Stony Brook Stories

Prof. C.N. Yang - Nobel Prizewinner in Hula Hoop Physics
Freshmen Orientation Barbecue - August 1999

When the University moved from Oyster Bay to Stony Brook, this was a rural campus. Nichol's Road wasn't even built until the late 1960's and it was so empty students used it for skateboarding. At night, the townies used to come onto campus and harass the female students. To protect them, the Polity Council decided there should be volunteer guards at the gatehouse - the one and only entrance.  But they knew that in order to get faculty involved, they would need to get someone of importance to support their effort. Who better than a Nobel physicist, they decided. So on the first night of providing protection for the campus women - there in the gatehouse was the Polity President and C. N. Yang - and Statesman covered the story.

Move ahead thirty plus years to 1999 and Yang has had quadruple bypass surgery. But we have the first Asian American freshmen orientation barbecue in the fall and ask the faculty to attend. There, six months after his surgery, Yang is teaching those freshmen how to hula hoop - sitting on the lawn sharing a meal with them - having his picture taken with them while they are all saying things like, "My Dad will be so proud when he sees this picture."

A note on retention to faculty and staff: The first seven weeks of school are when students make that mental decision - I'm here to stay - or - I should have gone to Bing! and start figuring out how to transfer. These are the kinds of events and stories that keep them here. Help make future ones as impressive as this one!