Colleges Go Above and Beyond for the Solar Eclipse

Ann Wright has spent the past three years preparing for less than five minutes.

The professor of physics at Hendrix College, in Arkansas, used a rare sabbatical to plan a campus commemoration of the total solar eclipse — crafting an event that would appeal to everyone, not just science nerds.

The wait is almost over. On Monday, Hendrix’s small population will swell to up to 10,000 when its “Solar Odyssey” takes over the football stadium. The event will include, in addition to viewing the eclipse, a wind-ensemble performance of space-themed pop songs; a parade of puppets; a LEGO display of the solar system; and an activity station for kids.

Wright knows it’s a lot. But she remembers what a blast the 2017 eclipse party was and how it brought the community together. Back then, Hendrix wasn’t even in the path of totality. This year, it will be.

In the early afternoon, the moon will pass between the Earth and the sun, blanketing a narrow strip of North America in complete darkness for several minutes. Dozens of college campuses will find themselves in the path of totality, most of which weren’t so lucky in August of 2017, when the last total solar eclipse crossed the United States on a different trajectory.

From South Texas to the far corners of Maine, colleges have embraced the ephemeral event: A professor at Hamilton College, in New York, will take students into the Adirondacks to witness the eclipse in totality; researchers at Indiana University at Bloomington will study how birds act in sudden darkness; and the University of Texas at Dallas will hand out T-shirts as part of its “No Comet Left Inside” celebration.

For institutions on or near the path of totality, the eclipse not only gives students and employees a break from classes and work. It also offers a prime opportunity to draw locals and alumni to campus.

Anticipation for such festivities is high. Aileen O’Donoghue, a professor of physics at St. Lawrence University who’s involved in its campus celebration, traveled from New York to Kansas to see the 2017 eclipse in the path of totality. But it was obscured by clouds.

“I’m hoping that I won’t get clouded out twice in a row,” O’Donoghue says. “And if I do, I’m going to Australia.” (The continent might see another solar eclipse sooner than the contiguous United States — in 2044.)

Here’s a look at what colleges have planned.

Eclipse Events — With a Side of Hors d’Oeuvres and Recruitment

With more than four minutes of totality in the forecast, Killeen, Tex., is expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors. At Central Texas College, locals and visitors can get ready for the eclipse at a “Dinner Under the Stars” on Saturday.

For $65 per person, guests will enjoy a social hour, a gourmet meal, a show in the theater, and stargazing with the college’s resident astronomer. A $250 VIP option adds on a T-shirt, special parking, and additional show tickets. The dinner is completely sold out, but there are still parking spots for Monday’s viewing and plenty of merch.

The University of Southern Indiana, with its “Solarpalooza,” is taking advantage of the influx of visitors to offer an all-day admissions event for prospective students. The schedule is typical for a campus tour, until 2 p.m., when the group will watch the eclipse on the quad.

Free Glasses ... and Canceled Classes

Even if they’re not going all out with the programming, institutions are giving out thousands and thousands of eclipse glasses. Safety first.

During the partial phases of the eclipse, viewers must keep the special glasses on to prevent eye damage. But during totality, the glasses can be removed.

“If you keep them on, you won’t see a thing,” says O’Donoghue, the St. Lawrence professor. “You have to take them off during totality to see the corona of the sun and the stars and planets.”

Classes have been called off for an hour at the University of Texas at Dallas and for five hours at the University of Rochester. In-person classes are canceled all day at Indiana University’s campuses.

Some institutions aren’t upending their academic calendar for the occasion. But the University of North Texas has given professors permission to cancel class or teach outside. After all, who wants to be the prof who insists on lecturing inside when it’s about to be suddenly and fleetingly dark?

Bird Watching With a Twist

For some students and professors, it’s not all sun and games on eclipse day. They’ve got data to collect.

Researchers at Indiana University at Bloomington will study how birds react when it becomes pitch-black. Like Killeen, the city will be in totality for four minutes, giving researchers ample time to look for changes in the creatures’ behavior.

“We might expect birds to roost up in trees together as they would in the evenings,” says Liz Aguilar, a Ph.D. student at Indiana. “They might start to not sing as much. They get quieter at night. … We’ll potentially see some more activity from bats or owls.”

As a “community science project,” Aguilar and colleagues in Indiana’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering created a free app, Solar Bird, which is available to anyone to download and record observations of avian behavior before, during, and after the eclipse.

Aguilar says she might avoid the tourist traffic and record data in her own neighborhood. Other researchers are hitting the road.

Ned Ladd, a professor of physics and astronomy at Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pa., will fly 13 students down to Addison, Tex., to replicate research he and a student group collected in 2017, during the last total eclipse.

The trip is connected to a half-credit class Ladd is teaching on solar physics and the presentation of scientific information to the public. His group will run outreach activities for local middle- and high-school students, and then, during totality, collect observations of the sun’s corona using equipment that has been shipped down to Texas.

They might not have time for much else. “We had talked about trying to go to the rodeo,” Ladd said, “but it’s going to be too hard to get 17 of us to a rodeo.”

Not Your Average School Field Trip

Hamilton College is just outside the path of totality, in the 99-percent eclipse zone. Good enough, right?

Wrong.

That’s like the difference between being inside a football stadium and being outside of one during a game, says Adam Lark, an associate professor of instruction for physics and the observatory director at Hamilton. “The difference is huge.”

So he plans to take two busloads of students 45 minutes off campus to Woodgate, N.Y., which is in the path of totality. Lark expects 300 to 400 people to be in attendance.

Isa Khan is one of Lark’s research students. He’s hoping to test Einstein’s theory of relativity during the eclipse, using a telescope.

This will be both Lark and Khan’s first total eclipse.

As human beings, “we are drawn to rare beauty,” Khan says. “And a total eclipse is definitely rare beauty. But also as a physicist, two of the celestial objects we know the best are crossing each other’s path. It’s going to be exciting to watch.”

Wright, at Hendrix College, is also very excited. She’s wondering how her backyard chickens will react; she’ll check later on her security camera.

Her friends in the psychology department told her that communal experiences, like watching the eclipse, create vivid memories for those involved.

“It’s great if we can provide this experience and have so many people be just bonded to our college,” Wright says. “That’s good. That’s good for donations and alumni and the present students and the past students — just all feeling like one big happy family.”