Everyone sees them in passing, many have a hard time remembering their shortened names and depending on what you study at UO, you can’t help but stereotype these individuals.
The University of Oregon campus consists of over 70 buildings on campus, which house over 270 science and liberal arts options. Every building is unique from another, with distinct elements of architecture and ambiance that all contribute to their individual characters.
So, if a few campus buildings were real people, these are what their stories would be.
Lillis comes from an old-school family in which female names are acceptable for men because of the traditional weight they carry. Think: Whitney and Leslie. He got into the Lundquist College of Business without any effort, since he inherited his father and grandfather’s skills in commerce, obviously.
This Business major with a double-minor in economics and Spanish (for his junior-year study abroad in Europe) would never be caught on campus without his perfectly pleated trousers that he should be endorsed on LinkedIn for. Lillis switches between a dry-fit Nike polo and crisp button-down throughout the week, neatly tucked in to show off the iPhone clip on his belt loop. He updated his no-sock Sperry’s look to dress-socks-only and penny loafers. He maintains his clean-cut appearance at the top of every hour with every coiffe to his comb-over and flick of his white gold Fossil watch.
But, from Wednesday thru Saturday after 9 p.m., Lillis carves out some leisure time with his esteemed fraternity colleagues in which they start at their lettered house and move their way from one end of East 13th Street to the next. The first round is always on Lillis and his introductory handshake with strangers is never a letdown.
While Lillis builds his career towards “anywhere on Wall Street, really,” McKenzie looks forward to getting her Masters in Library and Information Science to become, well, a librarian. She specializes in English Renaissance history during the week and looks forward to the BBC’s marathons of period pieces on the weekends.
When you open McKenzie’s closet, 50 shades of brown meet the eye and a spectrum of Dansko clogs to match. Her Portland upbringing is evident in the expert way she layers her clothes, serving her well in any type of weather from morning until evening.
McKenzie spends long hours on campus as she lives past East 20th Street, but she sees her daily 20-minute bike ride to a Bon Iver soundtrack as a treat. Her backpack is always fully loaded with granola and carrots to last her from sunrise to sunset, and of course, a good book.
Another avid biker and someone who likes to live away from the ruckus of campus is Lawrence who shares a house with his buddies near Hendricks Park. This Product Design major sees art in everything and the forested scene outside of Lawrence’s bedroom window serves as his muse. He didn’t always belong to the AA&A department, but after being a creative within the journalism school for a bit, Lawrence decided he wanted to still do art for marketing, but without the Allen Hall competitiveness.
Unlike McKenzie, Lawrence likes to stay up-to-date with trends and is well versed in everything-Apple. Technology is his “thing” as he uses platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest to express his creativity. Minimal is the aesthetic he goes for with his images, which has gained him a large fan base and the reason why he doesn’t need to hash tag his pictures anymore.
This minimalism has carried into Lawrence’s aesthetic IRL as well, as art so often does, causing his clothing collection to only consist of whites, blacks, grays and plaids. He was wearing “groutfits” before Drake and the “Hotline Bling” craze even surfaced. But once you get past Lawrence’s visual self-marketing, past his clear-framed Warby Parker glasses and his long-on-top, shaved-on-bottom hair, you see an outgoing guy who just wants to bond over a beer at The Pint Pot Public House.
Now that you know some more about a few people you often see in passing on campus, maybe try and uncover the lives of others like Erb, who only strangers call the EMU; or Robert of the Clark family who really is as intense as people say; and then, there’s Onyx and Willamette, notorious for the cadavers and other secrets kept in their depths.