Al Filreis:

We went in on a Saturday in October, mid-October 1995. We went into the space. We finally got the key. Bob wasn't here. I think he was here for the first part of it. We sat in the living room and we talked from about 10:00 in the morning till about 6:00 at night. And in October at 6:00, it's getting dark. And then we realized the lights had been turned off. There was no power in the house. So it was dark. We lit candles. Yeah. And we continued to talk and we drew up plans. And my goal set out by the President and Provost was to present to the Board of Trustees in January, at their January meeting, this experiment in the first Hub so-called.

 

Al Filreis:

So we had from mid-October to January to formulate a plan.

 

Speaker 2:

When you say we, who is we?

 

Al Filreis:

So that would be the so-called... It's now called The Hub. The planning committee of the... It's called Hub, based on that. In fact, the listserv. List serves are important here. We didn't have the space available to us, and it was in shambles. The front door wouldn't close properly. It was insecure. We didn't spend a lot of time in here. And we had pretty far flung committee members, including one in London and one in Texas. And so we used electronic mail, email, a listserv called Hub, still to this day called Hub.

 

Speaker 2:

Really?

 

Al Filreis:

Same listserv. 26 years ago. And we began to plan collectively collaboratively by the listserv. And we would meet once a week or so in the house. And we decided what every room would be, its function. And with one exception, maybe two, the 14 rooms of this house are serving the purpose that was designed in October of 1995 by that group. It was a group of students who felt that student empowerment meant, and they used this term, squatting a house. And this became our loft space. It was outside the curriculum, no courses. It was not run by an academic department. It had no affiliation with an academic department, except for the fact that I was the faculty director and had an appointment in English. It was a provostial project.

 

Al Filreis:

And that's how the Writer's House started and the idea of an organization where its values and mission and vision and moires are discussed by the students. And our staff are almost entirely students with 30 some students on our staff and led by people who have this idea that the Writer's House should not be typically a famous person invited to talk to you. And you listen and don't speak. It was about having dinner with that person. It was about spending two or three days with that person. It was about first name basis. It was about not wearing a jacket and tie, which actually in those days was still kind of a big deal. It was students' ideas that would take the forefront. That was the idealistic goal.