The University of Denver recently announced that it will be holding in-person classes on campus this fall. This past quarter, students were forced to take classes online, due to the coronavirus. I imagine that a lot of those DU students - not to mention their parents - felt they were not getting their money's worth because of this. With annual tuition and fees of $50,500, I myself would have been a bit peeved at having to shell out that kind of money while sitting in front of my computer at home. And I must say, the campus seemed pretty empty this spring. I took the photograph on the left of University Hall, built back in 1890, a week or so ago, with nary a person in sight.
The photograph on the right is of Evans Memorial Chapel, built in the 1870s and moved to the campus from downtown Denver. In the foreground you can see one of the many reflecting ponds around campus, which have recently been filled with water despite the lack of students. The school, by the way, was founded by John Evans, who was appointed Territorial Governor of Colorado by Abraham Lincoln back in 1862. Evans, a fellow Illinoisan, also founded Evanston, Illinois, as well as Northwestern University. I wonder what Evans would have thought of tuition costing fifty grand a year? Talk about sticker shock. DU has sometimes referred to itself as "the Harvard of the West." My friend and former University of Denver Bookstore colleague Wally says that he will never refer to DU that way until Harvard starts to call itself "the DU of the East." Regardless, see you in a couple of months, DU students!
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