By the spring of 2008 Rutgers University was overflowing with undergraduates. In an attempt to lessen the sting of the budget crisis Rutgers admitted more students than it had room for even though everyone knew this was not a permanent solution. Hotels acted as makeshift dorms, and the few buses that shuttled students between campuses brought the individual members of the student body a bit too close for comfort.

Given that I lived in New Brunswick, though, I could afford to walk. Walking between the Cook and College Avenue campuses took about as long as it did to take the bus, and on same days the walk could be quite pleasant. One late-spring evening I was passing by the “Old