This is no ordinary water fountain.

If you like carrying around a water bottle, then you probably like hydration stations, or other similar devices that allow you to fill up your bottle without getting your hand wet.

Maybe you thought they were restricted to new and renovated buildings on campus, but some oldies — like the Rock — have them too. See that little button in the upper-right corner of the water fountain? Indeed, that’s an old-school hydration station. There’s no motion sensor or anything fancy like that, but it does the job well.

Needed: a water bottle to fill.

As of my last observation, the ones on the third and fourth floors work. Sadly, the basement one does not. File a Facilities service request?

Courtesy of Chattahbox

Don’t get us wrong; we relish saving the environment as much as the next college blog, but ever since Brown discontinued the sale plastic water bottles, other (more trivial) issues have surfaced.

According to the Providence Journal, Brown is the first Ivy League school to purge itself of the environmentally-offensive plastic water bottles. (And that is pretty tremendous. Of course Brown had to be first. That’s who we are.)

“While plastic water bottles are often more practical, Brown has been really good about distributing reusable ones,” freshman David Jacobs commented while sipping from his aluminum canteen.

Based 100% on anecdotal and flimsy evidence, however, some Brown students seem slightly insulted by the dearth of expendable, portable potables.   [Read more →]