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July 31, 2005
Road Trip 2005: An academic tour
Enter here the timeless fellowship of the human spirit.
This inscription is on the door above the west entrance to Norlin Library on the University of Colorado campus. It captures something of what living an academic life means to me. I didn't set out to make this a campuses tour, but I was drawn to them anyway. However different they may be, each campus I visited seems a part of a larger whole, a continuum that spans generations and continents. Behind the cut are some highlights and observations of my stops along the way.
Ohio Northern University
Established in 1871 by Henry Solomon Lehr, ONU is a small but pristine campus situated in the center of a small but pristine town in rural Ohio. I doubt if it gets much "redder" than this area. There's something almost mythical about rural Ohio, in the sense of the American myth of midwest Christian living, and Ada seems to be the snapshot of that. You can get some sense of the symmetry and architectural unity of the campus from the virtual tour, but not as much as I felt seeing it all as a panorama.
Miami University
Without question the most beautiful campus I visited along the trip. If I had made campus visits prior to enrolling in graduate school, I might be living in Oxford now. The Great Miami River flows through southwestern Ohio, and the valley is quite lovely, very rural, and yet not all that far from Cincinnatti. Oxford feels like it's a long way from anything resembling a city, but I was told that several faculty commute from Cincinnatti, so it can provide the best of both worlds. Like many older schools, Miami features a number of historic buildings. They offer visitors a delightful self-guided walking tour that gives a bit of the history of each building along the route. You can follow it in virtual form here. Choose the Walking Tour to follow the tour I took, or choose the Panoramic Tour a better appreciation of just how scenic the campus is. THe most interesting historic building, I thought, was the McGuffey Museum, the restored home of William Holmes McGuffey of McGuffey Eclectic Readers fame. There's a statue of McGuffey near the hall named for him.
University of Missouri
Another beautiful campus, though in a much different way, Mizzou is an urban campus set in the heart of Columbia, Missouri. Several of the campus buildings have the feel of being part of the downtown area, but one enters the central core of the campus through archways that give it a set-off feel. Flowers were everywhere in bloom while I was there, and with the humidity levels, the brilliant colors gave the campus a tropical feel, even in the face of the stone buildings.
Founded in 1839 by the Geyer Act (imagine that!), Mizzou has the distinction of being the first public university established in the Louisiana Purchase territory. To commemorate that, they have the original headstone from Thomas Jefferson's grave, and a statue of Jefferson engaged in writing on a lap desk in the garden. Mizzou is also home to the first school of journalism in the country. The original campus building, Academic Hall, was destroyed by fire in 1892, but its columns remained. They stand in their original location, but the new building was placed 400 feet away, giving a most interesting visual effect. You can view the columns and other historic sites at Mizzou in their online tour.
University of Kansas
My greatest surprise in visiting this campus was to discover an Oregon Trail historical marker. KU sits on Mount Oread, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. Pioneers on the trail went up over the mount rather than along the rivers, apparently. Lawrence was at the center of the slavery conflict during the "Bloody Kansas" years. Although the university was approved in 1856, it wasn't actually built until after the Civil War. Lawrence was founded by anti-slavery settlers from Massachussetts. During the slavery debate, the anti-slavery Jayhawkers were continuously in conflict with the neighboring Bushwackers from slave-holding Missouri. On August 21, 1863, led by William Clarke Quantrill, pro-slavery guerillas eluded Union troops and launched a raid on Lawrence. With orders to "burn every house and kill every man" the raiders, which allegedly include Jesse James, killed 200 men and caused $1.5 million in property damage. Such was the birth of the University of Kansas.
Jayhawk Boulevard runs through the campus on a route parallel to the Oregon Trail and is home fto sixteen historic buildings that reflect various architectural periods in the university's history. When you visit the campus, you can pick a nice brochure for a self-guided walking tour. There are some fabulous views of the two river valleys from the top of the hill, particularly from the upper floors of some of the older buildings. You can also follow an information packed brochure for a self-guided tour of Quantrill's Raid, though a car is probably needed for that. Other features of the campus include the new Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, which includes several exhibits and the Dole Archives, 4,000 boxes and 1,000 square feet of archives representing the largest single collection of Congressional papers.
