Bing to "defrag" the city.

[Detroitnerd]

UofM and Eastern Michigan were rural environments with students living in dormitories. As the universities grew in size, the construction of dorms did not keep pace with the rise in enrollments and more and more students had to live off-campus in rented housing. Wayne State was a commuter college that as it grew began to attract more and more students that wanted to live adjacent to campus.

There is some truth to what you say, but it doesn't take in the full picture. U-M's history stretches so far back that you could say that it was rural -- as was almost all of Michigan in 1837. But what's most important to note is that we are discussing the sorts of environments that foster contemporary innovations, such as the invention of Google, yes? Google was not invented in the 1840s or 1940s but in 1998, by which time the environment of Ann Arbor was not a closed campus such as Adrian or Alma are.

Also, it's important to note that Wayne State University was not at the beginning a commuter university at all. It had plenty of housing, including the old Big Mack building, and, if I remember right, it was only after World War II that it became more of a commuter university. And, actually, it is building more housing and encouraging more students to live on or near campus. When I attended WSU in the 1990s, I lived in off-campus housing in the nearby Hollenden building, as did many of my peers. So, it's a more complicated story.

[iheartthed]

Is an army barracks "urbanesque"? If your definition of "urbanesque" is students sharing a room with one, two, or three other students and a communal bathroom down the hall, then I guess any college other than a "commuter college" is "urbanesque". Michigan Tech up in the UP must be "urbanesque" as well.

I've never actually lived in an army barracks, so I wouldn't know.

Universities were placed in suburban or rural areas specifically to get them away from the hurly-burly of commerce to allow quiet contemplation. They were designed for students living, eating, and going to class within a short walk. When I went to college, it was a small school in a small town. Yes, I had three roommates the first two years and two roommates the last two years. Everyone lived in the dormitory and I could walk anywhere on campus in five minutes. It sure didn't feel "urbanesque" after growing up in Detroit.

Two things: 1) you're confusing the community surrounding a college or university with the actual structure of the school; 2) "urbanesque" does not mean the same thing as big city.