All right. Let's show you some of the damn campus.
Like I said, Uni. Essex Colchester is not a beautiful campus, per se. I'm pretty sure their more recent campus at the Southend of England is a lot nicer. I am also convinced the university administration suffers anxiety from not being your typical British campus (e.g. the hollowed churches of Oxford). All that aside, it is a actually a pretty nice campus. It was built in the 60s, so I think there's certain inspiration to American campuses here, which definitely fits with some of the atmosphere. This first picture is of the Student Union Bar, all in all a fine establishment that even shows American Football on Sundays.
Unfortunately, blog spot kind of randomly loaded my photos in whatever order it wanted, so my narration is kind of at the mercy of randomness here. Nevertheless, here is the campus library. It's not as big as it looks; it's actually rather dungeon-like and has these really weird lifts that never stop moving, so you have to jump on and off at your own risk. I don't have the guts to use them. Also note the Waterstone bookstore in the foreground. This is off of Square 5, which is sort of the back entrance to the school. The campus consists of 5 squares built on a staircase, with buildings adjacent to each. It reminds me quite a bit of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, though maybe not quite as grandiose.
The other thing about the campus is most of the buildings are connected to one another: in theory you can get to most departments without ever stepping outside. This was meant to encourage encourage cooperation among departments. You would think this would all make the campus easy to navigate, but it is actually incredibly bewildering to a newcomer, especially because the numbering system for rooms, well... makes entirely no sense. It's based off of cardinal direction and... coordinates? I really don't know. I just know some of my classes are in 2NW 3.413, and I have it memorized. This is one quirk they want to change.
At any rate, the third picture here is from the back of the library, next to the lake where Dumbledore was buried. In the distance are the North Towers: student housing. I can see them from my apartment. Frankly they seem pretty cramped; glad I'm not in them.
This fourth picture is of, well, Square 4, which has the myEssex store, a student shop, a pseudo American diner, and Santander, my bank of choice. There is also a bar directly above the myEssex store, though it is currently under renovation. I'm happy to say my department, the centre for psychoanalytic studies, is also located off of Square 4.
This campus is generally fairly busy. I've mentioned many times how it's a lot like Rutgers-Camden: a smaller school in a mediocre city (though Uni. Essex is certainly larger than RU-C, though not tremendously so. It's not New Brunswick, for instance. I'm not even sure if the student numbers are much larger than Rutgers-Camden), with a student union desperate to make the place a 24/7 campus. Of course, unlike Rutgers-Camden the student union at Essex has actually succeeded in this, mainly I think because tons of students do live in Essex accommodation. Of course, most of these 24/7 events are just parties and clubbing events and shit like that; I'm not exactly overjoyed. But hey, if it's what the kids want...
I was talking to someone on twitter, a young Jungian (ha) analyst from London who wants to go back to school to get his PhD. He said Essex wasn't "his type" of school. I imagine he's referring to the destitute atmosphere. I can't blame him, though I wonder if you can avoid that at any campus. I don't really judge the place one way or the other. At some point over the past five years I learned not to get too wrapped up in the good and the bad of a place that is just trying to suck money out of you while you get a degree.
Speaking which, there's a Halloween party on campus tonight. Think I'm attending?
This is the staircase down from Square 4 to Square 3. Square 3 has some of the best things on campus, as seen below. The SU Bar, a nice cafe called Zest, as well as a mobile phone store and the path to the gym. Square 3 definitely has the feel of "recess" in the middle of the day. As an aside, at night it looks like a wasteland. Trash everywhere. Kind of weird.
Above is the far end of campus, beyond square one. This is the facade that greets those of us either walking or taking the bus. It was also the first glimpse of the university I had back in June. I don't think this picture does it very much justice but it actually rather impressive to walk towards, especially for the first time.
I don't know why this is my last picture, but this is off of Square One (both Square one and Square Two are mainly academic buildings). You can see the South Courts in the distance (really nice student housing), as well as the buildings for psychology and Brain Science. Hopefully one day the psychoanalytic department gets its own building. Either way I think I may snoop around these places here for my own curiosities.
There. Not a great tour, but I hope it gives you a bit of an idea about what Essex U is about. It's not Princeton, but it definitely has its own identity. And it gets the job done for me- at least thus far.
Just one other thing: the biggest rip-off on campus, by far, is printing. You thought the $30.00 deal was bogus at Rutgers? Imagine having to pay 5 pounds just to print about 100 pages or so. It's complete robbery. I'm now course representative for the MA in Jung and Post-Jungian studies, so if I start attending these Student Union meetings its something I plan on bringing up.
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