A Sunday Afternoon on Campus

The Labor Day holiday is being observed on Monday for the Reynolda Campus staff, but faculty and students will still be hard at work.  I thought I’d tell you a little bit about what Sunday afternoon looked like on campus.

I went over to campus mid-afternoon because it was a nice and sunny (if warm!) day.  I walked a great deal across campus with my son.  The Quad had been rolled, ostensibly for Wake’s win over Liberty in our home football game.  The purists of Quad-rolling might argue that it was not a major game and one should not roll for a small opponent (or one who very nearly beat us).  Still, a win is a win and better the Quad be rolled over a small victory than get an L for that game.

A good many students were outside during the time we were there.  Some were studying on blankets in the grass (even one catching some sun in a bikini top and shorts), others were under umbrella tables near the library.  Some students were hanging out on the patios of fraternity lounges, we were fortunate enough to find two students walking a gorgeous chocolate lab puppy.  The two young men let my young son and I play with the pup.  They patiently and kindly chatted with my son and told us about the puppy, whose name was Denali.  She was 13 weeks old and full of energy, with a very sweet disposition.  These two young men could not have been nicer – so polite and pleasant.

After we went our separate ways, I could hear the squeals of girls as the young men and Denali walked across the Quad.  One of the tough things about college is to be separated from your pets.  Any time someone has a dog on campus, the dog-starved reveal themselves.

We went to the outdoor track by the Miller Center and there were a handful of college students exercising outdoors – a few on the track, and one intrepid fellow running the stairs of the stadium.  He was at it for a long time and was dripping with sweat by the time he was finished.  On the lowest level of the Miller Center it has a large glass window wall so you can see to the track, and as we passed I could see a lot of coeds on the cardio equipment – treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes – just working away.  With the exception of the two guys running the track together and talking as they went, everyone else had headphones on, and most had their phone/music player strapped to their arm.  Parents, the Walkman is long dead : )

As we meandered back toward the residence halls on the south side of campus, you’d see students dotting the lawn and the benches here and there, often on their cell phones, perhaps in search of a semi-private place to have a conversation, or maybe just because they were enjoying the nice weather.

Near the library, we saw a group of students with skateboards, which is something I haven’t seen a ton of in recent years.  They were attempting to go down the stairs and having great success.  Driving off campus, we saw a second set of skateboarders coming down the slope near the turnaround in front of Scales Fine Arts Center.

One unhappy change (in this writer’s opinion at least) is that there are no longer wooden swings in the big trees on Davis Field near Scales Fine Arts Center.  There had been as many as three at one point, and they had been a nice place to sit down, swing like a kid and have a silly moment, or simply enjoy a contemplative place to be in your own head and be present.  I am not sure why they’re gone.  I hope they come back.  They added a bit of magic.