> Speaking of buildings, I'm thinking when gauging the importance of
> the university as an institution, maybe it comes down to the library?
I always thought the quad was underestimated, both functionally (as a place to run into people; the academic equivalent of the piazza) and historically (a reminiscence of the monastic cloister). Not to mention aesthetically. I happened to spend some time in Oxford last summer (nothing academic, I hasten to add). They do the quad thing very nicely there.
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Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com
Any proposition that seems self-evident is almost certainly false.