by Hilary Berry

As the autumn leaf bids goodbye the maple tree and floats down upon the foot of a passerby, the Memorial Union observes in regal silence. Buttressed against golden foliage and steady oaks, like an aristocrat amongst poor college students, the building offers an invitation of friendship and possibility to those who will accept it. It is classis, beautiful, warm—a place to escape the outside and come in for coffee, for company, for a brief nap on a worn couch cushion.

The Memorial Union is a refuge to anyone who chooses to make it home. Upon entering its doors, the large marble steps abound with students. They look misplaces in fleece jackets and jeans against a backdrop of gently sloping ceilings and beautifully painted murals. Chatter ebbs and flows through the corridors and offices, filling the air with laughter, platitudes, expression of frustration, and emphatic statements like, “How about them Beavs!”

In the midst of the inconsistencies of college life, the Memorial Union remains the same. Every morning light dashes through the windows in the lunge, bathing the wing chairs in a watery glow. Piano music resonated from the floor to ceiling, lulling students to sleep on the pages of open textbooks. The Java II serves caffeinated necessities stimulating conversation between colleagues and friends who bond over thesis topics, break ups, difficult classes and invigorating comfort of a cup of Joe.

Overtime, the faces in the Memorial Union become familiar. Some have worked within its walls for twenty years. Their love for the building where they work shows in the smiles on their faces. Others are students who have found they have the ability to become leaders amongst their peers. The Memorial Union becomes a tool for them, a place to gather with fellow students and mentors to talk, to ask questions, to plan events that embody the spirit of the building in which they congregate.

The Memorial Union offers an alliance that is free to those who realize the possibilities building can possess. It speaks through the people that move within its infrastructure facilitating meetings, making music, watching movies, holding debates, and personal discussions. Visit the Memorial Union often. Study, talk with friends, and you will find that you have fallen in love…with a green couch, a nap between classes, an MU Mocha or a whole office full of good people.

As quickly as the Memorial Union extends an invitation to enter, students find themselves looking out the windows and standing on the balconies of life, life outside of college. Reluctant to leave, they’re glad they accepted the opportunity to simply, “Come in.” The future is ambiguous but one thing is certain; like a revolving door the Memorial Union ushers students, teachers and faculty in, and sends them out with the knowledge that they will always be a part of the pulse that is the spirit of the Memorial Union.