New York University

Today, I'd like to welcome a new guest contributor to this site, New York University professor John Jost. I learned through Facebook that John took campus photos and he agreed to make his collection -- focused on East Coast schools -- available for this site. Let's start out with John's own school, NYU.

NYU is a prestigious private university, located in Greenwich Village near the southern tip of Manhattan. The campus is inextricably linked with Washington Square Park, recognizable by its famous arch (far left side of picture).

According to the Wikipedia page on Washington Square Park, "Most of the buildings surrounding the park now belong to New York University, but many have at one time served as homes and studios for artists. Some of the buildings have been built by NYU while others have been converted from their former uses into academic and residential buildings."

NYU has some of its commencements in Washington Square Park, the graduation gowns creating a sea of violet, the main school color. (As an aside, NYU also has held graduation at Yankee Stadium, including in May 2012.)

Based on this NYU campus map, searches of NYU buildings in Google Images, and the use of Google Earth, I've developed the following legend of buildings corresponding to the above photo.

The "1 University Place" building has apartments at several different price-points, starting at around $2,500 a month for a studio, that is. For those of us who will have to get the NYU experience vicariously, here's a nice photo essay on one of the surrounding areas.

One of the buildings framing the park is the Stern School of Business. Here is the entrance of the brick-colored wing of the Stern School, which is adjoined by a more modernistic wing.

Finally, we have a rainbow shot looking out over the city.

Oxford University

I am pleased to display photos from Oxford University, one of the world's most famous institutions of higher learning, taken by my Texas Tech colleague Natalia Velikova on a visit to England. According to the Wikipedia page on Oxford, "While having no known date of foundation, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096..." Oxford is composed of 38 "self-governing" colleges. The residential-college system, which is used at Oxford, Cambridge, and elsewhere in Great Britain, has also been in adopted in the U.S. at some Ivy League schools and at Rice University in Houston, Texas, to name a few places. On to the Oxford photos!

We start out with the Oxford Museum of Natural History. Built in the mid-1800s, the museum is very young in relation to the university's founding! Video tours inside the museum are available here.

Next is a structure known as Radcliffe Camera, a former library that now hosts undergraduate reading rooms. This building is a little older, having been constructed in the mid-1700s.

The next few pictures show some of the colleges at Oxford. First is University College...

...followed by Magdalen College.

Next is Christ Church College...

...with Christ Church's Cathedral appearing in the background of the next photo, beyond Tom Quad...

Finally, we have the Bridge of Sighs, connecting buildings within Hertford College...