The Summer Campus

Most people believe that a school such as ours doesn’t have much going on during the summer. Maybe a few people are in their offices, checking finances or making repairs. But there are no summer classes, so most students are at home enjoying a season of non-academia, certain that because they are not at school, it must have ceased to exist.

Au contraire, mes amis. This place is jumping.

There are dozens of students living in the dorms for on-campus research and internships. Plus, the college hosts a number of business conferences and retreats. Real-world adults routinely mill about the walkways on their way to the next meeting. Then there are the kids.

A nation-wide learning program has set up camp right here on campus. “Talented” and “accelerated” students of all ages enroll in summer sessions, and we’ve got what can only be described as middle schoolers. Some are super-cool, some are immature, and ALL are noisy during free time on the library terrace. Noisy includes soccer, foursquare, singing, and general debauchery.

Perhaps their teachers beat into silence and stillness during class, and this is why they feel the need to express themselves at all outdoors times. But perhaps it is better that they learn early how to shake the earth, rather than shake the buildings. They’re kids. They’re loving it.

So, what have we here? A campus devoid of “real” college life as we know it, but overflowing with people of all ages, escaping the slumdragging confines of day-to-day reality. Escaping to the place that shelters us for an entire school year, but releases us into the world every summer. This is a living place.