Putting a Face to "The Rodent" Movement

Many of you have probably heard about the Ratty vs. Rodent debate, one of the biggest controversies to hit Brown’s campus in recent years. Here at the Blognonian, we felt we had to get our burning questions answered. We met with Chaz Vest and Dheraj Ganjikunta, the creators of the “Rodent” phenomenon, on a lovely, quintessentially New England day this September in the Emery-Woolley lounge. The interview started as a mere joke, but the passion these two expressed surprised us all. Alisa would later say it felt more like “a business meeting” than an interview.Matan began the questioning… Matan: What inspired you to come up with “the Rodent”?Chaz: I mean, we understand the significance of the name of the Ratty. They just came up with it one day, basically. It was a joke, by the upperclassmen, to start calling it the Ratty, we don’t really know why. But that kind of inspired us to figure out our own, new name, for it. There’s no real reason, we were just like “the Ratty sounds really gross”. I mean, why would you name an eatery after a rat? What’s the next logical step with this?Dheraj: And the thing is, you know, a freshman comes to Brown and they’re like “what do you guys call this place?” and they hear “the Ratty” and it’s just like, well, how do we react? And the Ratty is a pretty bad name, so we thought our class should come up with its own name. So we came up with the Rodent, and I think that’s what we should use as a class.Matan: So the solution for the bad name was to come up with a worse name?Chaz: Well, worse is subjective. I think they’re both just equally valid.Dheraj: You get used to the Ratty so eventually it doesn’t seem so gross anymore. Now imagine in ten years when everyone’s using the Rodent and some other guy comes by and says “let’s use another name,” then that’s gonna sound pretty bad. But it’s just how things evolve and change, it’s just one of those things.Chaz: It’s a natural progression.Alisa: Are you guys actually sure you’re the ones who came up with this? How confident are you that it’s your creation?Chaz: Literally 100% confident.Alisa: Give me the story.Dheraj: We were together, and I think we made a joke, right?Chaz: Yeah, just about how dumb calling it “the Ratty” is.Dheraj: Right, so we were like, why don’t we just fucking call it “the Rodent.” And at first we thought it would just be a joke.Chaz: Just a little meme, you know. And if you go to the Facebook meme group, the first post, I believe was posted by Dheraj, and then mine was the second, so there is very real evidence out there that we were the creators.(Below are the two memes that started the movement: the posts were put on the Brown Dank Stash of Memes Facebook group on Sunday, September 2nd by Dheraj (left) and Chaz (right), at 6:38 pm and 9:00 pm, respectively.)   Dheraj: Then I started talking more generally, you know, what if we actually did this?Chaz: It really became more of a project after that.Dheraj: If a group of dedicated people put effort into pushing this on the meme page and public groups, it might actually work. So we started putting some effort into that.Chaz: We did develop a small group of individuals who were very focused on pushing the name in the meme group and in real life. We printed posters, as you guys may have seen.Alisa: I actually did not.Chaz: They were great.Dheraj: Very masterfully made, and we just put them up, you know, trying to get the word out about the Rodent.Chaz: [We] co-opted the Ratatouille rat, Remy, as our mascot. It was a big success, I thought. The posters, of course, got taken down almost immediately, but they were placed strategically enough that they were photographed and put on the meme page so everyone saw them. I think our point got across, we really gave our movement a face.Dheraj: People saw that it wasn’t just a meme, it’s actually in real life.Matan: So what does this movement mean to you?Chaz: As a double-legacy student, I grew up with my parents always referring to the Sharpe Refectory as “the Ratty” and I always knew, kind of deep down, that that wasn’t how I was gonna identify with the Sharpe Refectory. So when I did come to Brown, I was very excited to forge my own path at this school and work with Raj to find out something new to call this age-old Brown institution.Dheraj: Yeah, I don’t come from such a bold Brown family, but I think, for me, just coming to Brown, I naturally saw the Ratty as the Rodent. Even now when someone refers to the Sharpe Refectory as “the Ratty”, my initial reaction is always like “what?”Chaz: It’s almost like it always should’ve been the Rodent.Dheraj: To me, it naturally just is, the Rodent. I don’t hear anything else.Alisa: How have you guys reacted to anger from upperclassmen? Has anyone come for you because of this?Chaz: I have actually been refused food service at the SciLi lobby. Someone took my card and they were like, “Are you the Chaz from the Rodent?” and I was like, “Yeah of course,” and he goes, “Yeah I’m sorry, we can’t serve you here.”Dheraj: I think the upperclassmen are really up-in-arms about it. I mean, even my Meik realized I was the Rodent person, and he commented on one of my posts “I disown you as my advisee.”Chaz: There has been discrimination for sure. And I think, whenever you look at a group of people trying to change social norms, there’s always going to be a conservative group of people who’ll react negatively to that, so yeah, people don’t like change.Dheraj: People don’t like change. People don’t like to adapt. They’ve had one thing for the couple of years they were here and they feel like that’s the only thing that can happen. I think people have to open their eyes to the possibilities that exist.Chaz: Yeah, and if you think about it, these guys are going to be gone pretty soon, so if these freshmen call it the Rodent, then the next group of freshmen will call it the Rodent, too, and soon enough, you never know. This is our class’ legacy, I think.Matan: Wow, that’s some real passion.Alisa: Do you guys have a next step, you know, infiltrating tour guide groups or something?Chaz: I guess we do now.Dheraj: Yeah that seems like a logical step in order to educate the next generation.Chaz: T-shirts are definitely in the mix, those have been proposed. Conferences, definitely not off the table. Always looking for ways to get the Rodent name out there.Matan: Alright, thank you guys. To close off, what’s your favorite meal at the Sharpe Refectory?[Ed. note: This is purely a human interest question. The Blognonian has no official stance on the Ratty/Rodent controversy.]Dheraj: Okay, I guess, calling it that is reasonable. I think my favorite there is the fries and putting pasta sauce on them. It tastes so good.Alisa: That’s really a choice.Chaz: I have what I like to call “The Rodent Burger.” It’s a triple cheeseburger with every sauce in the burger section on it, so barbeque, mayo, yellow mustard, honey mustard, ketchup, everything. And you gotta eat that, it’s the quintessential burger at the Rodent. My favorite. Before they left, we asked Chaz and Dheraj how they felt about the Beetle vs. V-Dub debate that seems to be sparking up, and while they would not offer an official stance, they are proud to be “catalysts for more change” and may side with the Beetle. They also showed support for renaming “the Rock” (Brown’s nickname for the John D. Rockefeller Library) either “the Dwayne” or “the Stone.”So, there you have it: the origin story of “the Rodent.” Two young men with a passion, trying to inflict change upon the accepted nomenclature for the Sharpe Refectory. Will it stick? Maybe, but we know for sure that it will never stick as much as your hands stick to the tables in the V-Dub.  Images via Chaz Vest '22, Dheraj Ganjikunta '22, and James Feinberg