Set adrift on a memory bliss, folks…

Historically classroom seating at HBS was on a first-come first-served basis, so people used to camp out to get the most appropriate seat. Now, first years are treated like grade school children, and you’re assigned to a seat for first semester and then assigned another one for section semester.

The following are excerpted from “Year One: An Intimate Look Inside Harvard Business School” written by Robert Reid in 1994 about the seating hierarchy –

Top row: “skydeck” “there that the self appointed slackers, jesters and ringleaders sit”. due to their distance from the prof, they also do a lot of note-passing.

Next row Down: “warning track” “named after the brown patch of packed earth which brackets the fringe of the baseball outfield, was one notch below Sky Deck in both altitude and prestige”.

Next row down (center of all rows): “Power Deck” “so named because its residents sat at eye level to the professors, and could therefore most easily fix them with a penetrating, knowledgeable gaze”.

Next row down (second row up from bottom): “Garden Deck” “so named because gardens are found above worms, as the sniveling inhabitants of the front row, or Worm Deck, were known”

Bottom row: “worm deck” (see above)

Where the prof stands is the “pit”. Those that run down to the pit to chat up the prof after class are known to be “pit diving.” As I said before, this self-selection system is no longer in place. We continue to refer to the rows by the same names, however, but they’re not that widely thrown around or used, probably because we have no choice in the matter.

Despite this, we still maintain certain traditions. The skydeck remains famed, partly because tradition holds that those in the skydeck compile the weekly skydeck awards, which are presented to certain members of the section after the last class on Fridays. They’re not meant to applaud people in the true sense; think of them as a roast. If there’s a person that was hogging airtime, they might get an award. if there was a secret section couple, they might get outted. And if someone is just plain annoying, they might get an award, hopefully disguised as something funny.

Perhaps the most famed Skydecker is Bush. Here’s a picture of him at Harvard, blowing bubbles.

Related:
Choose Your Seat Wisely