Landscaping's Intrinsic Character

The natural aspect of a university campus, the landscaping and setting, has a large bearing on the students of the university and on the institution itself. In our course anthology, Wood states that the natural elements of a college campus are “commodities enough to invite students to stay and abide there” (316). Over the last two years, as I toured college campuses across the country, I recognized how vital a connection to nature was in my life. When I visited New York University and Boston University, I found myself wondering, ‘Where is the campus?’ Although New York University claims Washington Square Park as its own, the buildings are interspersed throughout Greenwich Village between buildings not belonging to the university. While this city feeling appeals to some, I was most certainly not among them. I need rolling green fields in my life, so the natural aspects of college campuses such as the universities of Texas and South Carolina appealed to me.

   

While the University of Texas at Austin is certainly not situated in a college town like Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, the abundance and variety of landscaping across campus subtracts from the feel of the city. The moment a student moves from the sloping green of the South Mall up 21st onto the Drag this change can be noticed. It seems on Guadeloupe Street or MLK one starts to notice more the presence of a large metropolitan city around them. This may in part be because the shade of the campus trees shields our eyes from the tall downtown buildings, or perhaps we become so entranced with our natural surroundings on campus that devote our energy and our focus to the workings of the institution. I agree wholeheartedly with Liz’s point that interacting in nature clears a person’s mind and leaves them feeling better than before. When I can force myself to get out of bed and trudge across campus to Gregory in the morning to swim, the cool Austin air and the crisp water leave my mind alert and focused on the day’s events.

Furthermore, I believe that the landscaping of a college campus can uphold a certain morality of the students. During my one-month stint at NYU last summer, I could feel a certain lawlessness of the city around me. According to Newman, the disorder that arose at Oxford led to a decrease of morality and sanctity of the institution. I would have to disagree. The University of Texas has recently been awarded:

Greatest Party School in America

2nd in hard liquor consumption

3rd in beer consumption

13th in marijuana consumption

AND has students like US!!

But with all this good old sin going on (predominately over in West Campus, probably), the three lawns remain places where students can be found working diligently throughout the day. Unlike Newman’s vision of Oxford, the fair grounds of UT have not become the “scenes of party brawls” (315). Rather, the natural aspect of our campus promotes beauty and spirituality as tools for intellectual and personal development. I find Hopkin’s “inescape” every day as I circumnavigate the turtle pond on my way to Parlin Hall or cut across the South Lawn to get to Jester or Gregory. The Tower tells us to ‘know thyself,’ and I have discovered that the “intrinsic character” (634) of the landscaping around the Main Building help me do exactly that. It is a shame that the exposed portion of Waller Creek has decreased significantly as the size of the university has grown larger, because students can find much solace in the shade of the oak and juniper trees that line its bed. For Waller Creek, with its "riches counted in the moss's green" and found "in the fallen finery of cypress" (Oliphant 761) is a piece of nature that is not a product of intentional landscaping; it is the truest part of the University of Texas's campus.