Universities Weblog

(Source: Emerson College)

Yesterday's Boston Globe Magazine ran a piece on Emerson College, a Boston institution dedicated to communications and visual and performing arts. Its famous alumni include Henry Winkler ("Fonzie"), Jay Leno, denis leary and Norman Lear, among others. Of course, it's easy to get overlooked in Boston if you're not named Harvard, MIT, BU, BC or Northeastern.

Anyway, here's a bit:

Surrounded by cafes and restaurants, dingy bars, stores selling old books, the Loews movie theaters, the Common, and the Theater District, the actual campus of Emerson does, indeed, hide in plain sight. It's something that [President Jacqueline] Liebergott, as head of this performing arts and communications school, wrestles with often. Marshaling physical presence is a tough task in this vibrant district where historic buildings are packed together like teeth, and Emerson isn't aided by any of the markers that other schools enjoy. There is, for instance, no T stop to its name, unlike Harvard, MIT, BU, and BC. No signs direct you to what the school calls its "Campus on the Common," and the Emerson buildings, purchased one by one, are no campus beacons.

But Liebergott, a trained speech pathologist who joined the faculty in 1971 and became president in 1993, is consoled by the knowledge that Emerson's existence in this neighborhood is itself a triumph of sorts, a testament to the college's ambitious climb toward more recognition and mind space. Signs are but bells and whistles she can do without for now. After all, people may ask where Emerson College is, but fewer people are asking what Emerson College is.

Read the full article here.

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