The wheels of innovation are turning at Alfred University, which on Thursday introduced a new way to experience the campus tour: on a tricycle built for seven.
Made by a Dutch company called Conference Bike, the 14-pedaled contraption cost Alfred about $8,750, a small price to pay for such a unique experience, says Jodi S. Bailey, the university’s director of marketing (see video).
“Enrolling in college is very serious,” she says. “This is a way to show students that they can have a little bit of fun, that they’ll enjoy life at Alfred.”
The university has learned that it’s the first college to use the Conference Bike for the wheeling and wooing of prospective students and their parents (a student tour guide gets to steer). In other words, the kooky bike’s a fitting symbol of the campus tour’s whiz-bang evolution.
So tell us: What puts the cool in your campus tour? –Eric Hoover
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6 Responses to Le Tour de Campus at Alfred U.
pvisscher - October 9, 2009 at 6:55 am
What a great idea! If that Dutch company could invent something to make the weather in Alfred such that the bike can be used more often, they will have a real winner!
ais23 - October 9, 2009 at 9:44 am
Do attendees sign a waiver?
jaysanderson - October 9, 2009 at 10:03 am
All kidding aside, this is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen–and my office is next door to our admissions department, so believe me, I have seen some outrageous nonsense.Let’s break this down. There are actually two levels of absurdity in play here. The first is the concept itself, which is just inexplicable. The second is the price tag–$8,750. Okay, I’ll play along…How much was shipping?
kimchronicle - October 9, 2009 at 12:10 pm
The bike was probably $1,750 and shipping $7,000 – haha
superdude - October 9, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Quite possibly the dumbest, cheesiest thing I’ve seen. I would think that this…”vehicle”…would scare away more applicants than it attracted by its sheer studidity. Seriously, we’re going to pedal around campus together? What’s next? Holding hands and singing Cumbaya?
jaysanderson - October 9, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Okay, I stand corrected-after reading the news from Norway, this bike is the SECOND dumbest thing I’ve heard about today.