College in the 80s

The girls' dorm rooms were filled with Patrick Nagel prints. The bars smelled like Polo and Giorgio. And David Rotell can still feel the soft grass in front of Hendricks Chapel on the quad of Syracuse University. The 1980s are defined by the music, the movies, and the fashion. But for Rotell, going to college in the 80s was the ride of a lifetime. His stories from his alma mater usually garner one response, "There's no way that happened." When attending college, you assume every school in the country is just like yours, students enjoying antics while pursuing their degrees. But most of the crazy stories Rotell has heard from other universities sound like an average Monday or Tuesday night at SU. The classroom education at SU was paramount, and the students were there to get our diplomas, but they also had the opportunity to learn about life. Many of them learned their most valuable lessons by making mistakes in college. Rotell made just about every mistake in college, some more than once, but those mistakes would shape the path he would follow for life. He still relives those experiences with friends that he cherishes to this day. He can still hear their voices in some of the classic tales. "College in the 80s: One Syracuse Story" is a collection of gnarly, tubular, and bodacious stories from one of New York's finest, and sublimest, institutions.