February 22, 2007

Contact:   John Syme '85

by John Syme '85

When the time finally came to replace the dated and duct-taped, gloriously (garishly?) green carpeting of Davidson’s E.H. Little Library, young Davidson minds began inquiring: What benefit might come from the passing of the iconic carpeting?

(l-r) Scott Lester '10 and Wes Fiser '07 with a pallet of library carpet they hope to sell.

The answer is available by the square foot at Alvarez College Union today and Friday, February 22-23, when the Student Government Association and the Wildcat chapter of Habitat for Humanity team up to sell keepsake swatches of the nostalgic stuff. They will also be set up at Baker Sports Complex on campus during the Wildcat basketball game against Furman February 22. Proceeds and donations from the great carpet caper will help fund this year’s goal of $66,550 to build a Wildcat Habitat House in Davidson and three in Guatemala, said Wes Fiser ’07, coordinator of Wildcat Habitat for Humanity.

The idea for selling the carpet was a natural, said Fiser, who is spearheading the project with Scott Lester ’10, a freshman senator in the SGA. Suggested uses range from mousepads and welcome mats to area rugs and dorm-friendly miniature golf courses.

The extremely green carpet has been at once revered and vilified by generations of Davidsonians since E.H. Little Library opened in 1974. “The color for the carpet was debated at the highest levels,” recalled Library Director Emeritus Leland Park. “Given the decade it was installed, the color was ultra au courant. In fact, a Harvard psychologist was speaking on campus during the 1974-75 academic year, and commented in writing that this was the ideal color for carpet for a library: It was restful but did not put you to sleep, it satisfied the senses, and it was pedagogically perfect.”

While one might take issue with any one of the Harvard psychologist’s three points, the carpet that President Bobby Vagt '69 would dub “Leland’s Lime Carpet” worked its way into the collective Davidson psyche, for better or for worse. For diehard fans, it is worth noting that only the main floor carpeting was replaced, so there’s plenty of the green carpet still upon which to take the pedagogically perfect nap, back in the stacks at the top of E.H. Little’s Brady Bunch-style main staircase.

Allison Ruhe '10, Fiser, and Lester clean and cut the carpet to ready it for sale.

On the main floor, where an estimated 9.6 million pairs of feet trod in and out over the years, Acting Library Director Sharon Byrd knew the time had come when she saw a fellow librarian on hands and knees early one morning, with the explanation, “It was time to change the duct tape.”

So, President Vagt gave the benediction for the carpet last fall, and the main floor was updated over the winter holiday with attractive blue-gray carpet tiles and new furniture. E. Morrison Brown ’59, an award-winning interior designer in Charlotte advised on the changover.

Anyone on or off campus who's interested in ordering a piece of green carpet should contact Fiser at wefiser@davidson.edu, or Lester at sclester@davidson.edu.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduate 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine.

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Posted By: Bill Giduz