Northeastern University

The Huntington Avenue YMCA c. 1920, site of the Evening Institute for Younger Men.

In May 1896, directors of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association, the first in the U.S., established an Evening Institute for Younger Men, to merge, coordinate and improve its classes that had evolved over the past 40 years. Included among roughly 30 courses offered were algebra, bookkeeping, literature, French, German, Latin, geography, electricity, music, penmanship and physiology. In addition, a banjo club, camera club, orchestra, and weekly parliamentary debates and discussions were promoted. A good education for "any young man of moral character" with a YMCA membership was promised. Located in a new headquarters building at the corner of Boylston and Berkeley streets in Boston, the institute held its first classes in 1898. After a fire, a new YMCA building was constructed on Huntington Avenue in 1913.[20]

The School of Law was also formally established in 1898 with the assistance of an advisory committee, consisting of James Barr Ames, dean of the Harvard Law School; Samuel Bennett, dean of the Boston University School of Law; and Judge James R. Dunbar. In 1903, the first Automobile Engineering School in the country was established, followed by a Polytechnic School in 1904 and a School of Commerce and Finance in 1907. Day classes began in 1909. In 1916, a bill was introduced into the Massachusetts Legislature to incorporate the institute as Northeastern College. After considerable debate and investigation, it was passed in March 1916.[21]

In 1909, the Polytechnic School began offering co-operative engineering courses to eight students. A four-year daytime program had been established consisting of alternating single weeks of classroom instruction and practical work experience with mostly railroad companies that agreed to accept student workers. In 1920, the Co-operative School of Engineering, which later became the College of Engineering, was first authorized to grant degrees in civil, chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering.[20][22] The cooperative program, the second of its kind in the U.S. after one in Cincinnati, Ohio, was eventually adopted by all departments.[23]

On March 30, 1917, veteran educator Frank Palmer Speare, who had served as director of the institute, was inaugurated as the first president of the newly incorporated Northeastern College. Five years later the college changed its name to Northeastern University to better reflect the increasing depth of its instruction.[24] In March 1923, the university secured general (A.B. and B.S.) degree-granting power from the Legislature, with the exception of the medical and dental degrees.[22]

The College of Liberal Arts was added in 1935. Two years later the Northeastern University Corporation was established, with a board of trustees composed of 31 university members and 8 from the YMCA. Following World War II, Northeastern began admitting women. In 1948, Northeastern separated itself completely from the YMCA.[25] By 1959, when Carl Ell who had expanded the university stepped down as president, Northeastern had a local identity as an independent technical university serving a commuter and adult population.[26]

That reputation began changing during the presidency of Asa S. Knowles, from 1959 to 1975. Facing a postwar educational boom, the university broadened undergraduate offerings, increased graduate offerings, modernized administrative and faculty structures, created a Faculty Senate, launched its first-ever capital campaign, reorganized and expanded adult and continuing education, and increased the number of colleges. The university created the College of Education (1953), University College (1960), now called the College of Professional Studies, and the colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing (1964), which both later merged into the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.[27] The creation of the College of Criminal Justice (1967) followed, and then the Khoury College of Computer Sciences (1982), the first college in the United States dedicated to the field of computer science.[28][29]

The period between 1959 and 1975, is also often described generally as "The Age of Student Unrest" or "The Student Revolution," when campuses across the United States were rocked with dissension against institutional discrimination and the Vietnam War. Northeastern's student population not only grew considerably larger, but also more diverse during this time. At the beginning of this period, most of the student body was composed of white males from New England, the majority of whom came from the Boston-area public schools and primarily studied business or engineering. By 1974–75, women accounted for 33 percent of the nearly 14,000 undergraduates students, while 5 percent were black. Moreover, over 900 students came from different foreign countries. Of the graduating class of 2,238, 513 were in Liberal Arts, 462 in Engineering, 389 in Business, 227 in Pharmacy and Allied Health, and the remainder were roughly divided among Education, Boston-Bouvé, Nursing and Criminal Justice.[30]

