Boston University is famous for its vertical stretch alongside the Charles River and down Commonwealth Avenue, and the U.S. government has decided that it’s just the university to use as an example for a large percentage of foreign leaders looking to build successful colleges overseas.
BU has indeed built a physical campus that is worthy of being a strong model. BU is located in the middle of Boston, but it has built a campus feel over the past few decades by stringing together a mile and a half stretch of buildings along Commonwealth Avenue. Compared to other schools like New York University, BU is more centrally located and provides students with a campus that, though not green, feels like one cohesive unit. People are well aware of the fact that they are on a college campus when they step off the Green Line and into BU territory. The campus is not fenced off from the city (like Columbia University in New York City or Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.), it is still kept in a cohesive campus-esque environment. Many may complain that BU has significantly impacted the surrounding neighborhood (think drastic changes in both Kenmore Square and Audubon Circle), but the university itself has done a great deal to transform Commonwealth Avenue into a student-friendly environment.
At the same time, BU has bottled the feel of a big city to set the tone for the campus. The fast-paced atmosphere of Commonwealth Avenue makes the campus feel alive at all hours of the day and creates a sense that the campus is very much part of the city. While other universities like George Washington University in Washington, D.C. try to maintain a similar feel, they do too much to appease parents’ desires for their children to be safe by trying to keep their campus streets quiet. BU uses the urban setting of Boston to its advantage and has made it a successful city campus.
But it’s not just BU’s physical campus that makes it a model. BU has done an excellent job of making students feel safe by building a strong campus police force and a ubiquitous blue phone system that allows students to feel at home in the middle of such a big city. In all aspects, BU has done a great job with what it was given. The university has turned a string of used car dealerships and factory buildings into a successful and attractive campus.
BU’s relationships with surrounding neighborhoods have been rocky at times, but the school is a strong model for how to build sturdy connections with important officials and agencies in the city, state and federal governments. Despite critical voices in the local community, BU has managed to forge ahead with an ambitious building program that will continue to make the campus more and more a single unit. The more than $300 million in grants and contracts the school brought in last year is also a testament to the key relationships BU officials have made.
BU should be proud of the fact that it is used as an example for other universities embarking on creating an urban-campus environment.