Mark Hardy’s First Blog from the campus of Washington University:

         The atmosphere at Washington University in St. Louis ‘ Danforth Campus denies my expectations of a high profile Vice Presidential debate.                        

Immediately after receiving our press credentials I was directed to another line where I was handed oodles of Washington University promotional items: a water bottle, t-shirt, a bag with three University pins, and a lanyard for my press credentials containing a two gigabyte flash card. According to NPR over 3,000 media passes were issued, and none of them left the sign in tables without these goodies. The memory stick lanyard even featured B-roll film, exciting our News 36 team members until someone in the KWUR radio station let us know that most of it asked the national media to write stories about new buildings on campus and how great of a school it is. (Unrelated sidenote: Wash-U’s tuition has increased by a greater percentage than gasoline at the pump has since the last oil crisis in the 1970s.)

          At first I thought students would feel jealous about how nice the school was treating me. Then I saw a space age CNN trailer painted with outrageous, hip phrases such as The League of First Time Voters, and Join Us! surrounded by students. Anyone interested could wait in line to have their picture taken in a special CNN photo booth, receive a free CNN t-shirt, or view one of many performances by campus entertaining groups. I listened to a little bit of Wash-U’s acapella group before deciding it was time to get lunch.

          The cafeteria’s occupants were half students and half national journalists, the majority of whom were drinking wine during their downtime. Needless to say, the nearly $40,000 a year Wash-U campus’ food is quite a bit classier than Truman’s. Gourmet food with sea salt and pepper grinders screams fine dining. I would say the number of journalists inside suggests that news pros enjoyed the establishment, as well, but I think the number of blocked off streets and long line of cars waiting to have their credentials checked might have influenced people to eat on campus.

          After eating I had to go to the bathroom to clean gourmet pizza grease from my hands. The toilets had an interesting green feature we could incorporate on campus: press the handle up for #1 (liquid waste), down for #2 (solid waste), and a special green coating to prevent germs.

          A strange event seemed to be taking place on campus. Everywhere, students, all male, holding ridiculous signs could be seen traipsing about, yelling what was essentially the content of the sign. Some examples are, ‘Vote Whig!’ ‘Why is My Chair Broken?’ ‘Palin: I’m the Daddy’ and ‘I need a nap.’ At first I believed this to be part of some strange Libertarian protest until I discovered that it was a part of an elaborate fraternity pledging process.

         Now I’m off to Spin Alley, where the big shot journalists are chilling, and then I plan to check out the protesters who have been relegated to off campus areas, since Wash-U is private and can choose who stays on or off of campus (*cough*Brother Jed…*cough*) Forsyth, the road they’re on, has been blocked off by police, making for a perfect place to congregate.

Look forward to hearing from me soon.