Residential Life
Dorm Photo Boards Unite Father, Son
Graduating senior Greg Tao stands with his father, Bernard Tao '76, SM '77, in front of a floor board in Burton-Conner. Photo: Liv Gold.
When graduating senior Greg Tao receives visitors at his dorm, one of the first things he shows them is a photo collage that hangs in the hall near his room. He points to a picture—a wild-haired man with horn-rimmed glasses, peering deviously around a doorway, armed with a can of shaving cream.
"That's my dad!" Tao says cheerfully.
Bernard Tao, circa 1975
Long before Tao's father, Bernard Tao '76 SM '77, was a student (and shaving cream war enthusiast), residents of Burton-Conner have made photo collages, also called floor boards, to commemorate their time together. There are over 30 floor boards in Burton-Conner. Each contains clusters of snapshots contributed by residents; in one photo, a guy with a halo of static hair peers straight into the camera; in another, a woman with a battle-ready frying pan barrels down a hall.
"I think the really cool part of the board," says Tao, "is that it solidifies in time a group of people who chose to live together and will never live together again."
Burton-Conner, located on the west side of the MIT campus, is home to over 350 residents during the school year. The dorm consists of nine floors—five on the Burton side, four on the Conner side—each with its own personality.
Tao says that his floor is characterized by its parties; other floors are known to be more athletic or more pirate-like. Compared to the other dorms on campus, Tao considers Burton-Connor to be fairly normal.
"Overall, it's not the most wild or the most quiet," he says. "It's somewhere in the middle."
Greg Tao, circa 2007
Personality shines through many residential spaces, including elaborate murals at Senior Haus or Bexley. Students say those creations reinforce the sense of history and shared experience in their dorm, and alumni cite them as vivid reminders of their time on campus.
"The fact that these projects are permanent is really key," says Tao. "I think it's like a mark you get to make. It says, 'I was here; this was my experience.' When you come back, you'll remember it."
This summer Tao will intern at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company specializing in minimally invasive medical devices in Cincinnati. He will return to Cambridge next fall to begin a master's degree in mechanical engineering.
By Liv Gold
Published June 4, 2010
