Rural colleges seek an urban feel for their campuses

For decades, colleges in rural areas have embraced a pastoral ideal and presented themselves as oases of scholarship surrounded by lush farmland and rolling hills. But many officials at such institutions have decided that today's students want something completely different: urban buzz. At the same time, officials have realized that a more urbanized version of the ideal campus could attract working people and retiring baby boomers, if there is housing to suit them. And so a new concept of the college campus is taking root: a small city in the country that is not reserved for only the young.

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