Mixed-Use Brings Students Back to Campus, Attracts Adult Learners

America has mastered the master-planned city concept. Outdoor mall areas seem more like small cosmopolitan enclaves. Why not college campuses?

A new canned urban is about to be sold to prospective students and other demographics that fit the mold.

Pre-Packaged Urban

More colleges and universities than you might think are ready to break ground on their wide open spaces. Where once “bucolic” pastures lay, mixed-use areas, micro-urban hubs, and trendy apartments and condos will now spring forth. The focus is multifarious—present college students with the amenities they require, i.e. coffee shop, late night eats, funky shops, and general 24/7 buzz. At the same time those laying the plans are building to attract an older, adult crowd that will be an instrumental piece in the so-called buzz.

The New York Times (“Rural Colleges Seek New Edge and Urbanize,” Finder) emphasizes that so far the redesign trend is peculiar among “rural” colleges or those with “vast tracts of unused land.” Specifically the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, a town really only on the map for its campus-presence, University of Notre Dame, and Hendrix College in Arkansas, among a few others are those institutions with blueprints on their board tables.

Cosmopolitan Draw

Remote institutions have been wringing their hands over the increasing lack, even active loss, of students. Once upon a time suburban students sought out a smaller, more serene campus; but trends have sharply reversed:

“Students graduating from high school these days seem particularly attracted to urban settings….Many come from the suburbs… students crave the kind of vitality you have in an urban space.’”

While the trend might currently fill a student gap on so-called rural campuses, it’s destined to take off in untold directions.

Market for the Adult Learner

If it sounds as if these smaller colleges are ready to draw larger numbers of students, you might be surprised, as well. Purposes are mixed: most don’t intend to build a larger student presence, just shore up the census they already enjoy, even if it’s with new adult learners, those beyond the age of 25, those who will live and work in the new communities. The possibilities among the adult learning set are vast as far as interest AND profitability go. Adults on a small campus may now be less intimidated when it comes to attending a course or pursuing a degree they had formerly put off.

If You Build It They Will Come

Designed for “global living,” the new college campus will likely have a deeper impact than is perhaps expected. Yes, the initial intent is to create 24/7 communities, a collective buzz to sell to the prospective student. But chances are the spread will not stop there. Developers are too greedy to sit back and let Hampshire College, let’s say, have its own “urban” heyday.

When you set out to create urban, sow the seeds, no matter how quaint and pre-packaged, doesn’t it make sense that more of the same will follow? Hopefully the communities attached to such campuses are prepared to check possibly unchecked sprawl, but then again, some people like that.

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