On February 21st, 2009, Southwestern University dedicated its new admissions building, the Wilhelmina Cullen Admissions Center (WCAC). The WCAC is situated between two of Southwestern's oldest buildings, both built nearly a century ago. The building was designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, featuring a bamboo floor, locally manufactured building materials and waterless urinals among other 'green' initiatives. There is a Pirate Bike (Southwestern's system of communal student bicycles) permanently stationed right inside the door. The WCAC is a tightly controlled space, created with a rhetorical function in mind.

The goal of this web site is to analyze the Wilhelmina Cullen Admissions Center as a postmodern rhetorical space that carefully performs an identity of Southwestern for prospective students and parents. More specifically, the way the admissions center uses 'green' spaces and the Pirate Bike system presents a performance of Southwestern as progressive and community-based but also traditional in its values. My analysis is based on a diverse range of visual and physical materials, including the architecture, pamphlets and reading materials, and even the parking lot that enact this performance of SU.

For the introduction to my methods in analyzing the WCAC, click down here.

Introduction