The Hidden History of Uni Episode 1: The Slice
In honor of our hundredth anniversary, we are doing a podcast series on Uni’s secret rooms and little-known history. The Hidden History of Uni features interviews with alumni as well as current and former staff. In this episode we explore room 308c, the triangle shaped room known as “the Slice.”
Transcript
Miranda
For a century, students have passed through these hand-printed halls, but what the majority of them don’t know is how much is hidden within the walls of Uni.
Hi, welcome to the Hidden History of Uni, a podcast series to celebrate our 100th anniversary. Each episode will focus on a different hidden room or little-known piece of history about our school. Today we will be talking about room 308 C, a small room off of the current German classroom, known as the Slice.
Nathaniel
Uni was originally constructed to serve as a laboratory school for the University of Illinois College of Education. Multiple small rooms and viewing windows were constructed throughout the building as a way for College of Ed students to train and observe teachers. Viewing windows were one way so the student teachers could observe discretely and not cause stress to the teachers. One of these such rooms was the Slice. The Slice functioned as an observation room through the 1970s before falling out.
Miranda
From the 70s until the early 2010s the slice served as storage. In 2012 it was put back into use again as host to the school’s student-run tech service.
Miranda
In addition to fixing computers there, the tech service kids also spruced up the slice by decorating the wall with memes and posters of their favorite bands. We talked to 2013 Uni High alum and current math teacher Kaila Simpson about her experience within the Slice.
Miranda
When did you first learn about the Slice?
Miss K
I first learned about the Slice after I was hired on the IT team, the IT student team, between my junior and senior year. It was the room that we used as our quote unquote office.
Miranda
How aware was the rest of the student body about the slice?
Miss K
They didn’t really know anything about it. Uhm, they barely knew it existed. It was kind of–it looked like a closet. We tried to hang signs outside of it so they knew that it was our office at that point. But again, it’s also on the third floor, so not a lot of juniors and seniors come up to the third floor.
Miranda
Do you know anything about the meme wall inside of the Slice?
Miss K
Yes! I am one of the co-creators of the meme wall inside the Slice. When we first opened that as our office space, it was really dusty and gross, so we tried to brighten it up, but since there were no windows, we just printed out a bunch of memes and album covers to hang on the wall with staples.
Nathaniel
We also visited the slice with Simpson to get a sense of what it was like when she worked there.
Miss K
Uh, comments about the memes in here. There is a couple of Beatles posters which are from my childhood bedroom. Some of my favorite memes: a Waka to remember; that head with the biceps on the window up there. A lot of these memes wouldn’t be politically correct today. Let’s see, yeah, for example, how a man’s brain works during an argument. Lots of making fun of random people on the Internet; lots of references to TV shows like The Walking Dead and King of the Hill, Dragon Ball Z, That’s so Raven as Mona Lisa, and that’s about it. Yeah, I think everyone should see it.
Miranda
Throughout the generations, the slice has served a multitude of purposes, from an observation room to a place of work and back to storage again. We hope you enjoyed this first episode of our podcast. This episode was directed by Uni sophomores Miranda Burgos, Nathaniel Wiesbrook and Rose Benjamin, recorded by Burgos and Wiesbrook and edited by Benjamin.
Special thanks to Kaila Simpson, Karl Radnitzer, Carol Lombardi and Richard Murphy for helping us make this episode. Make sure to tune in next time for the next installment of the Hidden History of Uni, a 100th Anniversary Special.
