Why it's called The Rock

Late one night in the 1970s, somebody put a ten-foot stone on campus. Nobody asked permission and nobody wrote it down. It has been the college's noticeboard ever since — painted over, painted again, claimed every few weeks by whoever got there with a roller first.

That is what this is. A board where students put things up for other students: a seat going spare to Dulles on Friday, a mini fridge that needs to leave a room by Sunday, a compliment somebody didn't want to say out loud, the question of whether Commons is packed right now or whether you have ten minutes.

We took the name because the important part of that stone was never the stone. It was that it belonged to students. Nobody chartered it, nobody approved it, and it worked anyway — which is the only way a thing like this ever works.

We dare to dream boldly.

What this isn't

It isn't the college. The Rock is a student project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Roanoke College. It uses none of the college's logos or athletics marks, and the stone above is drawn, not borrowed. Dining menus are read from the college's own public pages; everything else here was posted by a student.

No money moves through it. The marketplace passes along an email address and stops. The ride board is a board — no dispatch, no payments, no insurance, and a suggested share of petrol is exactly that. Courses and reviews are self-reported and nothing is ever read from the registrar.

Every account is a confirmed @mail.roanoke.edu address, which is the only reason any of the rest of it can be trusted.