The Leaning Tree

A student walks past the Leaning Tree in the courtyard between Moore Hall and the Music Building at Central Michigan University.

One tree, strange and bent, stands out among Central Michigan University's beautifully manicured landscaping.
It's a tree in the large courtyard bounded by Moore Hall, Bush Theater and the Music Building. It doesn't grow straight up, like most trees. This tree leans off the vertical at about a 45-degree angle.
It's been like that for many years. A red dot is painted on the trunk, and I'm not sure what that means.
The tree appears, to a layman, to be solid. There's no indication that I've seen as to why the tree tilts off at that crazy angle.
The conservative, risk-averse part of me screams out, "It might fall on someone! Risky! Risky!"
But the artist in me says this is a cool tree, doing something different just because it can. And somehow, its location among the buildings where musicians, actors, designers, filmmakers, television producers and journalists learn their creative skills seems so appropriate.
Lean in, tree.