Alison Lee
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Inside Out: UT Tower
I wrote about the tower, but foolishly I wrote about something that I had never
visited. The tower is a centerpiece to the university, so I treated it like one. On special
occasions, my mom will put out a centerpiece on the dining table. Sometimes the
centerpiece is eatable but we are not allowed to eat it. Almost every time a centerpiece is
present it’s just there to be admired. I thought I did my part and wrote about something I
admired. I wrote about what I saw with my eyes and didn’t realize that the centerpiece
was tangible.
As I walked inside the building, I took a journey. The south entrance was not very
welcoming. I thought to myself, “This is why I never took this entrance.” Most people
walk through the tower to take an air conditioned short cut through campus. The short cut
goes from west campus to east campus. The west and east entrance is more welcoming.
First of all, the entrances are ground level. Most importantly, the entrances have
automatic doors. These doors are very modern and convenient. It takes no effort to go in
and out of the building. I thought to myself, “How ironic, these automatic doors rush me
into the building but they also rush me out at the same speed they let me in.”
The character of tower started to come alive in my imagination. I started
thinking, “The only way I could properly understand the tower, is making an effort to
properly enter it.” This is where the journey started for me. I wanted to get away from the
distractions during the daytime hours. I chose the part of the day when there were very
few students roaming the campus. As the sun goes down, so does the student population
Alison Lee
Project 2
on campus. I knew the proper entrance was through the Loggia. While I was walking up
the stairs, I felt like I was walking into a haunted house.
The South Entrance, Loggia.
When I was inside the building, I heard the echo of the door closing behind me. I
was greeted with more stairs, so I went up to the fourth floor. I met Peter Mansbendel in
the Wenn Library. I was surprised to see this Switzerland woodcarver in the Wenn
Library.
Mansbendel’s over door carving in Wenn Library
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As I left the library, Peter Mansbendel disappeared. Before he died in 1940, he
left many portraits and masterful carvings for everyone to enjoy. I came across a stained
glass window that reminded me of my favorite character as a child. The Christ Church in
Oxford reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland.” Lewis Carroll graduated from Christ
Church College in Oxford. The Dean’s daughters, Alice Liddell and her sisters, often
accompanied him as he took boat trips around Oxford. I started to feel like Alice. Like
Alice, curiosity brought me this far and I was discovering everything on my own. Unlike
Alice I did not want to feel lost because I was no longer the childlike character. I wanted
to pay attention to details to gain knowledge of my environment. Bump writes about
Ruskin’s “accuracy of attention” as he describes “needed to appreciate the environment is
simply the ability to concentrate, a power of the mind increasingly eroded in our time by
the countless demands and distractions that cater to a shrinking attention span.” (p.132)
Christ Church, Oxford
I remembered emblems on the outside of the tower from our class tour, so I
decided to go outside. I went out the west exit and looked up. I counted six of the twelve
terra cotta depictions of the coat of arms. These symbols signify historic institution of
higher education. Under the windows I noticed names of famous scholars and writers.
The west side of the tower represented the oldest university and scholars.
Alison Lee
University of Bologna
(Oldest university in Europe, 11th Century)
University of Paris
(Early 13th Century)
University of Oxford
(Early 13th Century)
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1265-1321 A.D.
(Most honored of Italian poets)
70-19 B.C.
(Noblest of Roman poets)
106-43 B.C.
(Orator, statesman, philosopher)
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University of Salmanca
(1230)
University of Cambridge
(1281)
University of Heidelberg
(1385)
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384-332 B.C.
(Philosopher and scientist)
5th Century B.C
(Earliest, great writer of prose in Europe)
9th Century B.C.
(The first of the great poets in Europe)
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I was looking for the other six coats of arms, so I decided to walk north. When I
looked up, I noticed gold marks on the tower. They were alphabets. They were not tacky
ABCs but the complete alphabets of different languages. They were Egyptian, Hebrew,
Greek, Roman, and Phoenician alphabets. Who would have guessed these designs had
any meaning or purpose or being read. I’m not familiar with the alphabet, but I wanted to
know where it started and where it ended. It starts at the east courtyard (in the upper
southern corner) and can be read in order from top to bottom.
Northern side of the Tower
(Complete alphabets of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans)
As I walked around the tower to the Eastside, I found the six coats of arms. They
were placed consistently with the Westside of the tower. The Eastside coats of arms
represented the North America universities. University of Mexico is the oldest university
in North America built in 1553. The following emblems I saw were University of
Edinburgh (1583), Harvard University (1636), University of Virginia (1825), University
of Michigan (1841), and Vassar College (1861).
Under the windows on the Eastside, I also saw names. The most obvious was
Shakespeare, who wrote playwrights from 1546-1616. On the Eastside, I was more
familiar with the names. They were more recent than the scholars on the Westside. After
Shakespeare, I saw Milton. Milton is known to some people as being the master of
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English poetry and prose (1608-1674). These next two names were unfamiliar to me.
Moliere (1622-1673) was a peerless French dramatist along with Goethe (1749-1832) the
German titan. I’m curious to discover more about them. The last two names are very
familiar to me. Scott, a poet and novelist, lived from 1771-1832 and Mark Twain (18351910) familiar too many as a humorists and a chronicler of American life.
I was very satisfied with my tour because of all the knowledge I contained. I felt
that I discovered many things without any distractions. I became very comfortable with
the tower and felt like I knew it from the inside and out. I was ready to go home. I started
walking towards west campus. It was extremely hot during this particular weekend in
April. I was greeted by the rush of refreshing a/c as the doors automatically opened for
me. I stopped myself and decided not to take my routine shortcut through the tower.
I started walking left and glanced over my right shoulder at the Southside of the
tower. I stopped and looked again and counted the arches. There were seven arches,
seven large windows above the arches, and seven smaller windows above the seven
smaller windows.
University of Texas
(South entrance to the Tower)
For some strange reason the entrance was very welcoming. It was strange how I
could have two opposite feelings about one place in the same day. As I looked closer I
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saw 1836 on the left, the University Seal in the middle, and 1936 on the right. In 1836,
Texas gained independence from Mexico. In 1936, this was the projected year of the
completion of this building.
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
The quote that is carved into the building was taken from the Scripture in the
Bible. This is a great quote to remember because it doesn’t only apply to the people that
devote their time reading the Bible. It applies to everyone and it reminds us of what we
have inside. It’s obvious that the people that are able to read this are not prison bound.
Some think we are free because we live in America. I think it challenges us but at the
same time brings us hope. Not everyone is true to themselves, but the truth is out there.
I turned around 180 degrees, looked at the south mall, and thought to myself, “If I
were one of the victims shot in the south mall, would this line from Scripture give me
comfort or fear?” I got chills thinking about it. It was a long day and the temperature
outside was not comprising. It was time to go. The tower clock played musical chimes as
I was walking. I looked up at the clock had a little more excitement about going up there
one day.
WC: 1451