University of Colorado
I have visions of teaching at UC, visions that invovle hiking in the nearby Flatirons or any of the several perimeter parks of Boulder, exploring the top of the Rockies, or just watching the many people at the Pearl Street Mall. Boulder is a very cool place, and the campus is an integral part of the city. Boulder Creek runs through the campus, and the Boulder Creek trail is a lovely 16-mile stretch to walk or cycle and avoid the intersections and traffic lights of the city. Off the southwest corner of the campus is Chautauqua park, nestled into a system of trails leading into the Flatirons. I hiked the Enchanted Mesa/Mesa Trail loop where I saw, along with stunning scenery, a young white-tail buck. A nice treat in the early morning. The park features cottages for rent and an historic dining hall that is very popular on a Saturday morning. Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian mall filled with shops, restaurants, historical markers, street performers, colorful locals and lots of fun, sits to the northwest of the campus, in easy walking distance. The local farmer's market, open Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings and featuring great local certified organic food, is also in walking distance. In fact, everything in Boulder seems very compact and easily accessible. More on Boulder in another post.
Like so many other schools, CU-Boulder (as they call it) was founded in the late 1800s. The first building constructed on the campus, Old Main, still stands. The original funding for the school came when the local settlers were faced with a deadline and had to come up with funds or lose the university to another town. They found the money. The campus now has over 200 rural Italian-style buildings set against the mountains, featuring reddish stone that blends in nicely with the hills. I could describe it more in words, but it's better to see it in pictures.
Berkeley
I last visited this campus when I was roughly 14 years old and was completely convinced this was where I was going to college. My father thought otherwise. Seems that the echoes of the Free Speech Movement and other student turbulence associated with that campus in the '60s still rang loudly in the mid-70s. I tried to explain to my dad that Berkely was by than a quiet, even apathetic, campus. He said that was because fathers like him didn't let daughter like me go there.
Berkeley is, well, Berkeley. The campus is part of that. I think the most interesting thing I found on this visit was the Free Speech cafe, an on-campus coffee shop dedicated to the Free Speech Movement and its leaders in 1964. The walls feature murals of the sit-ins, and administration response, along with pages from the local papers describing the events in that time. The tables have copies of the student newspaper entries from those days under glass. It's easy to overly romanticize what happened at Berkeley in that Movement. It's much more interesting and real to read it in the news reporting of the day. Mario Savio hadn't planned the event in the way it happened, hadn't organized the scope or size of it. He and the other student leaders were protesting a specific restrictive act of the administration, and a groundswell emerged around them. It's pretty interesting. There's a book about it, called The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s that I think will make particularly interested reading after having read Mark Kurlansky's book 1968.
University of Oregon
Another place I imagine teaching someday because of it's location, the University of Oregon really does have more to it than a great history in track (remember Steve Prefontaine, anyone?) or its proximity to Nike (Bill Boardman and the original "waffle trainers" came from here). The campus is, as they all are, very pretty. It sits along the Willamette River, with parks nearby. Eugene is only about an hour from the Oregon coast, 90 minutes or so from Portland, near the MacKenzie River, and has easy access to all kinds of recreational opportunities in central and southern Oregon. Eugene continues to promote its image as a hub for running, with plenty of trails benefitting walkers as well as runners. Lane County is also home to several historic covered bridges. I'll have to tour those on another trip.
University of Michigan
I couldn't pass through Michigan and not stop at Ann Arbor. I've heard about Ann Arbor for years, how beautiful it is, how much there is to do, etc. My romantic sense of the friendships to be formed at college come from the alumi of "Big Blue" in The Big Chill. My early football fanhood prominently featured Michigan, usually in competition with Ohio State. So I finally stopped by for a visit. I think of all the campuses, The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has the most wedded relationship to its town. The campus and the downtown area butt against each other so that only on a map can you tell where one begins and the other ends. There campus doesn't feel at all secluded, even when crossing "the Diag," which might just be a city park. The visitor's brochure is for both the town and the campus, giving the sense that the town-gown relationship works well here. Plenty of shopping, lots of bookstores, coffee shops on all sides of the campus, markets, and whatever else one could want. As this was the end of my travels and I was pooped, I didn't take as much advantage of the campus as I could have, but I did find a number of interesting historical displays, including one marking student activism on the campus in the early 1970s, and a few marking the NASA astronauts that came from UM.
This, travel fans, marks the end of the academic tour. At least, for this trip. But my tour continues, my quest to find and take my place in the great conversation, the timeless fellowship. I leave you today with this inscription, from the valance of the Norline Library:
Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.
Posted by cageyer at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2005
Calling all composition teachers...
Another gem at 43 Folders.
Follow the link - it's interesting.
Posted by cageyer at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
Irresistable tip
Found this over at 43 Folders in a list of tips:
Keep Meetings Short and On Topic: Write up an agenda. Make everyone in the meeting drink 16 oz of water as the meeting begins. Conduct the meeting with everyone standing up. Everyone will stay on topic, and when about 30-45 minutes is up, everyone will have to pee.
Loved it.
