Louisiana State University
November 14, 2019
The drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge is mostly straight and long. Highway 10 traverses the Maurepas Swamp and other vast tracts. My dial is tuned to sports radio. On Saturday the Louisiana State University football team completed a historic upset of rival Alabama and ascended to No.1 in the national coaches poll. Their path is clear to the national championship. I expect a euphoric atmosphere on campus.
LSU is more than a university, it is the soul of the state of Louisiana. LSU is the engine that drives this state's economy. Everywhere you go in this state, you will see purple and gold. When the LSU Tigers play, even the bayou breeze pauses to catch the game. This is SEC country. This is a new experience for me.
Driving from New Orleans, one doesn't so much arrive at Baton Rouge as arrive at LSU. The campus is vast and impressive. LSU's 2,000-acre campus boasts Spanish architecture, Olmstead Brothers landscape design, and a position overlooking the mighty Mississip. But live oaks are the real stars here. I understand that there are more than 1,200 live oaks on campus. Many are hundreds of years old.
Parking is difficult but I make my way to the Geaux Tigers Center, where begins the admission tour. Students and an admission staff member greet me in purple polo shirts and invite me to catch the remainder of the information session. From what I hear, this is an inclusive place. LSU is selective, but accessible, and offers something for everyone. LSU intends to serve a broad audience among its 32,000 students. Academics are a focus of the presentation, but the admission officer signals that there is room for a range of students here.
The architecture of the campus ranges from classic to contemporary, occasionally in limbo between the two. It is unified, coherent, and on the whole quite beautiful. Concrete with pebbled surfaces abound. Soft sandstone and red tile roofs dominate the color palate. Buildings from the 1950's and 1960's predominate, but the core campus is an authentic Mediterranean style. The LSU Quad, the heart of campus, was constructed in 1926 and boasts high ceilings, wide porticoes, and open, arched breezeways. This is special.
Wide boulevards and plazas crisscross campus and encircle the Parade Grounds. Students move individually or in small groups, again purple and gold reign. Our tour guide today is Sarah, a sophomore student from Houma, Louisiana. Her smile and accent are charming, her feet hardly touch the ground. The euphoria from Saturday's win is still palpable on this overcast and cool Wednesday afternoon.
Two themes from the tour stick in my mind. 1) this is a social place, what Sarah doesn't describe from first-hand experience she relates through a story from a friend, and 2) academics are only one facet of the life students lead on campus.
LSU's campus is vast. Large buildings predominate. In the academic centers we visit, large classrooms and lecture halls are the norm. One gets the sense that academics here are important, but that students can find their own level of work and output. There is a real pride of place that is evident on this flagship campus. This pride is not limited to athletic prowess; academics are important here.
Indeed, LSU is a land-grant, sea grant, and space grant institution, conferring extraordinary research scope and research funding on the institution. This trio of grants is rare. Walking around campus, there is evidence of an incredible diversity of academic life. Archaeologists, aggies, aspiring veterinarians, and athletes all call this place home. I see signs everywhere describing activities, student research posters, and upcoming lectures and talks. Here is a lecture from visiting professor, archaeologist Katie L. Chiou.
A major highlight of the tour (LSU dairy was closed today!) is the $110 million Patrick F. Taylor Hall, renovated and expanded in 2017. Taylor Hall is epic. It is here that one gets a sense of the value that LSU provides for the state of Louisiana and the Gulf region. Newly appointed halls are named after the major US and international petrochemical companies, signaling the importance of oil and gas to the state's economy. Laboratories are large and well-equipped. Open seating areas are full of students talking quietly or with noses pressed in books.
Residence life at LSU is organized around the principle that first year students should form a cohort with students who share academic interests. This residential college model brings together students under headings such as agriculture, business, engineering, humanities and social sciences, communications, an honors college, and more. Faculty and staff live in the residential colleges alongside students.
In our visit to the Business Residential College students tell us that they take some freshman business classes in their dorm! Students roll out of bed, walk downstairs, and go to class in their PJ's. For a student with a strong inclination to a major coming out of high school, the residential colleges seem like a wise choice in such a large university. LSU also offers traditional residence halls for freshman. Sophomores and above live in apartments either on or near campus.
Another highlight of the tour was the chance to see the LSU Mounds, two extraordinary Native American earthwork structures located in the center of campus. These twin mounds are estimated to be 9,200 years old - placing them among the oldest man-made structures in North American and on earth. The mounds are just two of hundreds located in the American south, potentially built for ritual purposes, and potentially to enhance the view over the Mississippi River below. This is sacred ground, reminding us of the unbroken history of human settlement on this land for at least ten thousand years.
The juxtaposition of the mounds and Tiger Stadium is striking: they are right next to each other. An ancient social gathering place is juxtaposed to a modern. The contests of American football bring people together on Saturday on college campuses across the nation. Tail-gate parties set the stage, young men test their strength and prowess on the field, a marching band's drum corps marks time and elevates the crowd's jubilation. Everyone is there, everyone in the state is watching. Today LSU football is the greatest team in the land.
Nihil novus sub sole est?
... Is nothing new under the sun?
I am deeply humbled by what I have encountered here in Baton Rouge, here on the banks of the Mississippi River. I'll confess that I was among those who sneered at the lazy river when it was constructed in 2011. Today I see it differently. LSU is relevant and vital in a way that any college or university hopes to be. LSU reflects the culture of its home state in a way that is vibrant and beautiful. LSU meets the needs of the students of Louisiana in a way that is inclusive and impressive. LSU graduates are in demand here and across the Gulf region.
LSU is a relevant place. This is a university brimming with confidence. This is a university with a powerful identity, moving forward with a powerful mission. The entire state rallies to the purple and gold. Who am I to criticize a lazy river?
Louisiana State University, you showed me something today.
Geaux Tigers.