By Madelynn Lockwood, Editor
I sat in Loyola Hall with Father Betti, Spencer Liechty, director of campus ministry, and seniors Gabby Kaderli and Mitchell Popovski, during a “Pizza with the Jesuits” event held to open the doors of Loyola to the greater Canisius community. There is something about being in Loyola that made me oddly reminiscent of the early years of my college career. I used to walk by Loyola when I gave tours and tell prospective students that if they decided to attend Canisius, that may be the only building that they never step into as students. I, too, thought that until Fr. Betti became the University Chaplin and began overseeing Christ the King Chapel.
Offhandedly I turned and said to the table, “One thing that I really want to do before I graduate is to go in the dome of Old Main. It’s definitely on my bucket list. Maybe they’re just stories, but I heard that you can get up there.” We continued that conversation, and with three overly involved seniors at that table, there were a lot of things thrown out there for contenders on the ultimate Canisius bucket list. But that one, of seeing the dome of Old Main up close, stuck with Fr. Betti.
About a month later, I received an email with the subject line “Call me” from Fr. Betti. So I did, and he said, “Maddy, I never forget a conversation. It’s the teacher in me. I talked to Joe and he said that we can get you and a friend or two in the dome.” He asked me to send him days and times that would work. That Tuesday, I sent him a couple dates and times. He replied less than an hour later with confirmation that we would be seeing the dome that following afternoon.
Ava Green, our Editor-in-Chief, was in the midst of a story on Fr. Betti and the Jesuits, so she was an obvious choice, along with Chloe Cohen-Breen, our photography director, to capture the moment. Aside from their positions justifying their right to be there, I have not had an experience for The Griffin without those two by my side.
The day came and 2 p.m. rolled around faster than I realized what we were really doing. At 1:59 p.m. exactly I walked down to the Lower Level of Old Main, saw Ava, Joe Snodgrass, director of facilities management, and Fr. Betti, the orchestrator of this whole affair. In an excited whirl we hit the elevator button. Along with one other student we stepped on the elevator, and almost in covert fashion Snodgrass waited for that student to turn his eyes off the elevator panel before hitting the button labeled “R” that would bring us to the roof.
The elevator opened to reveal another industrial style door that required us to stick our feet in the way of the elevator doors so they didn’t close before he could unlock the heavy, blue metal door. It opened asymmetrically, requiring us to step carefully off of the elevator and onto the concrete that encapsulated our ride and down onto the plastic material that covered the roof and added extra caution to our steps.
Originally, I thought that these elevator doors would open inside the dome itself. I imagined the doors opening to a dusty enclosure that was only lit through openings in the dome. Instead the doors led us to a wide open, white, covered roof with the iconic golden dome to our right. This view of the city is only rivaled by that of Dugan’s seventh floor common room, but still delivered incredible sights of the city with a full view of the fall foliage in the Quad, and the recognizable features of downtown Buffalo.
Onto the roof of Old Main, Ava fearlessly walked towards the unguarded side of the roof overlooking the library to which Snodgrass shouted out “Don’t go too far. I don’t want to end up on the news tonight!” I, being more cautious, stayed on the tread paths intended for maintenance workers, not overly curious 21 year old girls who found themselves up there. Some water remained on the roof from recent rainfall and the wind feverishly whipped around our hair. It was around this time that I realized I had a text from Chloe saying “I forgot my SD card in my car. Be there in 10 minutes!” Alright, well, we forgot someone.
I replied, “Let me know when you are in the basement. We will come get you!” I totally played that off cool, and we definitely did not forget about a close friend in a fit of excitement. “Better yet,” Snodgrass said, “Have her get in the elevator and hit ‘R.’ We will hold the door open for her here.” I relayed the message.
About five minutes later the elevator made it to the top with not only our cherished photographer, but at least three curious onlookers who stayed on the elevator when they realized her intended location. She stepped out and wished her fellow riders well as she let the doors close on them.
Chloe had the same reaction as Ava and I did 15 minutes prior, but instead of standing in awe of the sights of the dome and view of the city, she immediately began working, capturing the conversations happening between Snodgrass and Fr. Betti, along with Ava and I as we let the views and perspective of campus ingrain into our brains.
Fr. Betti shared that “this is the first time I have been on the roof, too” making this adventure even more meaningful for him too. He continued to share about the history of Canisius’ Jesuits and the creation of the dome itself in 1905. The most meaningful part of our adventure may have been Fr. Betti’s earnest conversation with us about the school he is incredibly passionate about. Snodgrass’ passion for his work showed too in the maintenance of our school and ensuring our safety and wellbeing.
Shortly after taking in the view Snodgrass led us to another heavy door under lock and key. Only a cinder block step bridged the gap between the PVC flooring of the outside roof and the corrugated metal floor that lined the inside of the Dome.
“Stay on wood slats. You aren’t gonna fall through or anything, but it’s more stable,” Snodgrass told us as we entered. Inside, the architecture was not what I expected. The structure itself was supported through a series of metal beams more in a square and rigid pattern than a series of arcs.
The inside of the dome was filled with garbage to some but that were to us relics from years past: disposable cups with the iconic blue and purple smudge design of the 90s and vintage logo Gatorade bottles left from workers past. We decided that since we couldn’t keep any of the things we found up there, we needed to leave something, so Ava wrote our initials with the date on the wood floorboards.
Later we overheard Fr. Betti say “people aren’t always great at asking for things” in conversation with Snodgrass, and that is what we walked away from this experience with. When you want something, ask for it, and if you ask the right person you may also get an adventure that your friends may not believe until you are on the roof of Old Main waving down at them.
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