Hoyt Administration Building - 333 W College St

This three-story structure, built in 1912, overlooks much of the campus. The first floor is used mostly for information, registration, and counseling (and contains the offices of the student newspaper) while the second floor holds the bulk of administering staff. The third floor contains the offices of the president, vice-president, and staff, and some class or conference rooms. The building is open 8 A.M. to noon, and 1–5 P.M.,Monday–Friday.

A semester’s tuition at Miskatonic costs $125 a semester. A dormitory room costs $91 a semester. Three meals daily at a dormitory cafeteria cost $87.25 per semester.

Miskatonic University has welcomed a certain number of women since 1879, and small numbers of church sponsored students from China, Africa, and Polynesia, but 95% of the student body are white Anglo-Saxon Protestant males, usually linked with well-to-do, often local families.

The university takes seriously its in loco parentis duties, prescribing student hours and behavior in detail. Curfews at 10 P.M., strict segregation of the sexes, and enforcement of school traditions are normal to the time, but perhaps farfetched to those who must fend for themselves in looser eras. Students who fail to rise when their instructor enters the classroom may be expelled, for instance. When not in classroom or library, an unruly student may be confined to his or her room, and a system of resident assistants sees that this is done.

Faculty and staff must not be merely competent, but must be of sound morals and reputation. Those who become entangled in bizarre situations or become the subject of gossip may not last long at Miskatonic.

Though the university offers only twenty full-tuition scholarships each semester, various private charities and trusts also offer full or partial scholarships. Those winning them must still work for or otherwise pay for room, board, and pocket money. This is not an easy time in which to be poor. Fall semester runs from September to mid-January, with a three-week break in December. Spring semester begins either the fifth Monday of January or the first Monday of February and concludes the second Friday in June. A few tutorial classes or introductory classes required for graduation are offered during summer vacation, but never specialized upper-division or graduate-level instruction.

Dr. Harvey Wainscott

Now 48 years old and formerly a dean at Dartmouth, Harvey Wainscott was hired three years ago by the trustees, and has presided over the ongoing reorganization of the university into its present schools and departments. He has made faculty enemies in doing this, though the trustees applaud his attempts to move the university to closer junction with the modem world. They pride themselves upon the extent and depth of their scientific curricula. There will not be, however, a department of business administration until 1948, when federal monies begin first to trickle and then to flood.

Wainscott has also stirred up the town by actively running for mayor of Arkham — a part-time job — against longtime incumbent Peabody. The close election will be held on November 6.

Vice-President David Edmund

Now 55 years old, he also was vice-president under Dr. Addleson, the previous president, and was disappointed to be denied promotion. An excellent administrator but an uninspiring leader, he functions admirably as the president’s second-in-command. He is unenthusiastic about some of Wainscott’s academic reforms.

Miss Ruth Ellen Whitby, Registrar

Now just 37 years old and in the flower of her emotional and intellectual life, Miss Whitby is as competent, keen, and as prescient about university records as Dr. Armitage is about the contents of his beloved library.

The Miskatonic University Crier

Its enemies call it the Sniveler. The weekly student newspaper’s managing editor is Howard Penobscott. He’s a Henry Luce fan and an annoying young troublemaker. Skinny, habitually winking through his wire-rim glasses, Penobscott prefers editorializing to journalism, and glories in tweaking the school administration. Clashes with his faculty advisor and censor, Swanson Ames, are ongoing. Penobscott enjoys nothing more than slipping something controversial by Ames, an oblique and distracted man. Even the fair-minded President Wainscott finds it impossible to like Penobscott, though he admits that his young nemesis is ingenious.