Appreciate, respect landscape

When you spend some time away from a familiar place, you appreciate it a bit more when you return.\nI hope that's the case for students as you return to our campus for the fall semester.\nEven amid the commotion of a new academic year, I urge you to take a few quiet moments to soak in the surroundings: the gorgeous gardens, flourishing trees and well-clipped lawns.\nHerman B Wells would have wanted it that way.\nChancellor Wells, one of the truly great figures in the history of IU, died in March at the age of 97. His contributions to IU are far too numerous to list here. But he was always particularly devoted to efforts to maintain the look of a campus that has been called one of the most beautiful in the world.\nChancellor Wells stressed his conviction that exposure to beauty, nature and the arts was central to a complete education. He often said even the environment on a university campus should provide an aesthetic and educational dimension. \nWherever the eye rested, he said, it should see something beautiful, something uplifting.\nThose who have gone before us have left us the legacy of an aesthetically pleasing campus. Preserving and enhancing it is a task that falls most directly on the employees of the Physical Plant department. Judge the job they do by surveying the landscape. There's no question that this year ' with a generous assist from frequent rains ' they have succeeded abundantly.\nThe Physical Plant campus division staff ' which consists of 40 employees, 28 of whom focus on grounds maintenance ' plants waves of flowers and bulbs to keep flowers in bloom through much of the year. They do an outstanding job. They grow 60,000 annual plants in the University greenhouse for transplantation on campus, and plant 20,000 bulbs every fall ' mind-boggling numbers for the most ardent home gardener.\nStaff members who maintain the campus grounds are representative of the hundreds of IU employees who do their jobs every day to make this campus work well for students and faculty members alike. Their contributions are easy to take for granted in the rush of day-to-day activities, unless you stop to smell the flowers.\nWe're all lucky. We have inherited this beautiful natural canvas on which to spend our days and have a dedicated staff that does a terrific job of maintenance and improvement.\nWe have but two responsibilities: Appreciate it, and do our part to protect it.