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Always Respect Your Room Monitor
A few days ago while checking Facebook, the computer sent me the usual list of friends of friends that I might know and that I might want to become friends with. Usually I just ignore the suggestions but this time one caught my eye. It was a lady that had grown up at FBC and was a student at HAC the same time that I was. The reason it caught my eye was because I knew well the man this woman married.
In keeping with the practice of not using real names I’ll call this fellow Roscoe. Roscoe had an interesting HAC career. He was always impeccably groomed. His hair was never out of place. Never out of place. Remember that. His hair was never out of place. His pants never had a wrinkle and always had a crease. His shirt was always ironed and had so much starch that it never wrinkled, his tie was always the correct length and his shoes were always shined. One day he was walking down the hallway to the Rice Dorm, Marty Braemer said, “Hey Roscoe, nice necktie.†Roscoe immediately took off the tie and gave it to Marty. 3 years later Marty gave the tie to me.
In the fall of 1991 I had a graduate level class with Roscoe that was taught by Dr. Bob Auclair. The class met in the 3rd room of the Decoster Dining Hall. Dr. Auclair was a stickler for the rules. Each one must be obeyed and enforced. He also was a stickler when it came to his class. You had better show up and you had better be on time. Before every class Dr. Auclair would take prayer requests and praises and every day Roscoe had multiple prayer requests and praises. Nothing wrong with that but very quickly he dominated prayer requests and praises. Through the daily prayer request and praise time we came to find out a lot about Roscoe. For example, we found out quickly that Roscoe had grown up in and came from the Hyles Baptist Church from somewhere in Virginia. We received an almost daily update that the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia was on track to break their record number of baptisms. (For the record, I enjoy hearing about people saved and baptized and rejoice in each profession of faith) Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, asked prayer for the folks on his bus route. Then we found out that Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, had a new girlfriend. And every day we had to listen to Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, tell us about her, what a fine Christian she was, where they went on dates, what verses in the Bible they read on dates, etc. Then Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, would ask prayer for his 3 freshman roommates that he would be a good example to them as helped them become acclimated to dorm life at Hyles Anderson College.
You see, Roscoe was a room monitor. At this time, dormitories at HAC were run by a dorm supervisor. A paid staff position. When the supervisor went home at 5 p.m. the Room Monitors took over. The RM was usually an upperclassman who the administration thought they could trust to keep order in a room. The RM was the eyes and ears of the administration in the dorms. In the early days of HAC RM’s could give demerits. But this had been so abused that by 1991 all the RM’s could do was report the rules violations the fellows in their rooms committed to the Dorm Supervisors. Some of the RM’s were ok, others allowed the power and title to go to their heads. In other words they were Hackers, and not the good kind. So almost every day Roscoe would ask prayer for these 3 freshman under his care. It was clear that Roscoe was enjoying the position and title of Room Monitor. I didn’t give it a lot of thought. I was glad that Roscoe did not live on my floor. You see, Roscoe lived on Prophets/Malone 3, I lived on Prophets/Malone 2.
On Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at 11p.m. each room in the HAC men’s dormitories had a time of devotion. It was supposed to last 15 minutes, with lights being turned out and everyone going to bed at 12. One night a few minutes before 11 my door burst open and a close friend who lived on Prophets/Malone 3 burst in. He said, “We need you, come upstairs.†I told the 3 men in my room that I was going to be a having devotions in another room and I went upstairs to Malone 3. I was ushered into the large room at the end of the hall, and I found that I had been invited to a de facto floor meeting of Malone 3.
There were 40 guys in the room. It was a somber gathering. There were 3 guys sitting in chairs in the middle of the room. They were almost expressionless. I figured out who the group leader was and asked what was up. And they told me the story. These 3 guys lived in Roscoe’s room. They hated Roscoe. Roscoe turned them in for every rule violation he could think of. Even if they had not broke a rule, he still turned them in because he thought they were breaking a rule. These 3 freshmen were not enjoying their time at Hyles Anderson College. They were miserable. But Roscoe had gone a step further. He had taken it upon himself to be the judge, jury and executioner of the whole floor and in doing so he had made a lot of enemies. So Malone 3 had called a meeting. Under the pretense of floor devotions they had gathered. What are we going to do about Roscoe?
