一间能看到(楼下)风景的房间

Its uniqueness rests in its canted bay window and the broad perspective it offers of Middle College, 世界事务中心, 成堆的, 伯洛伊特学院的标志, 及书院街. 透过那扇窗户, the seasons of life can be traced on campus: families looking for the Admissions Office; students finding that mound which offers special inspiration; parents showing up at dawn to get a good seat for Commencement; alumni embracing classmates at Reunion; visitors trying to find Flood Arena or the residence halls (or delivery vehicles seeking 700 College St.，这只是一个邮寄地址)。. The view changes daily, and while the styles vary, the pattern is predictable.

16年来, I have been fortunate to occupy this piece of real estate—Apartment A, 一楼, 在布莱斯戴尔招待所, 学院街645号. on the corner where Chapin 及书院街s merge. Most people on campus are unaware of its very existence. It is a much re-worked 1855 farmhouse that was saved 更多的 than once from the wreckers by historically minded members of the college community.

I have nice neighbors in the Bierman family across the street and a campus security officer upstairs. 就是这样. 大多数时候，这里都很安静.

Apartment A has provided a portal to life at 贝洛伊特—literally and figuratively.

On the literal side are the frequent surprise visits to Apartment A by parents, 潜在的学生, 教师, 还有一些人, 深夜, have found the back door the perfect entrance to the campus. Every couple of weeks, somebody wanders into the kitchen seeking directions or information. From my study (where the annual Mindset List is worked and reworked) it sounds like somebody returning home, 我期待听到“嗨”, 我到家了.” Most visits ended in a good conversation, if not a bite to eat.

But the people who attended the dinners and receptions here during the time that I worked for the college were most memorable. There were large parties that brought town and gown together for everything from pizza before Folk ’n’ Blues, to a tie-dyed reception preceding a concert by Arlo Guthrie and champagne before the 贝洛伊特-Janesville Symphony.

一些事件引人注目. 一个人的晚餐 高等教育编年史reporter drew so many people to talk about teaching that we had to keep adding seats and then even a couple of tables when the numbers got out of control.

然后, 在2000年秋天, 北岛谣言四起, 贝洛伊特’s Mackey Professor of Creative Writing, would be the recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature. Bei Dao had been on many short lists for the Nobel for several years. That year, the word was that the Swedish Academy would recognize a Chinese writer. Anticipation increased when the Associated Press showed up and said they were going to stick around to find out what developed.

现在 a Nobel Prize may be huge for the recipient, but introducing a Nobel laureate to the media is a dream for a PR guy. 我们开始计划. We talked to local Chinese chefs to arrange a Chinese buffet if needed, 早上5点送到摩尔休息室.m. We made sure rooms and sound were available. We prepared a dinner and invited some reporters and 教师 along with Bei Dao, 谁住在楼上D公寓.

鸡尾酒, 然后是晚餐, and then a lot of wine and brandy took us into the early hours as we awaited the phone call. Bei Dao went to his apartment so he would be close to his college extension.

The message came early in the morning that the Nobel had indeed gone to a Chinese writer, 但那是高行健, 小说家和剧作家.

There were many other nights at the dinner table and in the kitchen with Billy Collins, 最小热月, 古巴外交官Carlos Alzugaray说, 无数的弦乐四重奏和吉他手, 阿拉巴马州的盲童, 牛牛爵士乐队, 作家杰拉尔德·波斯纳, art dealer and Antiques Roadshow authority John Buxton, and a very long night that exhausted the bar and most of the guests trying to keep up with the late English writer and literary critic Christopher Hitchens.

现在, 我要让出能看到风景的房间, and the bright red dining room and gold living room walls will soon be sealed beneath (several coats) of off-white. I bent the kitchen counter using it as a bar, and the carpet could use some work. And the Eaton Chapel bells—loathed by poets, 被过夜游客诅咒, and questioned for the first week or two by each new college president—will no longer measure my life in 15-minute increments as they have since I set foot on campus in 1996.

But the bay window’s awesome view of the campus will continue to inspire warm reactions and devotion to the college for a fortunate new resident.

It has been a pleasure to live and serve here.

Ron Nief is director of public affairs emeritus for 十大菠菜台子 and co-author of the 十大菠菜台子 Mindset List. He left Apartment A this fall for a new home in Madison, Wis.