Monday, September 19, 2005

Which is more public? KU or Kutztown?

This is a bit late, but my home computer at home has a virus that won't let us turn it on, and I decided to leave my laptop at school over the weekend...

There is an abrupt change when you're driving up Main Street and enter the campus of Kutztown University. At least, from what I noticed. You enter campus, and at once it seems more open. Must be the lack of houses and establishments just feet from the road, suffocating you, and the trees. To me, KU seems like more of a happier place, which is what we are wanted to think. We are supposed to feel comfortable here where we will learn and/or live. So far, the university has done a good job with that. They want you to be comfortable while stressing the fact that you're here to get higher learning and go on and do something with your life. I see it on the signs in my hall, promoting quiet hours, when you should be settling down and/or studying for your classes, those "be a dear" signs that tell you that this is a dry campus, not a party campus (though, KU is known as one of the big party campuses in eastern PA, according to most of the party kids in my town). You have public places such as the South Dining hall, gym, SUB, and most of the grounds. It's a comfortable atmosphere in the middle of rural PA, as the website states many times.

Looking back at the readings we have done, I would have to say that KU seems more public than the town itself, in some respects. When I step off campus, I automatically see no standing signs and no loitering signs all over the place, while, in front of Deatrick Hall, kids hang around all night. That goes along with what Davis said about partitioning off of space that is supposed to be public, and making it private. As far as I know, there is not a curfew on campus, just quiet hours, while in town there is a curfew in effect, which I would be held under, still being 17 (for 2 more days!!).

1 comment:

K. Mahoney said...

Ahhh...gotta love viruses.

Let me pick out a few words you use to describe how KU is constructed to feel: happier, comfortable, higher learning. Can you describe what gives you these impressions? I like the way you mark the transition from "suffocating" to "open." I start to think: why are college campuses so spacious? Why all the open space? And by contrast, why not have these kind of spaces in our communities? I mean, I don't see the direct connection between open space and higher education...yet, it seems to be part of the spatial architecture of college campuses.

I also wonder about the difference in signs and signs (figure out the wordplay) ;-).