While Main Campus may be most known for its beautiful, 100 percent naturally green grass (and its statue of a naked bird-boy), if you look closely enough, there are actually academic buildings that surround the Great Lawn, and like all things in life, they too must be subject to hierarchy in the form of a definitive list as composed by myself. If you feel that any of my choices are out of place and aren't indicative of the building's true potential, The Odyssey is always hiring writers to make lists and whatnot. Your move.
To clarify, the criteria that I'm using for the list is this: as long as the building has had at least one academic class in it at some point in time, it counts in my book. "That's not fair!" you say as you smash your keyboard in frustration. Well, guess what? Let me just do me.
6. Luter, Forbes and McMurran
At the absolute bottom of our list are the three objectively worst academic buildings on campus. I mean, have you seen these three eyesores recently? Not only do they look ugly, the people who take classes in them are even uglier. I personally cannot wait for the day that they're demolished to make way for more buildings that look like Gosnold. You've been warned freshmen: steer clear of these three.
5. The Ferg
The Ferguson Center for the Arts, or the Ferg as it's known, is only a slight step above the three that have preceded it on this list. While hosting numerous Fine Art classes from theater to music to, you know, art, the Ferg also serves as perhaps the ugliest building on campus. I mean, have you ever stopped to just look at it? It's staggering ugliness is almost too much to bear. In fact, the guy who's credited with designing the building was so embarrassed by the work that he did, he actually shortened his first and middle names down to only initials to avoid future embarrassment from association with the project. The only redeeming quality of this building is the super spooky high school that lives on within, which is home to a fine assortment of melancholy graffiti and empty cans of Natty.
4. Ratcliffe
Primarily serving as CNU's resident haunted house, Gosnold is a cold, desolate wasteland void of life aside from the occasional Creecher that lurks around in confusion. Rumor has it that once the admin took over a few years ago, the lost souls of Computer Science majors were trapped inside, fated to roam the halls complaining about bandwidth, kernels, and whatever else they talk about. When unsuspecting freshmen would wander in to complain about the WiFi going down too much, the ghouls would gobble up their souls in anguish, hoping that they may return to a physical form, albeit that of a whiny freshman. I also had math in there once.
2. Honorable Mentions
We couldn't have a best academic buildings list without a shout out to all the fallen heroes of CNU, like Wingfield and the old admin building. I think the Library has had a class or two in it too, right? And Freeman? Does the Lifelong Learning Center have classes in it? For the sake of this list, we'll say they do/did, and we applaud them for it.
1. Business and Technology Center
Coming in at number one on our list is the ever-popular BTC, otherwise known as the Suntrust building or the "Wait, where do you have a class?" building. Since the introduction of Luter to campus, the ole BTC hasn't seen much love these days, but it remains far and away the best academic building on campus. Why is that you ask? Well, because this is my list, that's why. Get over it.