Floor 17 of Straz Tower was filled with the silent chill of finals week Dec. 15 as the Honors students who live there frantically paged through textbooks and scanned over months of meticulous notes.

Suddenly, there came a scream from room 1720.

“The Bucks are two minutes away from beating the Spurs!” David Stern cried, voice cracking.

While the rest of his floor worried to the point of exhaustion over final exam grades, Stern, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences and a Milwaukee native, was too busy exaggerating the chances of his beloved basketball team.

“What’s the score?” one of his floor mates asked as Stern rushed into the floor lounge.

“We’re down by three.”

No, David Stern is not a member of Marquette’s Honors Program, despite the fact that he resides on an Honors floor. Stern lives there by mistake.

Straz Tower, mostly a sophomore dorm, houses Honors Program freshmen on floors 14 through 18. Stern, however, said he was placed on Straz floor 17 due to a mix-up with Dominic Stern, the student actually enrolled in Honors classes.

Dominic Stern, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences, lived in O’Donnell Hall last fall but moved into an empty single room on Straz floor 17 a few weeks into the new semester.

Dean of Residence Life Jim McMahon and Straz Tower director Renee Piquette both declined to comment on the situation. But a source within the Office of Residence Life, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the story.

Dominic Stern also declined to comment publicly on the situation.

But David Stern, for one, is glad the mix-up happened.

“I thought it was going to be a bunch of lame nerds doing homework all day,” he said. “Instead, it’s been the coolest guys to hang out with, to go out and have fun.”

The fact that David Stern is the only non-Honors student on his floor has not been an issue, said Sam Schultz, David Stern’s roommate.

“I love that David is my roommate,” said Schultz, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. “He actually has really good study habits, and he’s really clean, which is surprising when you get to know him.”

Stern said being on an Honors floor has helped him balance studying and recreation.

“I learned to get my studying done, and at the same time, have fun with guys on the floor,” he said. “If I lived in a different dorm, I probably would have had to go to the library more.”

He is known by his floor mates for his constant sense of humor, and also for some of the laughs they have at his expense.

“I bring some of the laughs that go on (throughout) the floor, and a different sort of less-knowledgeable personality,” Stern admitted.

But he knows that his friends are laughing with him, not at him.

“They’re fun, outgoing people who make great friends,” he said. “It’s awesome to be a part of.”

Stern also brings what he calls a “sports-crazed mind” to the floor. His favorite teams – the Bucks, Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Marquette Golden Eagles – always get his most avid and emotional support.

The Bucks ended up losing that game to the San Antonio Spurs, 92-90.

“I’ve never seen anyone take a Bucks loss so hard,” Schultz said.