Campanile

Ozzie and I walked over to the Cal campus this morning. Fall classes having started last week, it was heaving with students all headed for their 8 o'clock classes.

My objectives on campus were the Campanile and the newly renovated football stadium. The Campanile is one of the iconic landmarks of the campus. When I was a student, you could ride the elevator to the top for a dime, catching glimpses as you ascended of bones stored in this unlikely spot by the paleontology department. A carillon of real bells housed at the top is still played twice a day by a real person. An almost lost art I imagine.

Tucked into a redwood filled corner of the campus is a log cabin. A BIG log cabin. In all the years I have lived and studied in Berkeley, I never knew this building was here and have no idea what it is used for.

The stadium was built directly on the Hayward earthquake fault and was definitely showing its age. It has now been strengthened and a High Performance Athletic Training Center added at the base of the west side. It officially reopened last weekend for the first football game of the season. I am dubious about the claims that this, or any structure built directly on a major fault could withstand a significant earthquake. In fact, I wonder why football is even part of an academic institution. But this is heresy and probably makes me a very bad alumna.

I would much prefer to identify with the Campanile as an icon of a great university.