Be prepared for disappointment if you want to put some Coke on your WesCard. David Markowitz '11 points out that the vending machines (all except the ice cream machine) near SciLi now have card readers... but that none of the card readers work. Oops.
Ever wonder why Esquid (you know, the ratemyprofessors.com-like Wesleyan-specific site that is un-updatable and thus becomes more and more obsolete with each passing semester...) is called E-squid?
According to a completely unverified word-of-mouth source, "squid" used to be a term with a definition resembling "dork," "nerd," or "geek." Apparently, the term came into being to describe the way people who constantly sat in SciLi looked from outside the building as you passed by on Church St: like squid in an aquarium.
Edit: Some alumni and students have chimed in with additional information. Interesting! It sounds like "squid" started as lingo in the early 70's, worked its way into the name of a pre-ratemyprofessors viewbook with comments from students about different classes called "Squid's Eye View," and fell out of usage even while the "Squid's Eye View" kept going through to the very early 90's, which later became the inspiration for wesleyan.edu's very own esquid. Wild.
"As I recall, the term squid (noun only, not a verb) began while I was at Wes (1971-75). It didn't exist when I got there, or at least it was not widely used. But at some point, it became a common term for the students who were always in the science library, which was open round the clock on most days. (Around the same time, the Sci Lib became know as Skylab.)"
- dave rosenthal '75
"The term Squid was almost dead by the late-1980's. I think we saw the last few regular publications of the annual "Squid's Eye View" (if I've remembered that name right), which was a newspaper published a few times a year with anonymous comments on different professors -- a great tool for choosing classes.
In general conversation, though, by that time people were not referring much to each other as squids. I never heard the Sci Li connection..."
-class of '88
"studying in scili--and eventually everywhere, or so i'm told--came to be known as "squidding." if you read through some of the argus archives, the term is used pretty consistently."
-ben, '10
"I started in '90, and Squid's Eye View was still around then. I never knew where the name came from though, as the term had dropped out by then."
-midnight rambler
