In the basement,
one can find a computer room, a workshop, a printer, a music practice room, a weight room, a game area with a punching bag and pool table, and the Alice in Wonderland Theater. Our three washers (Geela, Malseka, Maku) and four dryers (Alatelo, Krank, Akoro, Droog), which residents can all use for free, are also located there; their status can be checked online.
Our front desk
sorts mail, runs soda fridge, lends movies, checks out shop keys, and provides sewing machines and/or vacuums to the hole-y and dust-ridden.
Our roof
is open for all residents. There we have a wooden roofdeck with tables and chairs. Perfect for meteor-gazing, movie-watching, boffer-fighting, or even tooling.
Our rooms
are of five types, identified by the last digit of their room number. Each type of room has its own quirks and personality but every room has, for each occupant, one network connection, and an MIT standard desk, chair, bookcase, dresser and bed. In addition, rooms are generally personalized by their residents to some degree, the redecoration ranging from posters on the wall to complete paint jobs and replacement furniture, often built by the students.
Types of rooms
- One Rooms are singles in the front of the building, facing Mass Ave.
- Two Rooms are doubles next to the one rooms, also facing out to the street.
- Three Rooms are singles which look out onto the air and light shafts in the middle of the building.
- Four Rooms are singles divided into two halves by arches, and also look out on the shafts.
- Five Rooms are divided doubles with outside windows facing the back of the building. Each five room has a large half, typically occupied by an upperclassman, a small half, typically occupied by a freshman.
Location
Aside from the physical facilities of our building, Random has some unique features due to its location as well. We are located northwest of main campus, on the edge of Central Square. A great benefit of this is that we are very close to a large number of restaurants, which are, in many cases, cheaper and better quality than the on-campus dining options. Added to this is the fact that we have plenty of kitchen space and a supermarket just around the corner, so many of our residents don't eat on campus at all. We are also quite close to the Central Square T stop, making us the closest dorm to a T stop of all of the dorms west of Mass. Ave.
Off-Campus?
The idea of living "off campus" often raises a couple of questions: "Isn't it a long way to walk to campus?" and "Do you feel safe being off campus?". To answer the first question, we are only a five minute walk from Lobby Seven, which is exactly the same distance as Burton Connor, one of the closer of the West Campus dorms. As far as safety is concerned, we have had no problems. The walk from campus to Random is entirely along Mass Ave, a busy, populated street, which can make it a lot safer than walks along smaller roads, such as Memorial Drive and Amherst Alley, routes to the West Campus dorms, after dark.
Main Lounge
Our main lounge, located on Foo Floor, is the venue for most of the large gatherings that take place, including parties, dorm government meetings, and group homework sessions, to name a few. The main lounge also contains a kitchen (behind a bar known, of course, as the Foo bar), a TV, and our homebuilt 24-inch subwoofer.
Workshop
Random has a small but well stocked shop in the basement, equipped with a table saw, drill press, and scroll saw, along with a set of pneumatic tools and an air compressor, plus a fairly complete selection of hand tools, powered and otherwise, good for just about any fairly small project.
Study Room
The basement contains a kitchen that is rarely used, and thus functions as a quiet study room for Randomites. It's also equipped with a computer perfect for productivity tasks.
Music
Random has three pianos on Destiny, Loop, and Pecker. There's also a (not soundproof) music room that has multiple microphones and guitars.
Alice in Wonderland Lounge/Theater
The Alice in Wonderland lounge (so named due to its undulating purple and black floor and low ceiling) contains a pool table. The Alice in Wonderland lounge is also the location of our dorm's theater, which has a projector, DVD and VHS players and a Bose sound system.
Weight Room
Random's weight room is set up with all kinds of fitness equipment: free weights, a weight machine, a treadmill, a mini trampoline, and an exercise bike.