To attract more women, the university refurbished existing facilities, constructed new women's dormitories and encouraged their participation in all programs. The merger with Boston-Bouvé, a women's college dedicated to physical health, and the creation of the College of Nursing, traditionally a female profession, also contributed to the increase. Though there was an explicit nondiscrimination policy on the books, throughout its history Northeastern had only a handful of black students. In the early 1960s, with financial assistance from the Ford Foundation in New York in the form of scholarships and co-ops to black high school students, Northeastern began actively recruiting black students. By 1975, black student-led organizations included the Afro-photo Society, Student Grill, Health Careers Club, The Onyx (a black student newspaper), Muhindi Literary Guild, the Outing Club, Black Engineering Society, and the first recognized black fraternity at the university, the Omicron Chapter of Iota Phi Theta. In addition, the number of foreign students increased from 170 in the 1950s and 1960s to 960 by 1974–75.[30]

Northeastern's historic Ell Hall on Huntington Avenue.

By the early 1980s, under President Kenneth G. Ryder, the one-time night commuter school had grown into one of the largest private universities in the nation at around 50,000 students. In 1990, the first class with more live-on campus rather than commuter students was graduated. After Ryder's retirement in 1989, the university adopted a slow and more thoughtful approach to change.[31] Following an economic downturn, a 1991 Trustee committee report described the situation as "life threatening to Northeastern," warning of a $17 million budget gap with no funding mechanisms to cover it.[31] That year President John A. Curry formulated a new strategy of transforming Northeastern into a "smaller, leaner, better place to work and study," describing unacceptable compromises in the quality and reputation of the university that had been made in the quest for more students. Staff were terminated and admissions targets were reduced, with applicant numbers beginning to rise by the end of Curry's tenure.[31]

Robert J. Shillman Hall, constructed in 1995.

When Curry left office in 1996, the university population had been systematically reduced to about 25,000. Incoming President Richard M. Freeland decided to focus on recruiting the type of students who were already graduating as the school's prime demographic.[31] Freeland focused on improving academics and restructuring the administration with a goal of "creating the country's premier program of practice oriented education".[31] In the early 1990s, the university began a $485 million construction program that included residence halls, academic and research facilities, and athletic centers. During the university's transition, Freeland reorganized the co-operative education system, decentralizing it into a department based system to allow better integration of classroom learning with workplace experience.[31] Full-time degree programs shifted from a four-quarter system to two traditional semesters and two summer "minimesters," allowing students to both delve more deeply into their academic courses and have longer and more substantive co-op placements, forcing departments to redesign aging programs to fit the longer format.[31] Freeland also created a marketing department, uncommon for universities at the time, and expanded the university advancement office, while setting an ambitious $200 million fundraising target with the goal of reducing dependency on tuition.[31]

Between 1995 and 2007, average SAT exam scores increased more than 200 points, retention rates rose dramatically, and applications doubled.[32] In 1998, Freeland set an admissions target of 2,800 freshman per year, allowing for adequate tuition income without compromising on education.[31] Throughout the transformation, his oft-repeated goal was to crack the top 100 of the U.S. News & World Report's rankings of America's best universities.[33] With this accomplished by 2005, the transformation goal from commuting school to nationally recognized research university was complete. Freeland stepped down on August 15, 2006, and was followed by President Joseph E. Aoun, a former dean at the University of Southern California.[34]

As part of a five-year, $75 million Academic Investment Plan that ran from 2004 to 2009, the university concentrated on undergraduate education, core graduate professional programs, and centers of research excellence. Faculty was originally to be bolstered by 100 new tenured and tenure-track professors, later expanded to include 300 additional tenure and tenure-track faculty in interdisciplinary fields. Aoun also placed more emphasis on improving community relations by reaching out to leaders of the neighborhoods surrounding the university.[35] In addition, Aoun created more academic partnerships with other institutions in the Boston area, including Tufts University, Hebrew College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.[36]

