Remaking The Campus Tour

The New York Times has an interesting article today about college tours. Some colleges have decided to start having their tour guides walk forwards, not backwards:

For as long as high school seniors have been visiting colleges, it seems, there have been tour guides walking backward in front of them, breathlessly reciting statistics from a script while, hopefully, avoiding tree roots and other hazards.

Not so at Hendrix College, a liberal arts institution outside Little Rock, Ark. It is one of several dozen colleges and universities that are increasingly directing their tour guides to turn around and walk forward, and to purge their memories of all those dates from the college’s history in favor of personal anecdotes and frequent breaks for give-and-take.

From one of my favorite study areas in Uris, I have a good view of tour guides leading their flocks around Central Campus. Shouting so loudly that I can hear every word three floors up and through a glass window, they awkwardly lope backwards as teenagers and their parents shuffle along behind them.

In fraternity recruitment workshops, we're told that it's more beneficial to tell personal stories about the house than to recite facts about our founding fathers or the history of our chapter. No one cares if one of your alumni designed a building on campus, but they'll remember a funny story about when you drank too much and did something stupid. Maybe this fact doesn't put Greek life in its best light, but it's true.

Towards the end, the Times article acknowledges that the walking forward schools are still in the minority:

Which is not to say that walking backward does not have its virtues.

At Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, Pa., Emily Pavlos, a senior, says she would be unable to show her tour groups everything the college wanted them to see in the 90 minutes allotted without walking backward.

“Making eye contact with them while I’m walking also helps me make a connection with the parents,” Ms. Pavlos added.

I don't expect Cornell to make any changes to its campus tours, particularly since some of the groups have 25-30 people in them. (Compare to the 5 people in the Times photo.) But it's something to think about.

Thanks DB