So, funny story...I enrolled in 1986. Had visited the campus in fall 1985 and spring 1986. Everything was set, my best friend from high school and I were signed up to be roommates, and we were going to live in HONORS Residential College (the earlier name of Hecht) since we were Honors students.
Then, we get our room assignment letters...
Honors Residential College AT EATON HALL. And dammit to ****, Eaton was a disaster when we visited campus. Worst dormitory (not counting the ****hole apartment area)...the furniture was bolted to the floor...
We freaked the **** out and immediately called the Housing Office. "No need to worry, the entire dorm is being renovated, it's going to be great." So a few months later, they've flipped the name to "Eaton Residential College", we have our own RC Masters and everything (the main one was Dr. Ferguson, a math professor and the head of the Honors Program, she's the one who interviewed me on campus for admissions to UM and the Honors Program).
We actually had PARKING (more than was dedicated to the Towers), and I had a room on the second floor just above the side entrance looking out at the pool. Sweet sweet sweet. We start to move in and they are STILL working on the renovations. We were there when they put in our cable box (brand spanking new, to their credit). Still painting in places. Still moving in furniture.
Nearly the entire building was freshmen, because no upperclassmen wanted to live there. Only the RAs and a couple of people in the "singles" wing in the middle were upperclassmen. We set a (then) record for most amount of property damage done to a dorm in a year. Scared the **** out of UM. We had multiple "scared straight" meetings with our RAs as they tried to lecture us on acting like adults.
But I loved those suite rooms with a bathroom between. After that year, I NEVER wanted to live in the Towers. Went over there to visit friends, and it was dank and abysmal. I lived in Eaton, Mahoney (1) and Pearson (7), but never EVER in the Towers.
While I'm going to miss those landmarks, it's good that the students will have FAR better housing options in the future.
Although the current students ARE spoiled little *******...