Listen Here
Students and the general Findlay public use campus spaces to watch the eclipse
By Kendall Westgate, Brooke DeSnyder, Emily Byglin, Anthony Johnson
No school is always exciting for students; however, the total solar eclipse offered legitimate excitement for students on the University of Findlay campus since different events were offered throughout the day.
Sophomore AnnMarie Brower chose to view the eclipse on the lawn of CBSL with some of her friends. They set up blankets in between the two 8-feet solar eclipse glasses. Staff members handed out free eclipse viewing glasses to those who chose to view at CBSL.
“There were a bunch of people everywhere,” Brower said.
UF students, staff, faculty, and even those who traveled from out of state and out of country gathered on the front lawn of the CBSL and in front of Old Main to watch the eclipse. Some questioned how difficult travel and leaving CBSL would be after viewing the eclipse.
“It (leaving) was not as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Brower said.
Since many UF students walked from their place of residence, it was not as difficult to travel out of the CBSL. It also helped that many decided to leave the front lawn at different times after the eclipse ended.
“It was so cool being there with everyone,” Brower said. “I was not expecting it to be that dark and easy to see.”
Besides the viewing sites on campus, UF hosted other eclipse-related events including Chalk-the-Walk, informational tables on Cory Street Mall and activities in the STEAM center. Events on campus began at 10 a.m. with the booths and games offered at the Cory Street Mall and ended around 4:30 p.m. when the eclipse ended.
The Virginia B. Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion also hosted guest speaker Bill Brown at 11 a.m. to discuss a stratospheric view of the total solar eclipse. They used weather balloons to view the eclipse from the edge of space.
UF students Allyson Brostrom, Allison McCafferty and Alyssa Burgei decided to enjoy the eclipse from the hammock court.
“It’s a one in a lifetime experience.” Burgei said.
Findlay student, Will Aljanci agreed.
“When that happened it was insane,” Aljancic said. “I was in complete shock.”
Many traveled from out-of-state to view the eclipse in Findlay, since Findlay was in the line of absolute totality. This caused a busier campus.
“Campus is definitely busier than on a weekend, but I don’t think it was as busy as they were anticipated,” McCaffety said.
Some other students decided to travel home to enjoy this event with their family. Sophomore Meghan Donovan met her family at a friend’s lake house, instead of enjoying the event in Findlay.
“We had a small party on the dock and watched the entire thing from lounge chairs.” Donovan said. “My favorite part of the eclipse was watching it reach full totality because it turned to darkness in a matter of seconds. We could hear celebrating from the boats on the lake and people started shooting off fireworks for the few minutes of darkness.”
