If you don’t live on West Green, you probably won’t be spending very much time there. Sure there are the students studying engineering who might come around, but they don’t know the green half as well as those who live there do.
Last weekend, my sister came to campus to visit me and spend a fun weekend at OU. But she got here on game day, so parking was packed and we had to park her car far away, back behind West Green. So, long story short, we had to walk through just about all of West to get to my dorm. Being her first time on campus, I was so glad this was the part of campus I got to acquaint her with. Of course, I’m not trying to rip on any other greens. I only mean that the heart of West Green, with its gauntlet-like entrance, and the grand, white columns that erect at the sides, the symmetry of its crisscrossing sidewalks and courtyards, and way it all culminates to Stocker Center, in all of its own grandeur, screams college to me.
West somehow finds a way to blend all of our campus’ beautiful qualities. It maintains the simply classic and characteristic Athens brick—an embodiment of all of OU in itself. Its layout, which somehow feels like academia, has something prestige about it; a reminder that, besides what other reputations our school has, our campus is scholarly, full of enlightening courses and bright conversation. And then there’s the weekend debauchery, evidenced by all of the blubbering camaraderie of the laughing goofballs in the courtyard. That doesn’t have to be built in the framework; it comes with the campus.
And then there’s the location. If you’re a medical student or in the engineering field, West is really the place to be: Grover, Porter, Stocker, Walter—got ‘em. Baker Center is right across the street. The Convo is next door, and Peden Stadium is a five minute walk down Richland. The bike path is hardly further than the Convo. Then there’s Maya Lin’s earthwork, “Input,” across the street, for those of you interested in art.
If you’re not a West-Greener, don’t take it personally, but West Green just rocks. Go stand on the Richland bridge—there’s a spot, close to the middle, when it’s sunny and mid day—and look around and tell me it doesn’t.
Kyle Burback is a sophomore studying English. What’s your favorite Green on campus? Email him at kb931012@ohio.edu.
