Palmetto State University

**Palmetto State University** is a large, public university located in South Carolina, home of the Foxes. Its Exy stadium is called the Foxhole Court. Palmetto State's president is Charles Whittier. The campus is 11 miles from the next interstate exit.

Most of Palmetto State's buildings offices, and dormitories are inside of a giant loop known as Perimeter Road. Fox Tower was one of the exceptions, but only because a stray hill forced Perimeter to hug the campus green near the clock tower. On the top of the hill is Fox Tower. All of the Foxes live in Fox Tower, the student athlete dorm room.

21 000 students are enrolled at Palmetto State.

## Start of the School Year

Classes start on Thursday, August 24th in Neil's first year.

Many students wear school colours - orange and white - to celebrate the start of the new term, especially the athletes. Some even wear headbands with fox ears.

Student organisations put up booths in the amphitheatre in the middle of campus. Volunteers help freshmen orient themselves on campus. Members of organisations hand out knick-knacks like magnets.

## Game Nights

On game nights, the campus is decorated in school colours and the vast majority of students wears them as well. In the amphitheatre, student bands give short concerts and the student newspaper has information on the afternoon parade. Cheerleaders try to get the mood up by roaming the campus.

Many visitors come to campus, which slows down traffic. Police cars and ambulances make way for the athletes' cars to reach the stadium. Security directs visitors and keeps an eye out for drunk fans.

## Fox Tower

Fox Tower is the 4 storey high student athlete dormitory. It has its own computer lab and parking lot. The Foxes live in 3 adjacent rooms on the third floor of Fox Tower in the following groupings:

Room A: Andrew, Aaron, Nicky, Kevin (Room 317)

Room B: Dan, Renee, Allison

Room C: Matt, Seth, Neil (Room 321)

Relatively speaking, Room C is furthest down the hall; Room A is the closest (Room B is between them). Each dorm room consists of a living area, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and a bedroom area (including one closet). Rooms are equipped with smoke detectors, which is why Neil and Andrew smoke near the windows.

One can access the roof at the top of the stairwell, where Andrew has compromised the lock. There is no safety rail on the roof.

### Room 321 (Neil and Matt's Room)

As you walk into Neil's room, the kitchenette is off to the side and the front room is the living room/study. A short hall dead ends with the bathroom and branches into the bedroom. The living room is fitted with a couch, entertainment center, and coffee table supplied by Matt. Their desks are all pushed to the far side of the living room.

In the bedroom, there is a bunk bed and a bed raised to chest height with dressers stored underneath. While Seth is alive, he sleeps on the chest-height bed, Matt sleeps bottom bunk, and Neil sleeps top bunk. After Seth dies, the extra bed and desk are removed.

### Room 317 (Andrew's Lot's Room)

The living room in Andrew's room has two matching bean bag chairs which are often used for playing video games. Andrew took the screen off the window in the living room to smoke. He punched through the bedroom window after they got back from Kathy's show.

### Room 3?? (The Girls' Room)

The Girl's room is most likely to be room 319, seeing as it is between room 321 and room 317.

In this room you are most likely to find cookies, iced tea, food, and card games. In true Fox fashion, the card games are nearly always accompanied by alcohol.

## Library

The library offers free computer access to all students. It includes a café for students.

Aaron and Katelyn meet in the library because they know Andrew will not step foot in it.

## Reddin Medical Center

Reddin contains the doctors' offices as well as the psychiatrists'. The doctors are located closer to the front, the psychiatrists down a hall out of sight. Betsy works here. Reddin has a waiting room with pale blue couches and a clock.

Betsy's office has a plaque with her name beside the door. Inside are a chair and a couch opposite each other with a coffee table in the middle. On top of it sits a potted plant, on the chair and sofa are several pillows in a painstaking arrangement. Her desk is in the corner and contains only a hot plate and a kettle. Inside a drawer are mugs and cocoa. There's a short bookshelf against one wall, the top shelf of which is covered in glass figurines, also meticulously arranged. Only the bottom three shelves contain books.

## Dining

Palmetto State has three dining halls. Two are for the general student body, and a third is for the exclusive use of athletes. All dining halls are set up in buffet style. The athletes' dining hall only has one unhealthy item served a day; the regular dining halls are more likely to serve pizza and numerous desserts. Neil is allowed to access any dining hall, but uses the athletes' dining hall due to strong pressure from Wymack.

## Other establishments on campus

There are three convenience stores on campus.

## Downtown

Downtown refers to a long street of shops branching off campus near Fox Tower, mostly selling campus gear. There are also some bookstores and a couple of pubs. During summer break the majority of the establishments are closed. This is where students can go to eat off campus.

## Teams

Palmetto has several sports teams:

* The Exy team
* A football team
* A soccer team
* A cheerleader squad

### Special conditions for athletes

Athletes are required to include tutoring hours in their schedule, which can make creating a schedule hard, since they also have to accommodate for practice. This disadvantage is somewhat mitigated because athletes are expected to graduate in 5 years instead of the normal 4.

Due to recruitment practices, athletes are offered early registration at the end of the previous semester, as opposed to the beginning of the current one.

Athletes aren't allowed to skip classes on game days without a legitimate medical excuse. A member of the athletics committee enforces this rule by checking the classrooms all day. If athletes fail to turn up for classes, their coach will be notified.

## Campus Police

After Kevin transferred to Palmetto State, the presence of campus police has been doubled. They are ordered not to let the press onto the campus unaccompanied. Campus police uniforms are blue.

Their tasks include directing traffic on game nights and keeping guests from interrupting classes.

## Origin and Inspiration

Palmetto State University is loosely based off of Clemson University, where the author attended university. It is in the same geographic location and the campus layout is similar. Fox Tower is based off of Clemson house. Much like Palmetto State, Clemson's primary school color is orange. Their mascot is the tiger, so bright orange paw prints abound in both Clemson and it's fictional alter ego.

1. ↑ "Palmetto State University", a blogpost by Nora Sakavic 1/28/2013.