​I had the pleasure of visiting Melbourne in November 2017. I was in Australia for the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Annual Conference. It was a very good conference and it left me with precious little time to explore the city, its museums, and other attractions. I had a list of things I want to see and of course the University of Melbourne was high on the list. The city is itself is awesome. There are loads of great historic sites, museums, and of course shopping and restaurants. On the day I visited, the university was on the end of a trolley-line of things I had scheduled to see. It was early summer in Melbourne, and it was quite warm outside. I was tired, and I didn’t realize that as I reached the university my battery was about dead. In the end, I had a great visit. I roamed around and found that there was some kind of outdoor gathering going on (I don’t recall what it was), and there was some live music, artists performing skits, and others things going on. I visited the library and toured around and had a good time. Unfortunately, I was able to only get two photos in before my battery died! I almost didn’t post anything for this one. But since I don’t know when I will have the chance to get back to Melbourne I thought I would go ahead and post these lonely two photos. The first is the Trinity College building with the Behan Building to its right. It is the oldest residential college at the university. The second, also at Trinity, is the Horsfall Chapel. I hope to return someday with a fully charged battery!

The University of Tennessee System is the state's namesake group of universities. I am a two-time alumnus of the system's main campus and flagship UT Knoxville. If you have been to Knoxville, you know that the university has its own hospital there - UT Medical Center Knoxville. Although located in Knoxville, it is actually a unit of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the main campus of which is in Memphis. UTHSC has affiliate hospitals in Memphis, including the Methodist University Hospital (which is the principal teaching hospital for UTHSC) and the Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, but does not own its own medical center in Memphis.

I worked on the MCV Campus of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA for years and VCU owns a massive medical center there. UTHSC reminds me of VCU in some respects and at some point I hope to have a post about the MCV campus and I will discuss some of the similarities of the two. In the mean time, here are some photos from UTHSC taken on a glorious and unseasonably warm December day today.

These first three photos are of an entrance to a campus parking lot just off of South Dunlap Street. To the left of the arch is the Johnson Building (see below). The photo on the right is the Mooney Building which houses the library. At one point in time whenever I managed to visit a new campus, the library was one of the first places I would go to have a look around. I have never been in the library at UTHSC and when I tried to get in on this day it was closed. The grass in the foreground of the last picture is artificial grass.

These photos are of the Joe and Pat Johnson Building. He was President of the UT System during my time at UT Knoxville. The caduceus is a nice detail. The Johnson Building, and others on the UTHSC campus are similar in style to many on the UT Knoxville campus.

These photos are of the O.W. Hyman Administration Building. The arches are perhaps the most recognizable and frequently photographed part of the UTHSC campus. Behind them in the second photo you can see the Link Building. The archway can be seen from Union Avenue. 

These photos are from along the Madison Avenue corridor through campus. The Memphis Area Transit Authority has a trolley system through downtown and one line bisects the UTHSC campus along Madison Avenue. The first photo is the trolley stop in the middle of Madison. Also in this group are the Lamar Alexander Building (photo #2), the Molecular Sciences Building (photo #4), the UTHSC Hamilton Eye Institute (photo #5), and the College of Pharmacy Building (photo #6). The Lamar Alexander Building is the namesake of Tennessee's U.S. Senator, former governor, and former President of the UT System. Photos #2 and #7 are at the former site of the Campbell Clinic (now a parking deck). Photo #8 is the UTHSC police station. The "Everywhere you look, UT" painted on the side is a new slogan paired with the stylized "UT" containing the state's shape which has been painted on and around UT campuses statewide (and other buildings across the state). The last photo is of the Wassell Randolph Student Alumni Center.

These last three photos are of the Cancer Research Building, located at the corner of South Manassas Street and Madison Avenue and the General Education Building which houses the UTHSC Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (or CHIRP).

​I work at the University of Memphis and have been here since 2016. As is the case with many universities in the U.S., the UofM had a rather big growth spurt in the number and size of its buildings when the baby boom generation came of college age. After which there was a drop off in construction. Thanks to recent growth and the stewardship of the previous (Dr. Shirley Raines) and current (Dr. David Rudd) presidents, the UofM has seen a flurry of new construction. The university has also begun the process of closing streets on the campus and turning them into pedestrian walkways. This has created some very nice spaces on campus. In a future post, I will detail some of the older buildings with both external and interior photos. For now, here are some general campus photos. Unless otherwise noted, the photos were taken in 2020.

