Dorm demolition nets $82K for food pantry
When Theresa Sebestyen thinks about her time living in dorm housing at Marquette University, she feels a wave of nostalgia — and a bit of poignancy.
It was almost 30 years ago, but the memories of her time in McCormick Hall at the start of her college career are still there: late-night conversations with friends, the first year of co-ed housing, meeting her best friend.
So when she heard McCormick would be demolished this year, replaced by the university’s first new dorm in 50 years — the comparatively lavish $108 million Commons — Sebestyen made a request to a friend who worked on campus.
“See if you can sneak over and get my room number.”
Turns out, the university’s advancement team was on the same page.
In response to similar requests, the team salvaged the old scratched and scuffed room signs and auctioned them off to the highest bidder. They also began collecting donations in memory of the dorm, using McCormick-themed can koozies as an incentive.
So far, Marquette alumni, parents and staff have given nearly $82,000, said Stacy Mitz, Marquette’s senior associate vice president of university advancement.
The funds will go to revitalize the Marquette University Backpack Program, which provides groceries and other basic goods to students facing food insecurity.
“We know from the dollars that have come in so far that at least 50 students have benefited from these donations,” Mitz said.
The combination of nostalgia for the 52-year-old building and the chance to support a good cause helped mobilize the donors, especially young alumni, Mitz said. The campaign so far has pulled in support from 1,300 first-time donors.
Three hundred room signs have been auctioned off, bringing $25,000. Bidders put up the toughest fight for room 220 which, at $510, went for almost 10 times the starting price. Several others sold for $200 and a select few topped $400.
Marquette mailed out 3,400 koozies. They also sold 70 replicas of the signs for $52 each. (Full disclosure: Reporter Devi Shastri lived in McCormick for one summer. Last May, she contributed to the Backpack Program and received a koozie.)
“I was very pleasantly surprised at the passion that came forward immediately around this initiative,” Mitz said. “We expected there to be excitement. At this level? No.”
The money will support the pantry program for the foreseeable future, Noreen Siddiqui, a coordinator of the program, predicted.
“It shows that ... alums are all over this issue and are really willing to put
their money behind what they want to see from their institution,” Siddiqui said.
Siddiqui led the charge to revitalize the Backpack Program. The program amounted to little more than small amounts of food kept in the office mini-fridges of generous faculty members. Now, there is a dedicated space in Mashuda Hall.
She also conducted the research that unveiled the extent of MU students’ struggles.
Siddiqui’s research found one in five Marquette students meets the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standard for food insecurity.
While that number might be surprising, she said the results are in line with other research, especially since food insecurity is more than just not being able to afford groceries. Food insecurity is living off ramen noodles to save money or having a limited diet because what’s available doesn’t meet dietary restrictions.
“Talking to students, they feel like they are not hungry enough, not poor enough ... to access the services, and they feel like they are taking services away from someone else if they go out into the community and use the community food pantry,” Siddiqui said.
Having a clear presence on campus will help spread the word and get students what they need.
When she learned the McCormick money would go to the food program, Sebestyen said she was was “floored” at the need on campus. That solidified her drive to donate.
Alongside her koozie, she bought one original room sign and one replica for a friend. A replica she purchased, the room 316 sign, now hangs above her desk at home.
“I just hung it right there and I just look at it,” Sebestyen said. “It makes me smile, especially because we have a reunion year coming up this fall, so it makes me excited for October and our reunion.”
Sebestyen graduated from Marquette’s physical therapy program in 1994.
Her family has deep ties to the building as well: four of her five siblings also attended Marquette — and
“Talking to students, they feel like they are not hungry enough, not poor enough ... to access the services, and they feel like they are taking services away from someone else if they go out into the community and use the community food pantry.” Noreen Siddiqui coordinator, Marquette University Backpack Program
three of them lived in McCormick. Decades later, her kids play with the kids of the people she met living on the third floor.
As money continues to roll in for the program, crews have begun the work to raze McCormick. The first wrecking ball is expected to hit Monday.
Rick Arcuri, Marquette’s executive director of Student Affairs Operations, said he walked through the shell of the building last week, snapping photos and remembering the people who worked to make the dorm home.
Arcuri, who has spent nearly 30 years working in student life, said he’s glad the university could find a creative way to memorialize the dorm.
“It all comes back to you as you walk through the building,” Arcuri said.
“McCormick gave a lot to a lot of people while it was open and they were living there and it’s going to continue to do that even after it’s gone,” Arcuri said. “It’s just a phenomenal way for a building to go out.”