I looked around the room and realized I was the oldest student in the room and the only graduate level student. So I realized that it was my duty to make sure these fellows didn’t do anything stupid. The ideas started being kicked around. Doing him bodily harm was forbidden. Poisoning him was also ruled out. A lot of guys including myself had had food or drink spiked unknowingly over the years and that was just plain wrong. That wasn’t going to happen, especially when I told the gathering that that had just happened on another floor to another guy like Roscoe. That guy had gone to the hospital for a couple days and his parents were looking to press charges. It was made known to these guys that you will not harm his person or his property.
So these guys got creative. They decided to go after the one thing Roscoe was noted for, his hair. The plan was to make him wake up late where he would not have time to iron his clothes and comb his hair before class. They noticed that he went out to the lake every night at 10 p.m. and would return about 10:45. A man was designated to follow him and alert the floor when he left and returned. A man was assigned to detach the backup battery in his alarm clock. Another fellow was assigned the job of flipping the circuit breaker to cut all electricity to Roscoe’s room. This was designed to help Roscoe oversleep and keep him from ironing.
I was safely in my room the night it went down. My buddy who had invited me came down about 11:30. “Well, what did you do?†I asked. With a wide grin he held up a plastic bag that held a brush and 2 combs. “We’ll put it back before chapel,†he said.
I made sure to get to class early the next morning. At 8:03 The main door to Decoster Dining Hall burst open and Roscoe came running through. He burst into class late. His impeccable hair was wet and uncombed and his pants and shirt were horribly wrinkled. The public humiliation they had been hoping for had worked. Roscoe seemed rather preoccupied. Dr. Auclair said to him, “Roscoe, you're late?†“Sorry,†was all he could say. The guys in the class had a little fun asking him if he was going liberal or new evangelical. One asked if he was going to transfer to Liberty and how a fellow who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, would go over there.
24 years later. Facebook. Roscoe had married the girl he had been dating. His picture showed that he had not aged a bit. And his hair? Still perfect, with not one out of place.
A few days ago while checking Facebook, the computer sent me the usual list of friends of friends that I might know and that I might want to become friends with. Usually I just ignore the suggestions but this time one caught my eye. It was a lady that had grown up at FBC and was a student at HAC the same time that I was. The reason it caught my eye was because I knew well the man this woman married.
In keeping with the practice of not using real names I’ll call this fellow Roscoe. Roscoe had an interesting HAC career. He was always impeccably groomed. His hair was never out of place. Never out of place. Remember that. His hair was never out of place. His pants never had a wrinkle and always had a crease. His shirt was always ironed and had so much starch that it never wrinkled, his tie was always the correct length and his shoes were always shined. One day he was walking down the hallway to the Rice Dorm, Marty Braemer said, “Hey Roscoe, nice necktie.†Roscoe immediately took off the tie and gave it to Marty. 3 years later Marty gave the tie to me.
In the fall of 1991 I had a graduate level class with Roscoe that was taught by Dr. Bob Auclair. The class met in the 3rd room of the Decoster Dining Hall. Dr. Auclair was a stickler for the rules. Each one must be obeyed and enforced. He also was a stickler when it came to his class. You had better show up and you had better be on time. Before every class Dr. Auclair would take prayer requests and praises and every day Roscoe had multiple prayer requests and praises. Nothing wrong with that but very quickly he dominated prayer requests and praises. Through the daily prayer request and praise time we came to find out a lot about Roscoe. For example, we found out quickly that Roscoe had grown up in and came from the Hyles Baptist Church from somewhere in Virginia. We received an almost daily update that the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia was on track to break their record number of baptisms. (For the record, I enjoy hearing about people saved and baptized and rejoice in each profession of faith) Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, asked prayer for the folks on his bus route. Then we found out that Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, had a new girlfriend. And every day we had to listen to Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, tell us about her, what a fine Christian she was, where they went on dates, what verses in the Bible they read on dates, etc. Then Roscoe, who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, would ask prayer for his 3 freshman roommates that he would be a good example to them as helped them become acclimated to dorm life at Hyles Anderson College.
