Ripley 1

Jordan Ripley 2/11/14 ENC 1102H Lux et Veritas: The Burnett Honors College and Rhetorical Space From the outside, the Burnett Honors College doesnt exactly scream out at you. At a glance, it appears to blend in with the other nearby structures, not standing out in any particularly good or bad way. The Honors College, to the average passerby, is just like any other building on campus, perhaps only notable due to its unique long, skinny shape. Most wouldnt give it more than a second thought. But upon entering the Honors College, one cannot help but be swept away by its metaphoric usage of light and embracement of universal design ideals. While honors students may walk through the building multiple times a day without actively thinking about it, the Honors College is not only impacted by these students, but impacts them as well. Lux et Veritas. Light and Truth. Inscribed above the doors of Yale University, the University of Indiana, and many other institutions of higher learning, these words symbolize, as Jordi Gass of the Yale Daily News writes, the mission of universities to enlighten the minds of its young students and impart to them truth through knowledge. For years, light has always been a metaphorical representation of truth and higher learning. Painters would show the voice of God as rays of light cutting through the darkness of clouds, and a halo of light surrounding a figure would always show that figures connection to God, and to the higher truth. When western civilization endured a near-millennium of little-to-no scientific growth, we called it the Dark Ages; when we formulated scientific thinking, we called it the Enlightenment. The concept of light and learning is certainly nothing new.

Ripley 2

However, picture in your mind what you might consider a typical college classroom building. What do you see? For me, I picture a large imposing brick building with narrow, dark corridors and dimly-lit classrooms. At the very least, I would not picture the Honors College as a typical classroom building. Wherever it could be considered feasible, the walls have been built with huge panels of glass. It seems as if over half of all of the walls of the Honors College are transparent. And when the sun shines (as it is quite fond of doing in the Sunshine State), the building fills up with light, casting it onto every corner, leaving nothing in shadow. If light is truth and knowledge, then it can be seen that the Honors College is filled with truth, and that there is knowledge all around. By being surrounded by light, you literally feel enlightened, whether you consciously observe it or not. And this feeling of enlightenment, this feeling of knowledge at every corner, is readily accessible to anyone. While I cannot speak for other groups of people, I can say that the Honors College easily embraces Dolmages ideals of universal design. Nothing about the building feels additional, or tacked on, like a retrofit. The building instead feels natural, like an extension of the garden outside its many large window panes. No matter who you are, the Honors College feels warm, and invites you in. Perhaps its the garden; no matter who you are, walking through that garden, and seeing it even while inside the building, is a calming, pleasant experience. Perhaps its the ceilings. When I walk into the Engineering building, for example, and enter its massive, hangar-like atrium, I cant help but feel small and lost. And when entering, for example, the narrow hallways of Colbourn Hall, a slight feeling of uneasiness might wash over; faint, but noticeable. But the tall ceilings of the Honors College, filled with light and knowledge, always seem comforting and inviting.

Ripley 3

Both literally and figuratively, the Honors College rejects what Dolmage called the steep steps metaphor. In traditional college settings, buildings would typically be at the top of a series of tall, steep steps, representing that only few may obtain knowledge. This metaphor may also carry over into the light metaphor; in the steep steps mentality, light in these buildings would be limited, representing that knowledge was not easily obtained. From a more literal, architectural standpoint, the Honors College rejects the idea of steep steps, replacing them with meandering pathways and handicapped-accessible doors. And from a figurative standpoint, the Honors College also rejects the steep steps mentality, by making knowledge and truth accessible to any and all, not just to a select few. By choosing glass over brick, and filling the building with light, the Honors College welcomes anyone who enters its doors, instead of turning them away. And there are no afterthoughts, no retrofits, to be seen. From the ground up, the Honors College was designed using Universal Design, to make spaces that are truly accessible and inviting from the very beginning. In his critique of postmodern time-space compression, Reynolds mentions that within a university, the general sensations of a shrinking planet- busier, noisier, and more crowdedtrigger the temptation to look out over urban classrooms and think the whole world is here. Perhaps thats what the Honors College does so well- it avoids those sensations. No matter how many people come and go, the college never seems busy or crowded. And despite the (oftendeafening) echo of the Honors Colleges main hallway, even the busiest times are never noisy, and the blissful quiet of the garden is always just a few steps away. These feelings of time-space compression simply never infiltrate the Honors College, and help make the space more distinguishable, and easier to discern. One never gets the feeling that the whole world is here in the Honors College, but is instead drawn to the outside world.

Ripley 4

Lux et Veritas. Light and Truth. Yes, this phrase has been overdone across colleges and universities across the world, and has since lost much of its original meaning and power. But when thinking of metaphors for the Burnett Honors College, the idea of light and knowledge for everyone, not just a select few, kept coming through. In the end, everything in this analysis, and indeed the whole Honors College as a whole, can be summed up in that now famous phrase: Lux et Veritas. For everyone.

Ripley 5

Works Cited Dolmage, Jay. From retrofit to universal design, from collapse to occupation: Neo-liberal spaces of disability. Gass, Jordi. "Not Just Your Lux or My Veritas." YaleDailyNews.com. Yale Daily NewsWeekend, 31 Aug. 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. Reynolds, N. (2004)). Spatial metaphors, spatial theory, and thirdspace. In N. Reynolds, Geographies of writing: Inhabiting places and encountering difference (pp. 13-20). Southern Illinois University Press.