Every town of any size in America seems to have a road called “College Street”; often there is no longer an institution there, but one was planned or one was shuttered as the economy fluctuated or populations shifted or mistakes were made that proved to be fatal.
Recently I toured several college campuses while on a business trip, which is a favorite activity for me. Their semi-rural, leafy campuses were marvelously lush and peaceful. Like many of the colleges in the U.S., they reflected a viewpoint that college life was best lived in a retreat, out in the country where reflection was possible. This is why, for example, Ole Miss is in Oxford rather than in the state capital of Jackson. Most flagship state universities are in cities away from the urban areas, even as land-grant institutions (mostly agricultural and technical institutions) were rural for specific purposes.
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