s making balloons and he had trailing him was some family and friends that planned this and they intervened me executing my class. That was a neat closure.”
Soon, students and faculty will make their transition into the new facility. For now, Jobst will have a graffitied wall with signatures and farewells.
