Whitney Lynn shares the University of Arkansas Campus

In the next few weeks, we will be posting a series of stories that will be written by members of our team. Each of them will show you some of their favorite aspects of our campus and tell you a little about their decision to attend the University of Arkansas. The second in our series has been provided by Whitney Lynn.

Whitney is a senior distance swimmer from Tulsa, Oklahoma. While at Arkansas, she has been both an All- American and team record holder. Whitney is happy to share with you a bit of her life in college.

Whitney writes: I chose Arkansas because I fell in love with the campus when I came on my recruiting trip. As I’d been attending meets at the HPER pool ever since I was an age group swimmer, I was already very comfortable with the pool, but I had never seen other parts of U of A. The rest of campus and Fayetteville at large just felt like somewhere that I could feel at home. In addition to the University of Arkansas being a great school for me and Fayetteville being a great place to live, by the end of my recruiting trip I felt as though I had been friends with the girls on the team all my life.

I feel proud to be a member of the Ladyback Swimming Team because it is a great group of people full of ambition to succeed in both the pool and the classroom. I think our freshman class this year is crazy, but I thought that about every group of freshman that we had and they all make practice more fun. Our coaching staff is very dedicated to the success of everyone on the team, even if Benji takes up our free time, asking us to write these things and take pictures!

Old Main Lawn

The lawn in front of Old Main is one of the features of campus that I really love. Planted in it are

Whitney in a campus garden

pairs of most of the trees native to Arkansas. I find the arboretum special because it shows a commitment by the U of A to maintain areas of natural beauty even on campus where space is often at a premium. Like so many of the gardens on campus, it is also a great place for resting or studying during a long day at school.

I have loved plants since I was very young but I have no plans to work with them. Right now I am concentrating on graduating. My mom is an avid gardener and very few summers have passed in which we haven’t extended a garden or created a new one. We are running out of lawn.

Whitney showing off a flower on campus

I don’t know the name of the plant in this picture, but I do know that it is a member of the lamiaceae or the mint family because it has a square stem and the leaves are opposite each other. The flower petals are shaped like a tube with two lobes extending at the top and three at the bottom.

I know of four gardens in addition to the arboretum, the lawn in front of the Poultry Science building, and the various plantings around buildings. Over the course of a week, I usually spend about four hours between classes studying or just relaxing in one of the gardens. I use them as places to be alone with my thoughts and free from most distractions.

Fine Arts Garden

I enjoy spending time in the Fine Arts garden the most because even though it is right in

Gold fish in Fine Arts Garden

the center of campus, it’s calm and sheltered from the commotion all around it. It is also the only garden on campus with a pond. There are coy and goldfish in it year round that I often stop to watch. Then wall around the Fine Arts garden blocks out most of the sounds from Garland Street and protects most of the plantings from being trampled. I try to at least walk through this garden everyday.

The size of the campus is another feature that I really like about Arkansas. The vast majority of classroom buildings and athletic facilities are close enough together that you don’t have to rush. The farthest that I regularly walk is from my apartment (1 and ½ blocks north of campus) to the pool (half way across the western edge of campus) and it only takes twenty minutes walking at a leisurely pace. The campus is especially attractive in the fall when the leaves are turning colors. I would like to tell possible recruits that the University of Arkansas is a great place to gain an education and Fayetteville is a wonderful place to live.

View of campus from top floor of the library

Please check back next week for another quick tour by a member of our team. If there happens to be an area of the campus that you would be interested in seeing featured, please feel free to contact Assistant Coach Benji DeMotte at benji@uark.edu and he will try to make arrangements for your request.