University of Washington

On Friday, I met with three professors at the University of Washington. In such a liberal environment, they are holding the fort and doing so in an almost “underground” fashion, as they mentioned the few conservative professors try to figure out who each other are and then form some sort of tight underground bond. It’s almost funny, it’s almost sad.

But, one professor in the history department who has long been involved with ISI leads the G.K. Chesteron Society, which is an ISI Group that involves a consortium of professors at the three major schools in Seattle (the other two are Seattle University and Seattle Pacific). I’ll be meeting with a couple other professors at Seattle University Monday that are also part of this G.K. Chesterton Society.

I really enjoyed the time with these professors, I had lunch with 2 of them, one was one of the leaders of the Chesterton Society… the other was a little bit less involved with ISI, but still involved. However, the first one seemed “very excited” and was very talkative the whole time, almost giddy. I think they like having someone from ISI come by and lift up their spirits.

The University of Washington campus, by the way, is VERY NICE. I was impressed with how historic it looks, with some very nice architecture, a big giant plaza area (called “Red Square” because it is a huge giant red square, but I’m sure there’s some communist undertones that are attributed to it as well), and the campus is very large with a nice “University Avenue” full of shops, restaurants, and bars. Everyone around here is very liberal – you can just tell. Also, a very eccentric culture in that “university district” too, but also in Seattle in general.

I’ll have more on the rest of my first full day in Seattle in my next blog… stay tuned.