Proudly Raising Young Conservatives:
Emory's Clairmont Campus

May 3, 2006

Since being displaced by Hurricane Katrina last August, we have been living in an apartment at Emory's Clairmont Campus. It has always been difficult to explain our mixture of thankfulness at being given a place to live and our frustration that the place happened to be here at the Clairmont Campus.. a conglomeration of apartments that is a glorified college dorm. The apartment was by no means cheap, but all year long we wished that we could have used a fraction of the money for a cozier and more open apartment.

A lot of attention has gone into the entrances to these apartment buildings. We must use a special key to get into these gated doors. The multi-level parking lots are blocked by both a metal gate and a wooden arm.. the gate slides away and the arm raises when the bar-code on our car passes by the electronic sensor. Everywhere one looks, there is nothing but metal bars.. even the windows in the hallways have bars (to block suicides?).

Just try to break in! And if you want to take a swim in the Olympic-sized pools, well then you had better enter by means of the palm-print reading scanners at the student center.. unless you want to jump over some more black metal bars. Are we in prison here, or what?

In all the argument and counter-argument that marks current political debates, one question that never gets asked is what kind of values our surroundings create. The fight for liberal values is not simply about a set of political doctrines.. it is a way of life.

And what way of life does the Clairmont Campus foster? The primary message is security. No one comes in except those with proper keys.. or at least the proper palm-prints. Just behind security is the message of privilege. I imagine wealthy parents walking around, sizing up the exclusivity of the campus for their sons and daughters.

Above is a view of Clairmont Avenue running just outside Clairmont Campus (note the black metal fence running along the sidewalk). For a campus whose visual code speaks security, one might easily wonder: security from what? It is not as if urban life spills onto the campus.. quite the opposite. The campus is located along a main traffic artery which is hardly pedestrian friendly. It resembles an island heavily fortified to withstand some unknown assault.

An annoying aspect of Clairmont Campus is the occasional attempt at humor. I suppose that instead of 15 mph, the speed has been listed at 13 mph.. from the spooky influence of that skeleton with a top hat, Dooley. I can imagine the dull office setting in which someone came up with this idea.. and the developers and administrators probably loved it because it communicated something off-kilter or funky. It must have been in line with the image they wanted to project. But has there ever been a community run with less humor?

Not a lot of "funky" in that picture. But maybe I should be looking at all the curved concrete paths..

Note the manicured and controlled landscaping. No danger of getting lost here.. and in a way that is exactly what I miss: a place where one could get lost. Not in the emptiness of the corridors, but in any experience that is not so completely controlled and constructed. And I also miss whimsy that is deep and pervasive.. not vaunted on signs that regulate mph.

So what kind of student will be produced through this kind of living experience? I don't know what their party affiliation will be.. But whatever political persuasion, they will be well conditioned for their next exclusive housing environment. I imagine you leave here and move into some urban townhouse or luxury apartment complex.. and after a few years and a few promotions move to a home in a gated community. At no point does anyone at Clairmont Campus learn to live in a city.. that is, rubbing shoulders with people from many walks of life, from many income brackets. And this seems to me a recipe for making young conservatives.

At the center of the community is the tower. Any guesses as to how much it costs to live in a room that has access to one of those balconies? Well, that one bedroom apartment will cost you $3,314 per month. Remember, those will all be college students.