Every student steps onto their college campus with an expectation of moments lounging on grassy fields with their diverse group of friends.
At Northwestern, this expectation often proves sadly futile: it’s not commonplace to see this romanticized vision of the college dream. Is this a result of campus culture or the constraints of campus design?
Notably, NU lacks the presence of a main lawn. Even in warmer temperatures, the campus’s grassy areas remain clean and unfrequented. A potential location that NU could call a “main lawn” is Deering Meadow, a grassy patch situated beside Sheridan Road: a stretch unfriendly to talking students due to its noisy cars and unpleasant fumes. The clearing, though expansive and relatively clean, is usually home to one group of students at a time for very specific purposes, such as recreational volleyball or frisbee games.
You may blame NU’s campus design on the unmistakable chill of Evanston — a factor that landscape architects took to believe students would not look to congregate outdoors.
But take a look at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s campus, located only three hours south of NU with similar temperatures. You’ll see its huge X-shaped quadrangle area titled the “Main Quad.” UIUC even holds an annual event called “Quad Day,” an involvement fair held on the quad for students to promote and explore student organizations.
If you think NU’s org fairs are a hot mess, you haven’t seen the overstimulating hubbub of hundreds of students roaming the Main Quad. Not only do you see colorful tri-fold posters and crumpled sign-up sheets, but Quad Day includes performances by UIUC’s marching band and dance teams, as well as members of the American Nuclear Society dressed up as neon yellow bananas.
I remember my initial shock at the barrenness of NU’s campus culture, a stark difference from the vibrant, welcoming environment that I had envisioned. In fact, the one week that Evanston was warm enough for a beach day was the only instance I felt immersed in the true college campus community.
Of course, students are encouraged to connect with the campus community at sporting events and through student organizations. But for those who don’t explicitly search for such interactions, it can be easy to feel disconnected — a strange phenomenon for a stage of life in which we are surrounded by people almost all the time.
Some may say NU’s lack of a vibrant social life has nothing to do with its absence of a common outdoor area —- instead, students are so busy and studious that we have no time or desire to lay around on grassy fields. A quick look at prestigious schools with similarly ambitious students says otherwise.
The green grass of the University of California, Berkeley’s Memorial Glade is barely visible under the mass of students with picnic blankets and stained jeans. Harvard Yard at Harvard University is dotted with colorful chairs and tables each spring to accommodate the steady flow of students gathering in the area.
It would make more sense the other way around: NU’s 231-acre campus suggests students aren’t scattered across a 1,232-acre campus like UC Berkeley or a 5,667-acre campus like Harvard and have ample opportunity to congregate outside of class.
The lack of an outdoor quad seems to bring students to congregate in the two main libraries on campus, creating collaborative, and sometimes “rowdy” environments. So it encourages the formation of friendships and group learning through academia, or it fills the libraries with unnecessary clamor that often becomes disruptive to other students hard at work.
Whether we change campus culture or decide to make the new Cohen Lawn our point of convergence, we must bring our student body together by sharing common ground.
Alice Oh is a Medill and Bienen sophomore. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.