Frances Searle Hall, Foster-Walker Complex, and other Northwestern Panopticons
The panopticon is one of the most ethical inventions to come out of the British Empire. It places a guard in a watchtower the center of a circular building, so that the inmates, or in this case, students, don’t know whether they are being watched. Amidst recent funding cuts by the Trump Administration, Northwestern University Police is cutting its workforce in half. Fortunately, the buildings are already designed to allow them to monitor many more students with much less manpower. Let’s take a look at some of these institutions.
- Frances Searle Hall
Named after some old white lady (probably), Frances Searle Hall is a surveillance nightmare for students. The central staircase and balcony act as a guard tower. Students must stay cautious when navigating the winding hallways since they never know when they might end back up in the middle. Students often pee themselves in the halls because it is not possible to locate a bathroom. Some starve to death as the rumored single vending machine has yet to be discovered. Others are lured to the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory and are never seen again.
- Foster-Walker Complex
Despite sounding like a diagnosis for some mental health disorder involving a tendency towards submissiveness, Foster-Walker Complex includes not one, but two, panopticons. In this case, it is the underpaid dining hall workers being tortured instead of the students, as they are forced to see naked people who forgot to put their blinds down. The trees in the center of each panopticon give the illusion of greenery, but in reality, they have cameras in them for further surveillance. Plex also has a dual purpose of being Northwestern’s campus Backrooms.
- Main Library
Go to any tower in Main Library, and you are immediately trapped. You will be forced to walk around the entire perimeter if you wish to find your way out. The guard will be lurking in the center, ensuring that you don’t smuggle any literature out of the esteemed stacks. Who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to put books in a circular pattern? How the hell is one supposed to find transcripts from a Lansing, Michigan 1982 mayoral debate that way?