When I was younger, my family camped for our vacations. We had a rule that no one could go to the bathroom until the tent was up. Result? Tent set-up became v-e-r-y efficient.
One of the best television representations of efficient meeting ever broadcast was in LA Law. The partners sat down (barely), quickly statused every case, got short, succinct input from others, and left. Efficient, and seldom duplicated in real life where meetings become the way to attempt to impress superiors, or to wander through many incarnations of "what if" or other productivity inhibiting activities.
I used to have a letter size poster that said "Bored? Lonely? Don't want to work? Call a meeting!" I rather like the idea of the above as a companion poster.
Posted by cageyer at 10:12 AM | Comments (2)
July 25, 2005
Road Trip 2005: The summary stuff
Inspired, in part, by Leah's post on trip stats, I thought it would be kind of fun to summarize my trip in (sort-of) statistics.
Total miles driven: 7,719
Number of days: 22, including the start day and the end day.
Number of states crossed or visited: 20, plus one Canadian province
Longest I stayed in any one place: 4 nights in Philomath, Oregon
Longest single day drive: It's close, but it's either Columbia, Missouri to Denver, Colorado; OR Boulder, to El Cerrito, California; or possibly Cut Bank, Montana to Minot, North Dakota. It could be Duluth to Detroit.
Shortest single day drive: Bandon, Oregon to Florence, Oregon, even if you count the side trip to Eugene.
Number of Great Lakes viewed: 5, plus the Great Salt Lake.
Total gallons of gasoline: 304
Best price found for gasoline: $1.999
Highest price paid for gasoline: $2.659
Average for trip: $2.26
Total number of cities slept in that have university campuses: 9
Number of campuses visited without staying: 3
Most interesting drive: Going-to-the-sun Road in Glacier National Park
Most routine (I hate to say boring) drive: Lawrence, KS to Denver, CO.
Most disappointing portion of the drive: The Shoreline Highway (Route 1) in California. "Pacific Mist" shrouded the ocean most of the way.
Best day to see trains: Sunday. Going west, I saw many trains along the route through the mountains, but the last Sunday (July 10, I passed 12, not counting the Amrak, on the line the parallels Highway 2, and most of those 12 had 100 cars or more. Even the shortest one was 63 cars. That's a lot of freight in a day!)
Number of used book stores visited: 7
Number of used books purchased: 25
Best book find: Writer's Guide and Index to English, 5th Ed. by Porter G. Perrin, edited by Wilma Ebbitt. Found at Turn Around Books in McMinnville, Oregon.
Most scenic part of the trip: Glacier National Park. No contest.
Most poignant part of the trip: Nez Perce National Historical Park/Bear Paw Battlefield (about which I will have considerably more to say in another post.)
Award for best freeway median decoration: California, for the miles of multi colored flowering shrubs along I-80 as you descend the mountain.
Penalty for drivers most frequently failing to yield the passing lane when not passing: Washington.
Best latte I have ever had: The Daily Record in Pt. Arena, California. Their food rocks, too.
Most interesting beer found along the way: Moose Drool. (no, I'm not kidding).
Places I definitely want to go back to: Boulder, Colorado; The top of the Rockies above Denver, including Aspen, Vail, Leadville, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park; Glacier National Park (and the surrounding area in northwestern Montana); Ann Arbor, Michigan; Macinaw City and Macinac Island, Michigan; the Oregon Coast (always).
Things I didn't do that I wish I had: not many, except the bookstore in San Francisco, and Powell's in Portland. And more walking on the beach in Oregon.
Things I did I wish I hadn't: the Drive Thru tree at Leggett, California. This is not "the" drive through tree from the Redwood Firest - but a tourist trap of the first order; planned to drive from Cut Bank, Montana to Minot, North Dakota all in one day with so much to see in between; driven the UP (that's Upper Peninsula) in Michigan without time to stop along the way.
And finally, and most important, the people to whom I offer extended thanks, gratitude, and appreciation for putting me up, feeding me, and giving me points of anticipation along the way: Paul Bender; Marcia Hansen; my brother, Tim, and his family; Elmer and Dottie Taylor; Elana Bryan (who gave me a pointed look about calling Syracuse "home" in an earlier post, reminding me again how valuable best friendships are) and hubby Mark; my dad and his wife, Don and Tana Steward, who for the first time in years have a guest room in their home; Ann Tandy-Treiber; Keith and Linde Tandy; my dear friend Rich; and of course, my mom and her husband, Gail and Eddie, who helped with expenses and gave me the reason (justification?) for making the trip. Thanks to all of you.
Stay tuned for more posts on interesting places and themes of the trip, along with pictures (assuming, of course, that any of them came out!).
Posted by cageyer at 06:26 PM | Comments (4)