L&C Day 2

On our second day at Lewis & Clark we had lunch with Miles in the dining hall, visited his room again and got some decorations up, attended a session with a professor, and also attended the opening convocation ceremony and a family picnic afterwards.

First, on the way out of the tiny house hotel, I took just a few more photos, showing the courtyard from a few different angles.

Then John and I made a few stops to pick up supplies for Miles and then headed to campus. Here he is in his room. Recognize the Chicago flag (and sheets!) from another dorm room?

The L&C campus is really, really pretty. This bridge goes over a forested ravine and is one of the walkways between a cafe / residence halls and the academic buildings. Miles’s residence hall is one of several that make up the Forest Halls, and whenever Miles mentions that he or someone else “lives in Forest” we think he’s saying “lives in the forest,” which makes us think, you’re all living in the forest here!

There’s a really charming outdoor swimming pool at this end of campus, just to the left of this picture.

In late afternoon, there was an opening convocation ceremony. The activities that L&C does for orientation reminded me of what I’ve seen of the activities at University of Chicago – my conclusion being that the small schools have a more scheduled move-in period than larger schools, which isn’t really that surprising. Anyway, the opening convocation was a really nice event, held in the sports stadium. Family members were seated in the stadium and the around 550 students that make up the 152nd freshman class (aka first years) filed in from around the side.

I feel like I just did the Miles graduation post where I said the same thing, there’s Miles, tall guy, big beard! He’s in the photo below, to the right filing into the chairs, wearing a white t-shirt. About 5 people over from the right.

The convocation was very nice, with remarks from the college President and other faculty members. The keynote speech was by a professor who spoke about the value in falling, in that you dust yourself off, check for damage and are just about all of the time are OK. It was a little bit funny though with first, John’s broken foot still being top of mind, and second, a new friend of Miles had fallen out of a bunk bed the night before and really bruised up his face badly. But to her point, they are both ok, and it’s part of life. Her point was to continue to take risks, academically and in all of life.

Also of interest since we’ve talked about indigenous peoples acknowledgments that are often delivered before events in Australia, the program included a Lewis & Clark College Land Acknowledgment, written in the booklet and also spoken by one of the deans:

“Prior to the newcomers coming to this area, the Indigenous land of this area was home to many tribal people.

Today, we honor the indigenous people on whose traditional and ancestral homelands we stand: the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Watlala bands of the Chinook, the Tualatin Kalapuya and many other indigenous nations of the Columbia River.

It is important to acknowledge the ancestors of this place and to recognize that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them.

In remembering these communities, we honor their legacy, their lives, and their descendants.”

After the convocation, there was a nice picnic for students and parents, then we walked up to Miles’s room with him, stopping off at this college pride feature. Here’s the school mascot, a Newfoundland dog based on Meriwether Lewis’s dog, along with the shorthand “Pios” for Pioneers. Go Pios!

Miles had after dinner meetings to head to and we were headed to the coast, so we said bye to Miles and headed west ourselves! Very proud of you, Miles, nice to see orientation going so well and to borrow a phrase from the college materials, seems very clear so far that “you belong here!” Miss you already!