Fresno State – "The Garden Campus"

By Travis Ball
The Collegian

Before Ryan McCaughey came to Fresno State he spent the majority of his time on a golf course, and he never took a swing.

In fact, when he left the Mohonk Mountain House resort hotel in New York to become the new grounds manager at Fresno State his clubs didn’t even make the drive out West.

“When you spend 10 hours a day on a golf course you don’t want to spend another three to play,” McCaughey said. “People say, ‘You don’t play?’ — Do you go back to your office and hang out for three hours?” McCaughey asked.

McCaughey applied for the position online in August of last year but nearly lost hope of moving to California when he didn’t receive a reply until December.

“I applied because you’re in charge of the campus plus the athletic fields,” McCaughey said. It is rare that a grounds department manages the athletic fields, he said, so that was a bonus. He wasn’t looking to move, but Fresno State had an opening for the university type of job McCaughey wanted.

The success of the Bulldogs athletes on those fields made McCaughey even happier. “This is a big time athletic program,” he said. “When I actually came out here and saw everything I thought, ‘how could I pass this up?’”

What McCaughey saw was a lot more than just the athletic fields. The campus grounds were both impressive and intimidating when he saw them for the first time in Januaury, he said, but he’s settled in and now it’s like any place else.

Well, not exactly like any place.

The grounds at Fresno State are quite impressive and they have been acknowledged for their beauty and abundance on more than on occasion.

With several thousand trees of more than 100 varieties at Fresno State, the campus was dedicated as an arboretum in 1978. Along with being considered an arboretum where the trees can be seen as well as studied.

“Look at other campuses like UC Davis,” McCaughey said. “They have an arboretum, but theirs is in a self contained area which is about the size of Lot Q. We don’t have that here.” Because our arboretum is basically our whole campus, McCaughey said it is harder to maintain. That is why the university establishes things like the Memorial Tree Program.

As well as the arboretum there is just over an acre of specialty gardens at Fresno State, McCaughey said, and 40 acres of just landscaping.

The Rose Garden, the Allergy Free Garden, behind the alumni house, the Shade Garden, next to Round Table Pizza, and the Japanese Maple Garden, outside the Thomas Administration building, are some of the reasons why the campus is considered the “Garden Campus” among 23 other CSU campuses, according to a Fresno State News press release.

“It’s definitely one of the better ones I’ve seen considering it’s in a city,” McCaughey said about the grounds at Fresno State compared to other universities. “Other campuses have general quad areas, but I’ve never really seen a campus that has as many specialty gardens like we do.”

Jared Lacefield, a Fresno State junior majoring in business management, said Fresno is considered by some to be the gateway to the Sierras and with all the trees on campus the university stays true to that theme.

Because Fresno State is a commuter school, some students don’t have time to check out the grounds, McCaughey said. “You don’t have time to go to places like the Sneezeless Garden out by the Alumni House. You come in, go to your class, go to eat and then you leave.”

But not all commuting students are in such a rush. Animal Science senior Jennifer Jones said she has to drive about an hour to get home, so she can’t exactly go home in between classes. “So, it’s nice to have a decent size campus where you can lounge around when you need to.”

Shade is one advantage McCaughey hopes every student uses. “It gets hot, so you need these trees and these landscapes to help,” he said. “It does help.”

McCaughey said he’s new and still learning a lot here at Fresno State, but he does have the look of the campus heading in a certain direction. He wants to make gardens more accessible to students as well as keeping the arboretum in shape.

He said grounds workers are currently working on planting an iris garden on the south side of the Psychology and Human Services building, and in the future they hope to create a native plant garden where the San Ramon buildings once were.

There is also potential of redoing the whole Peace Garden as the new library finishes completion.

“They are going to continue with the landscape theme of a garden campus,” McCaughey said. “At this point it’s a sense of pride.”

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