10 Sept 2004. Some universities, noting the impending boom in eligible applicants, have realized that the scales of higher education are starting to tip in favor of the students. Community colleges and online classes are exploding. Students are taking general education classes while still at home, avoiding the costs of room and board. To lure the kids back to their dorms, they are starting to offer perks that seemed unimaginable even a generation ago. Catered meals, free transportation, and extravagant student gyms complete with waterslides are some of the carrots on the end of the academic stick. But then these institutions are saddled with the responsibility to still emphasize that their school is first and foremost a place of learning, not leisure. Some schools, however, cannot be bothered to put on such high airs. You can make your own conclusion about Texas State University in San Marcos (formerly Southwest Texas State), which has a 'lazy river' running behind the Bobcats' Strahan Coliseum and through campus.
As an aside, I picked up this fat little tumbler at the souvenir table during a volleyball match.
The last day of July 2004. Down by the river in Huntington where West Virginia meets Kentucky and Ohio for a threeway in God's country. A quiet blanket lay over the town for these were the pre-McConaughey days. The pint glass was very informative, just short of a graduate thesis. The only thing missing from the design was a cartoon drawing of their bison mascot (their team name is not just the Herd, but the Thundering Herd).
We are! Marshall!
31 July 2004. Another rainy day. It was a weekend morning in Lexington and the campus bookstore was closed! Could I possibly secure a cup from an off-campus vendor and still include it in the CCP? Oh what a conundrum! I decided: Yes. Well, we found one that was open - if I remembered the name I would gladly plug them here - and I picked up my first imprinted pint glass. The good thing about pint glasses is that they are the same size: pint sized.
Making it as far as the official bookstore only to find it closed had happened before. Literally, the day before in Nashville at Vanderbilt. But I was not resourceful enough 24 hours earlier to find an unofficial store. This occurred many times afterward: UMass Boston, Northeastern, Texas El Paso, VMI, and Missouri State. At that last location in Springfield, I had found a campus convenience store where MSU Bears mugs were on display. I could reach through the slot in the metal barrier and HOLD ONE but could not pull it through. (Don't worry I would have left money if I had been able to take it home.)
30 July 2004. Unfortunately, each trip to a previous campus - save for Delaware - had bad weather, either soaking or steaming. But now, puttering through the pleasant little town of Bowling Green, the sun shone clear. This was the first convenient stop on a swing through the Ohio Valley (oddly enough, none of the schools were from the Ohio Valley athletic conference). The first of three was WKU. It was immaculately clean due to the finishing touches of the grounds crews before droves of Hilltoppers returned to the dorms. Even the "Diddle" on E.A. Diddle arena was spotless. I picked up two cheap polygonal tumblers that I was disappointed were not the same size as the others. If I were to visit again, I would not leave without a souvenir of their bulbous mascot, Big Red, posing provocatively below.
