It was the Stanford of brochures. The smoke lifted. Temperatures hovered in the 70s. Sunlight sharpened the edges of campus’s cast of Mission Revival buildings. 

What was missing, of course, was the students. The East Campus sector where residents are concentrated ticked up in liveliness as classes kicked off. But even Stanford hotspots like Meyer Green and White Plaza were largely deserted.

Faint trappings of a college campus remain, with masked students shuttling to dining halls, rare pockets of residents settling around picnic tables and bursts of laughter breaking out in the mostly soundless night.

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Contact Charlie Curnin at ccurnin ‘at’ stanford.edu and Jackie O’Neil at jroneil ‘at’ stanford.edu.