 
We are blessed with a
physical environment that fosters a sense of community and connection
with something important that happened here and continues
to happen here every day.
|
Landscape
and Memory
For a few days in mid-October, the University hosted Princeton Professor
James McPherson, America’s premier Civil War historian. Recipient
of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for his brilliant history of the Civil
War, Battle Cry of Freedom, and named the 2000 Jefferson
Lecturer in the Humanities, the most prestigious award of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, McPherson was here as part of our
President’s Visiting Scholars Program. This program brings
extraordinary scholars to the campus to deliver a public address.
McPherson’s presentation on “The Global Impact of the
American Civil War” was to a large, appreciative audience
in Laxson Auditorium on October 14.
Earlier
that day, I had
the delightful opportunity to sit down with McPherson and to talk
with him about the Civil War, his work
and career, and history writing more generally. Our conversation
was videotaped, and it will be made available to the university
community soon, as will subsequent interviews with such visitors
of distinction as part of a new series that I have initiated.
Because of mutual interests on the subject, we found our conversation
focusing on the relationship between landscape and memory, that
is, the power of place in collective social consciousness and how
a sense of place is so important to strengthening connections among
people both in the present and over time. McPherson’s interest,
of course, is in the places of the Civil War, whether they be a
grand battlefield, such as Gettysburg or Antietam, or a singular
element of those bloody landscapes, like Little Round Top at the
former or Burnside’s Bridge at the latter.
We agreed that the principal reason why these places—and other
American “shrines” like the Alamo, Pearl Harbor, Lexington
and Concord, Yorktown, and the World Trade Center site in New York
City—attract millions of visitors each year is because something
important happened there and people want to experience and
share that sense of importance literally, that is, to touch the
walls, stroll the grounds, and imagine the events that occurred
there.
A week before McPherson’s visit, I was thinking about landscape
and memory in another context. For this was Parents and Alumni Weekend
and the campus was alive with new and returning visitors. Several
events, like the Golden Grad luncheon for the Class of 1954 and
the opening of the time capsules from 1934, 1944, and 1954, played
to memories. The dedication of a bench in honor of the founders
and distinguished alumni of Lambda Pi fraternity, marking the 60th
anniversary of the founding of the chapter, evoked a sense of both
memory and place. For the bench, installed near the rose garden,
now contributes to the physical landscape of the campus.
Whether the Golden Grads or the Lambda Pi brothers, or scores of
other alumni whom I met, they shared a common message—the
great pride they have in the University and in the campus. And why?
Because something important happened here. And as personal
and individual as their Chico experiences may have been, they share
together, across years and generations, this landscape, this university’s
promise, and confidence that important things continue to happen
here.
The physical features of our campus and related environs lend themselves
to fond recollection. This is a campus of exceptional beauty. Big
Chico Creek, Kendall Lawn, the graceful old trees everywhere, the
rose garden, the amphitheatre, Trinity Tower, Kendall dome, Laxson’s
arches, the shaded pathways and bridges, Bidwell Mansion, Children’s
Park, the cherry trees. The appearance of the campus is also a matter
of pride. Visitors rarely fail to note how beautiful and clean the
campus is. Our recruitment and admissions people know that, if we
can get prospective students to visit the campus, we will, more
often than not, get them to enroll here. Whether we’re recruiting
students or faculty or staff, we know that the campus itself is
a powerful factor in the positive image we project, and we should
never miss an opportunity to thank our grounds and maintenance people
for the work they do.
Just as McPherson’s places of study reflect values, that is,
the values and beliefs of the soldiers who fought in the Civil War,
our campus conveys important values beyond cleanliness and pride
of appearance. We have sought harmony between the natural and built
environments. We emphasize a seamless relationship between the campus
and the city of Chico, even as we mark our physical boundaries so
that people know when they have arrived on the campus. The red brick
of our buildings, formed from the earth around us, encourages an
awareness of our roots in the region we serve and the history we
share. The balance of new and old buildings, especially through
incorporating such thematic elements in them as arches and brick,
underscores both continuity and change. The borders of our campus
with downtown Chico and residential neighborhoods emphasize that
we are members of other communities, even as we are a distinctive
one ourselves.
The memories in our campus landscape are associational, emotional,
and intellectual. We are blessed with a physical environment that
fosters a sense of community and connection with something important
that happened here and continues to happen here every day. It is
called learning. For in a truly distinctive way at Chico State,
this is a message grounded as much in the landscape of the campus
as it is in the mission of the University.
—Paul J. Zingg
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Volume 35/Number 3
