Summer club

It was a beautiful day at the end of May when I emerged from my office for a walk across campus. I first passed by the gazebo on the library lawn; no one was there. I walked under the giant sycamores near Heritage Coffee; the shaded benches were empty, the coffeehouse doors shut tight. The pillars honoring the organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council stood alone in
KU Plaza.

I saw clouds; I heard birds; I smelled flowers. The buildings are where they have always been, of course, but without its people, campus lacks the energy that so often electrifies life here. UD Magazine photographer Sylvia Stahl ’18 captured this feeling of solitude and anticipation in her photo essay for View Finder on Page 15, “Have a Seat;” take a look and tell us which seat you’d choose.

My destination that day was the Science Center. As I entered, the empty hallway echoed with my steps. I zigged right then left, eager to find room 146.

I knew I was close when I heard the laughter.

The seminar hall had been converted this day into a cafe. Grouped around tables, students used paper plates as palettes for paints applied in blobs of orange, blue and white. They were laughing and talking and eating while painting glassware with decorative patterns. It might have been tranquil outside, but inside the Science Center it was bustling.

Senior premed major Allie Pavlus painted brightly colored flowers on her jar. This is her first summer conducting genetics research with professor Thomas Williams. She agreed that campus outside is a bit boring this time of year. But not inside.

“There are four different labs just in our hallway, so you see people coming in and out all the time. You don’t feel as isolated,” she said.

On this Friday, students from all of the biology labs were invited to come together to make a craft and take a break from their usual work — which could include peering at fruit flies through a microscope or measuring the growth of oak saplings. Later this summer, they’ll compete in a grilling competition and watch bad science fiction during movie night. These weekly activities are part of the summer lunch club, built from activities previously hosted by biology professor Carissa Crane, associate dean of faculty affairs. 

“Bringing people together, creating communities — that’s what we wanted to do.”

Associate professor Yvonne Sun is among those who now organize the lunch club. Some labs have only one or two students, she said, while others have many. At the lunch club, students like to hang out with new people, agreed Evelyn Joynt, a senior biology major who works in Sun’s lab.

“Without this, I wouldn’t meet most of these people — we’re in different classes, with different majors and in different labs,” she said.

Finding ways to come together — even in the summer, when most students are away — is a great way to be.

“Bringing people together, creating communities — that’s what we wanted to do,” Sun said.

As I left the Science Center and took a seat on an otherwise empty bench, I saw a few people walking across the Central Mall. They were surely heading to similar work in other buildings hosted by other departments, holding tight to community until the energy of autumn returns.

Photos by Michelle Tedford '94