The two photos above are of the Administration Building. Construction of the building began in 1911 along with the two other original buildings of the campus (the President's House, which was subsequently demolished, and Mynders Hall). All three buildings were dedicated on September 10, 1912. When it was opened, the Administration Building had a large external staircase which has since been removed. The railings you see on the second floor are not original as these spots were the landing of the original stairs. I have read several books on the history of the UofM, but I have been unable to find out when and why the stairs were removed. Fraternities and sororities had pledge activities on the stairs back in the day and in the early years male athletes used the top floor of the building as a dorm. There was a subsequent addition to the back of the building which is not visible in these photos.

The five photos above are of the University Center and a walkway between the UC and the Zach Curlin Parking Garage and the V. Lane Rawlins Service Court. Zach Curlin was a football coach and V. Lane Rawlins was a former president of the UofM. He was president when the university changed its name from Memphis State University to the University of Memphis in 1994. He would later go on to be president of Washington State University and the University of North Texas. The UC was constructed during the administration of UofM president Shirley Raines. The rotunda image is the northeast side of the UC building. The lower two images are of the west side of the building as seen from the Alumni Mall. In the distance in the last photo you can see the Hunter Harrison Memorial Bridge. The $18million structure opened in 2019 and serves as a viaduct over a set of railroad tracks. 

These three photos are of the Ned R. McWherter Library. McWherter was a former governor of Tennessee. The first two images are of the front of the building and the last is the rear from the Ellipse, a green space on campus. The building opened in 1994 under president V. Lane Rawlins.

This is a fountain in the Student Activities Plaza on the east side of the Administration Building. The UofM's colors are blue and gray, and the fountain is dyed blue on game days,  commencement, and other special occasions. The photo on the left was taken in September 2017 and the one on the right in 2020. In both, you can see the addition to the Administration building.

Above are (left to right) the FedEx Institute of Technology Building, Johnson Hall, the Fogleman College of Business and Economics Building, Centennial Place, the John S. Wilder Tower (with Johnson Hall and John Willard Brister Hall in the foreground), and the Psychology Building. The FedEx Institute of Technology Building (abbreviated as FIT) houses the graduate school, sponsored programs, and a variety of other offices. Johnson is home to geography and geology. Centennial Place is a recently constructed dorm. Wilder Tower was originally constructed as a library, but now holds a variety of student service offices.

Last, the above two photos are close ups of the Hunter Harrison Memorial Bridge and a new parking garage and plaza on the southside of the viaduct.

​I first learned about the University of Glasgow as a boy when I read the James Herriot book All Creatures Great and Small. Mr. Herriot, or James Alfred “Alf” Wight, OBE FRCVS, to use his real name, attended veterinary school there. I was able to visit the university for the first and only time just over a decade ago in 2008. Any time I visit a new city, I try to go to whatever college is nearby, but the Herriot books made this a destination of choice. Time was not on my side and I was unfortunately not able to visit the Veterinary school which is a couple of miles away in Bearsden. But, I did get to have a look around the Gilmorehill campus in the West End of Glasgow which was a short subway ride from where I was staying and attending a conference. The architecture is remarkable! I had a quick look about, bought a t-shirt, and did a tour of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum next door. I wanted to come back and have a better look around, and still hope I can some day, but for now that was the extent of my experience. 

I visited Salt Lake City in late May 2016 to meet with colleagues at the University of Utah. While there I had the opportunity to drop by the campus of Westminster College. Westminster College is a liberal arts college in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City. It opened in 1875. The campus covers about 27 acres and it is very pretty. My schedule did not afford me much time to explore the campus but I really enjoyed my quick visit!

In these pictures, you will see (left to right) Converse Hall, the Giovale Library, the “sit by” statue of Mary Tuck (“Aunt Em”), and the Meldrum Science Center.

Converse Hall is the iconic building on campus – the one that tends to show up in photos of the place and which comes to mind when someone thinks of the institution. The building’s cornerstone was laid on August 23, 1906 and the building was completed in July 1907. The Giovale Library opened in 1997 and has some 47,000 square feet of space on three floors. The Mary Tuck statue is outside of Converse Hall. She and her husband Ralph were patrons of the college and their ashes are buried beneath the bench. The Meldrum Science Center is a LEED© Platinum Certified building.