Touring New Prospectives Words by Sam Verner
Working as a tour guide is a rewarding profession. It gives the guide a sense of carving the path of the many prospective students that tour the university. The guides meet new and unique students every time they give a tour, and get a broadened sense of what high school students are looking for from their colleges, sometimes giving the guide insights as to what they can do in their own path. For some students, a campus tour is all they see of a school before making their decision. I’ve seen people say that they made their decision because a tour that was given by one of the guides, and even a couple that chose not to for the same reason (their loss). There have been a few times where a student comes in, saying the usual stuff: “I already visited the U of M, that’s where I see myself, I’m just here because Mom/Dad/Uncle/Friend/Dog/Etc. made me.” and that’s completely alright. Sometimes they’re a lost cause, and we focus mainly on what differentiates Hamline from a state school. In other, more magical times, we find students that are disinterested, have gone on a tour at another school and fell in love with it, only to realize that sometimes love at first sight is misleading. Every school has it’s nuances and unique qualities that make it slightly different from the last. Not all tours are triumphant.
Some feel like you’re weathering a hailstorm and all that can be done is tie yourself to a fence and cover your head. The storm in this case is the tour, and the
hailstones are the questions that we get. To be a nice tour, there must be a good balance of silence, questions, and witty banter. The tours can sometimes be like you’re touring with a bunch of monks that have taken their vows of silence. Others are like you’re touring with a horde of overzealous parrots. Too much of a good thing is never really a good thing, and that is clear for both silence and incessant questioning. It’s important to 3 • Canvas
answer questions about security, parking, life on campus, and general atmosphere, but sometimes being asked for the third time about how far the student can push the boundaries of what an acceptable therapy animal is (“So, like, if I get anxious without my bearded dragon, Harold, can I register him as a therapy animal?” “Probably, you would have to register him through Disability Resources and they can answer any other questions about that” “Okay, but what about my komodo dragon?”) gets my blood pressure up. Luckily, most of these can be stifled by telling them that these questions are great for their admission counselors and that we need to move on in the tour. Sometimes I’ll also just say that I’m not sure and then get fake-excited about some random Hamline fun fact. A lot of people know some basic historical facts about Hamline, but probably only tour guides know that Hamline hosted the first intercollegiate basketball game against the Minnesota School of Agriculture and lost that game 9-3. Being that we’re a private university, it seems natural that all the buildings were made from donations from alumni and people that have so much money that it only makes sense to donate to the school they went to. That’s the case for 99% of the buildings (pay special attention to the Drew family: Drew Science Hall, Drew Residence Hall, and Drew Fine Arts) but sometimes a person gives to the school not with money, but with their time. The Hedgeman Center and Anne Simley Theater are the only two places on campus that are not named after someone who donated money to the school. Anna Arnold Hedgeman graduated from Hamline in 1922 as the first person of color to do so from Hamline. She was also a powerful figure during the Civil Rights Movement. Anne Simley was the theater director at Hamline for close to four decades. Her time dedicated to the students during her long tenure in the theater is what led to her name eventually
