The early morning light, through its flower-patterned grillwork, throws a striking shadow across my desk. It s my porthole out to an incredible place. This morning two lawn mowers grumble around over the yard. Mourning doves coo on a ledge, just out of view, around the corner of the building. As the day heats up, summer campers and incoming freshmen, here for orientation, splash in the pools of the big, angular fountain below - the one that our students have nicknamed the rocket launcher .
Concrete pads form little islands across the fountain s pool.
A few folks, enjoying their pad-hopping shortcut to and from assignments, are congregating on an island for a moment, just to visit. Live oaks and cedars frame the fountain and then the grass mall, stretching north to the university library. Hidden just beyond the library and trees is the River Brazos, before the ridges of Bellmead. That tag fits this whole place. Here folks, young people mainly, gather for years to study, pray, and reflect - but not to stay.