Wing Commander Goes to College

There's a scene in Pilgrim Stars, the first Wing Commander movie tie-in novel, where we see a news broadcast from a hastily-assembled Pilgrim concentration camp. The news chyron identifies the location of the camp as the University of Central Florida. Note that this includes a wonderful example of the 'sci-fi list' trope where one or two future events are included in a list of familiar ones:

Bellegarde now studied the image of a university campus. Ancient brick buildings with signs identifying them as Library, Administration, Biological Sciences, Offworld Sciences, and Humanities and Fine Arts girdled an oval reflection pond about thirty meters across. The caption read: DESIGNATED PILGRIM SAFE ZONE: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA , EARTH. A half dozen rifle-toting young men sprinted along the pond’s perimeter, with an equal number of Marines in pursuit. The men took up flanking positions near the library and unleashed a vicious spray of conventional fire into the building’s glass doors as the reporter narrated the action. “Many Confederation citizens are using the current crisis as an excuse to take the law into their own hands. Some seek revenge for the Pilgrim war, and they intend to get it. Marines who have been assigned to protect camps like this one in Central Florida have been accused of doing a less than adequate job. One Marine, Private Jacko Fistalis, had this to say.”

The University of Central Florida (abbreviated UCF) is a real public university located in Tampa, Florida in the United States. Is there a special reason it was mentioned in Pilgrim Stars? Indeed! Author Peter Telep is both a graduate of UCF and was an English professor there when he wrote his Wing Commander books (and he continues to teach there today)! So it's a wink and a nod to his own history… which got me thinking: is the short description he gives of the scene based on the real school? A little searching through online maps revealed… yes it was!

The description reads: "Ancient brick buildings with signs identifying them as Library, Administration, Biological Sciences, Offworld Sciences, and Humanities and Fine Arts girdled an oval reflection pond about thirty meters across." I took a look at a campus map from 1999 and located where the reflecting pool and the four 'real' buildings would be. And sure enough, they match the descriptions!

Reflection Pond - Official Site

Library - John C. Hitt Library - Official Site

Administration - Millican Hall - Official Site

Biological Sciences - Official Site

Humanities and Fine Arts - Trevor Colbourn Hall - Official Site - The Trevor Colbourn Hall (pictured) that was present when the book was written has been demolished and replaced with a new building.