The Red Square: Cultural Hub of Western
The air is crisp and cool, even though it is well past mid-morning. There is a simple, yet still elegant, fountain in front of you and throughout the area students are out enjoying the day in any way they can. There are students huddled at the fountain and at the tables around the outskirts of the plaza sit even more hunched over textbooks as professors and students rush past to make it to their next class. The atmosphere makes you long for a warm, preferably pumpkin flavored beverage. You are now in the Red Square, a social and cultural hub of the Western Washington University, in the fall; a time when everyone is glad to be back to this place so many call home for three short quarters every year.
If you aren’t familiar with one of the more iconic locations of a small college, don’t feel bad about it. The best way to describe it is as a smaller more collegiate version of the Seattle center, with its many events and iconic statue in the center. Even though the world’s fountain is a little larger than the one that adorns the center of the red square. The Red Square has its own quirks though, because it is on a college campus there are students franticly studying for midterms instead of homeless looking people asking for money on the outskirts.
If you are looking for a nice place to socialize on Western’s campus this is the place for you, or more specifically the fountain that is in the center of the square is. There is plenty of room to sit on the edge; that is if you get there and sit down soon enough, there is always students here, some are studying, but most are sitting and enjoying the day, talking to friends, or watching the people walk by on their way to class. If you are lucky you might even find a musician practicing their trade in the square, instead of locking themselves away in the stuffy non-basement that is the PAC, the Preforming Arts . Even when the fountain is off the square has a greatness in it, during passing period the square surges with life and fills to a brim with busy students half rushing back and forth on their way to their next class, lecture, or lab. The students aren’t the only ones that occupy the space, there are professors there as well off to teach their next class, but it is the students who are the ones coming and going in groups, talking to each other and making jokes that only they would understand. This helps with the social feel of the area, one that makes it feel warm and welcoming.
“If you are looking for a nice place to socialize on Western’s campus this is the place for you…”
The best way to fully realize the potential of the red square as a cultural hub is to understand when it is realizing the epitome of its possibility, the fall info fair every year. Every fall the students that come to this college get together and talk about the different clubs, activities and events that happen during the school year. The students that run the booths and give the square life every year are the ones that give the student body the charm that carries over into the rest of the year, and gives the red square the life that flows through it every year.
The only drawback to the seemingly perfect hangout, is located around the outskirts of the square. The irony about it is that it is the same students who make this such a perfect place are the ones occupying the space around the edges, diligently studying the subjects they usually care about. They follow a large protocol for personal space, occupying one table per person and claiming it as their own.
So if you are looking for a great spot to hang out and socialize with other students that happen to be there, the red square is the best place to do that. If you want to spend a wonderful Washington day here in Bellingham; the weather is great, the air is crisp, the buildings around the outside are beautiful, and it is a wonderful day to spend in the red square, but the weather may not always be dry and pleasant and though that may not deter the students it certainly will lessen their number.
So why would you care about the cultural hub of a college you might not even go to? The importance of having a social area is very important, many mammals, if removed from social contact, will suffer extreme health consequences and even death. So a small insignificant area that many would pass by, and do daily, without so much as a second glance actually plays a large role in so many lives of so many people.