You see, Roscoe was a room monitor. At this time, dormitories at HAC were run by a dorm supervisor. A paid staff position. When the supervisor went home at 5 p.m. the Room Monitors took over. The RM was usually an upperclassman who the administration thought they could trust to keep order in a room. The RM was the eyes and ears of the administration in the dorms. In the early days of HAC RM’s could give demerits. But this had been so abused that by 1991 all the RM’s could do was report the rules violations the fellows in their rooms committed to the Dorm Supervisors. Some of the RM’s were ok, others allowed the power and title to go to their heads. In other words they were Hackers, and not the good kind. So almost every day Roscoe would ask prayer for these 3 freshman under his care. It was clear that Roscoe was enjoying the position and title of Room Monitor. I didn’t give it a lot of thought. I was glad that Roscoe did not live on my floor. You see, Roscoe lived on Prophets/Malone 3, I lived on Prophets/Malone 2.
On Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at 11p.m. each room in the HAC men’s dormitories had a time of devotion. It was supposed to last 15 minutes, with lights being turned out and everyone going to bed at 12. One night a few minutes before 11 my door burst open and a close friend who lived on Prophets/Malone 3 burst in. He said, “We need you, come upstairs.†I told the 3 men in my room that I was going to be a having devotions in another room and I went upstairs to Malone 3. I was ushered into the large room at the end of the hall, and I found that I had been invited to a de facto floor meeting of Malone 3.
There were 40 guys in the room. It was a somber gathering. There were 3 guys sitting in chairs in the middle of the room. They were almost expressionless. I figured out who the group leader was and asked what was up. And they told me the story. These 3 guys lived in Roscoe’s room. They hated Roscoe. Roscoe turned them in for every rule violation he could think of. Even if they had not broke a rule, he still turned them in because he thought they were breaking a rule. These 3 freshmen were not enjoying their time at Hyles Anderson College. They were miserable. But Roscoe had gone a step further. He had taken it upon himself to be the judge, jury and executioner of the whole floor and in doing so he had made a lot of enemies. So Malone 3 had called a meeting. Under the pretense of floor devotions they had gathered. What are we going to do about Roscoe?
I looked around the room and realized I was the oldest student in the room and the only graduate level student. So I realized that it was my duty to make sure these fellows didn’t do anything stupid. The ideas started being kicked around. Doing him bodily harm was forbidden. Poisoning him was also ruled out. A lot of guys including myself had had food or drink spiked unknowingly over the years and that was just plain wrong. That wasn’t going to happen, especially when I told the gathering that that had just happened on another floor to another guy like Roscoe. That guy had gone to the hospital for a couple days and his parents were looking to press charges. It was made known to these guys that you will not harm his person or his property.
So these guys got creative. They decided to go after the one thing Roscoe was noted for, his hair. The plan was to make him wake up late where he would not have time to iron his clothes and comb his hair before class. They noticed that he went out to the lake every night at 10 p.m. and would return about 10:45. A man was designated to follow him and alert the floor when he left and returned. A man was assigned to detach the backup battery in his alarm clock. Another fellow was assigned the job of flipping the circuit breaker to cut all electricity to Roscoe’s room. This was designed to help Roscoe oversleep and keep him from ironing.
I was safely in my room the night it went down. My buddy who had invited me came down about 11:30. “Well, what did you do?†I asked. With a wide grin he held up a plastic bag that held a brush and 2 combs. “We’ll put it back before chapel,†he said.
I made sure to get to class early the next morning. At 8:03 The main door to Decoster Dining Hall burst open and Roscoe came running through. He burst into class late. His impeccable hair was wet and uncombed and his pants and shirt were horribly wrinkled. The public humiliation they had been hoping for had worked. Roscoe seemed rather preoccupied. Dr. Auclair said to him, “Roscoe, you're late?†“Sorry,†was all he could say. The guys in the class had a little fun asking him if he was going liberal or new evangelical. One asked if he was going to transfer to Liberty and how a fellow who was from the Hyles Baptist Church of Virginia, would go over there.
24 years later. Facebook. Roscoe had married the girl he had been dating. His picture showed that he had not aged a bit. And his hair? Still perfect, with not one out of place.
