Do you like to visit college campuses and judge the beauty of the buildings and landscaping?

I certainly do, and I was very impressed with what I saw during a recent visit to Indiana University in the Southern Indiana town of Bloomington.

In fact, all at the same time I thought I was taking a walk in the woods, visiting a big city’s outdoor botanical garden, and getting an architectural tour on creative ways to use Indiana limestone and marble.

I guess because I attended Baylor School and the University of Georgia – both of which are known for their attractive campuses – I have realized how any pretty setting enhances the learning experience.

As a result, I have long held an interest in seeing other college campuses, and have trampled across quite a few of them over the years.

I remember being mesmerized with the entire Notre Dame campus, looking for the ghost of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald at Princeton University, and lying down and taking a nap on some grass at Providence College in Rhode Island.

I have also admired some giant boxwoods at the University of Virginia, enjoyed Peachy Paterno ice cream at the creamery at Penn State University, and been impressed with the University of the South at Sewanee’s unusual dining hall, as well as its other buildings.

So I walked across the Indiana University campus with strict standards of what makes a campus attractive. However, Indiana University still passed my test in flying colors.

And that is not because I consider myself a fan of the Indiana basketball program dating back to the days when the fiery Bob Knight was the coach.

I had been in Indiana to visit my nephew, former Chattanoogan Logan Julian, who had been working in Greensburg, Ind., for several months but is getting ready to move to Utah.

Greensburg is a pretty town known for its tree that grows out of its courthouse tower. It is also the former home of Civil War Brig. Gen. John T. Wilder, who later became a Chattanooga industrialist and mayor. Wilder Tower at Chickamauga Park is named in his honor.

Getting to Bloomington from Greensburg requires a journey through two towns – Columbus and Nashville. Columbus features some unusual mid-20th century architecture that resulted from a wealthy manufacturer, who offered to pay for the services of some prominent architects for a number of buildings. Scenic Nashville, meanwhile, is located in one of the few areas of mostly flat Indiana that has large rolling hills.

I had actually been through Bloomington a couple of times before, but had seen only part of the campus. As a result, the third time was definitely the charm. As soon as I saw all the limestone buildings, I knew I would enjoy it.

What impressed me were not only the beautiful buildings, but also what was outside many of them – woods. Some people travel miles to find such peace, but professors and students at IU have to go only out the door.

And how often can one get poison ivy simply by walking to a college class?

Many universities grab any available space for new construction, so seeing such an unspoiled scene at a big state school was refreshing.

And by the way, a pretty, rock-lined creek runs through the campus.

The school also seems to do a good job of preserving and using former residences that border the grounds.

The only part of the Indiana campus I did not like was in the middle, where a giant surface parking lot sits. While walking through there, I felt the heat of the summer day for the first time during my visit.

Perhaps school officials need to build a parking deck trimmed in Indiana limestone, and then use the remaining space for more grass and trees.

Besides a rich basketball tradition that has been on a low cycle in recent years, IU is also known for its great music program. I love to see places where excellence is demanded, so I sought out the Jacobs School of Music.

After having to ask a couple of people – and walk through some more woods – I found it on the south end of campus. I looked through a window of the Music Building Addition as I passed, and I saw some students practicing their instruments with a seriousness of purpose.

I then walked in the entrance of the art deco-style Morrill Hall, which connects with the addition, and I loved the fact that the building looked as though it had not changed since World War II.

I saw a door to the recital hall and opened it and immediately began hearing a beautiful sound. A student was on stage playing the harp, while a professor was sitting on a front row observing closely.

The scene was inspiring, not to mention entertaining.

After that, I headed across the main Third Street to the Indiana University School of Optometry in honor of my father, Dr. Wayne Shearer, a retired optometrist. I saw some students walking in the modern building and figured they had the same aspirations he once did.

I walked in the building myself simply out of curiosity, and saw in the lobby some vintage eye examination equipment, which looked as though it dated to well before he attended the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis after World War II.

I then headed over to the campus bookstore in the pretty and historic Indiana Memorial Union, which featured a student lounge area that looked like a room from the famous Biltmore mansion.

I guess I was getting a little carried away with my enjoyable visit by this time, because I bought a $50 Indiana sweatshirt -- in the middle of summer. I guess I am glad they were not selling $300 camel hair sport coats with an Indiana logo on them.

I then began walking back to my truck through Dunn Meadow, a big grassy area along a creek. Although it was pretty – just as the Arboretum garden and lake area I had seen a few minutes earlier were – my main reason to visit there was that it had been where basketball coach Bob Knight made his last speech to students after he was fired in 2000 for grabbing a student who had called him by his last name.

Since Coach Knight was known as “the General,” I almost felt as though I were visiting a battlefield where he had given his last address to the troops.

After a lunch at the Café Pizzaria – which dated to 1953 and was decorated with Indiana basketball memorabilia – I headed a few hundred yards in my truck to the north part of campus, where the football stadium and the famed Assembly Hall basketball arena are.

I could easily tell basketball is more important than football at Indiana University. As an example, the football stadium had a gate wide open – which would never occur at a place like Neyland Stadium at UT – and it had a smaller press box reminiscent of a generation ago in the pre-skybox days.

Assembly Hall, meanwhile, was a different story. I was able to walk into the building, which dates to 1971 and is of an interesting architectural style, but I could not go through any doors that would let me see the basketball floor. One that I saw was locked, had blackened windows, and displayed a sign that said practice was closed that day.

Whether that dates to the Bob Knight days, I do not know.

Next door, however, is a new practice facility, Cook Hall, which let me get my Indiana basketball fix. On display prominently in the lobby inside a case are the Hoosiers’ five national championship trophies, the last from 1987.

I quickly realized that Coach Knight, who was responsible for three of those trophies, still casts a shadow on the community figuratively longer than any of the pretty old trees I had just walked under on the campus.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net