A university in a park

Trees. Gardens. Quiet walks. Open spaces. Terrific views. A sense of tranquility and security surrounds you on Bloomsburg's 282-acre campus. Ask students about the deciding factor to apply to BU and most will say it's the beautiful campus.

Bloomsburg's campus overlooks the Town of Bloomsburg and is situated just a few hundred yards from the community's business district. The community hospital is just across the street from a cluster of residence halls.

Lower campus includes seven residence halls, student services, campus dining, instructional buildings, library and recreational and social facilities. Upper campus, about a half mile away and connected by continuous shuttle service, includes athletic facilities, two student apartment complexes and maintenance facilities.

Residence halls house all freshmen and many upper classmen except commuter students. Clustered in a group toward the town end of campus, they're just a short walk from shopping, several banks and a number of restaurants. Students are generally two to a room (must be same gender). Dorms are co-ed, have 24-hour front desk security, and all rooms are protected by sprinklers and hard-wired smoke detectors. Rooms include ethernet connections to the university's computer network, telephone and cable television. Each hall has laundry and kitchen facilities and lounges.

Within the area of residence halls are the busy student union, four campus dining facilities including the primary food service outlet, bookstore and an entire building for student services. A professionally-staffed health center is located in the union, and a full time police department is headquartered in the bookstore building.

Eight large instructional buildings offer modern classrooms and laboratories, meeting places and academic computer labs. Most faculty offices are located within the instructional buildings, which are grouped primarily around a large grassy mall in the center of campus. Among them is an arts center with a 1,900-seat auditorium. The buildings continually evolve. Hartline Science Center is doubling in size and renovation of Navy Hall is about to begin.

At the top end of lower campus, Andruss Library and, a bit further, the Student Recreation Center are campus magnets.

In addition to nearly half a million volumes, the library offers many study areas and meeting rooms, more than 200 computer work stations and subscriptions to a wide array of electronic journals (the library can be accessed from anywhere via the university network).

"The Rec" offers students a complete fitness center and weight rooms, aerobics, racquetball courts, and a four-court basketball/volleyball arena. Because of its popularity, the 60,000-square foot is about to undergo expansion to boost its size by 30 percent. The facility also hosts most of the 18 intramural sports programs at BU.

Elsewhere on campus is the president's residence, Buckalew Place, alumni association offices and maintenance and heating facilities. Magee Center, used for conferences, is located on West Main Street in Bloomsburg.

Upper campus is the home of Bloomsburg Universities Huskies athletic programs, which include 18 NCAA teams. Surrounding Nelson field house are a football stadium, fields for soccer, lacrosse and field hockey, baseball and softball.

Also on upper campus are two university-owned apartment complexes, Montgomery Place and Mount Olympus, and an upsale dining and conference facility, Monty's.