During this period, Northeastern rapidly advanced in national rankings. It placed 42nd in the 2014–15 edition of U.S. News & World Report's best colleges and universities rankings, a 7 position jump from 2013–14 and a 27 place gain since 2010–11.[37] Critics have argued that Northeastern's rise in the rankings shows that the university has "cracked the code" to academic rankings, while others suggested it figured out how to "game the system."[38][39] The 2021 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranked Northeastern 49th in its annual ranking of national universities.[37] Whether or not the rise was an effort to reverse-engineer the controversial rankings formula, critics would likely agree that the positive feedback effect of its placement, in turn, allowed the institution to significantly increase its endowment, admit a more-competitive student body, hire new faculty, add to its campuses and expand its flagship co-op program.[40]

The Empower Campaign was launched in May 2013 for student support, faculty advancement/expansion, innovation in education and research. Its goal was to raise $1 billion by 2017, with half of that being from philanthropic support and the other half from industry and government partnerships. The goal was raised to $1.25 billion in 2015. The campaign was inspired by Richard D'Amore and Alan McKim's $60 million donation to the university's business school in 2012.[41] In October 2017, Northeastern revealed that the final total of the Empower campaign was $1.4 billion. More than 100,000 individuals and over 3,800 organizations donated to Empower, from 110 countries.[42]

Presidents of Northeastern University:

• Frank Palmer Speare (1898–1940)
• Carl Stephens Ell (1940–1959)
• Asa S. Knowles (1959–1975)
• Kenneth G. Ryder (1975–1989)
• John A. Curry (1989–1996)
• Richard M. Freeland (1996–2006)
• Joseph E. Aoun (2006–present)

Colleges listed including schools and degrees offered:[76]

The University Honors Program offers selected students an enhanced curriculum. These students are selected from the regular applicant pool with no separate application and represent the applicants with the highest GPA and SAT/ACT scores that year. The culminating experience is advanced specialty work in a major field through college-specific choices including specialized advanced honors seminars and an independent research project.[78] In addition, students in the Honors Program exclusively can live in a Living-Learning Community housed in West Villages C[79] and F. In Fall 2009, the university began housing first-year Honors students in the lower nine floors of the newly constructed International Village residence hall. Starting in Fall 2017, these students are housed in the lower floors of the even newer 17 story East Village residence hall. 2017 also marked the beginning of the Honors Discovery course and the introduction of the Student Assessed Integrated Learning (SAIL) app.[80]

Launched in 1909, Northeastern has one of the largest and oldest cooperative education (co-op) programs in the world.[81] In the co-op program, students alternate periods of academic study with periods of professional employment (usually paid) related to their major. Most majors offer a four-year graduation option with fewer co-op placements, but the five-year program is slightly more popular with students. Students on co-op do not pay tuition and students not living on campus do not pay room and board. The co-op program typically begins the spring of the second year or fall of the third year (after a more traditional program for the first semesters on campus). Students usually take anywhere between one and three with 96% participating in one and 78% participating in two or more.[82]

Co-op placements range from small start-up companies to large multinational companies, including many Fortune 500 corporations. The program also places students with government agencies, branches of government, nonprofits, and non-governmental organizations. Northeastern students can be found interning in the United States Congress, the White House, United Nations, and at NASA. Student placements usually last six months and most of the time, students are paid. Students may live in the university residence halls on campus during co-op employment, and the university currently leases housing for students co-oping in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. and assists elsewhere.[83]

Northeastern co-op students staying in Boston usually benefit from the fact that the city's most prominent industries have numerous offices/headquarters there. Boston's most consequential industries such as its financial sector, technology sector, and medicine/life sciences sector tend to hire many co-ops in these fields especially to big-name companies. When it comes to D'amore-Mckim Business students, many co-ops end up working for large financial firms such as State Street and John Hancock Financial. Accounting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Deloitte & Touche as well as consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group tend to hire many co-ops every cycle as well. Retail companies like TJX Companies and Staples tend to hire several marketing students every cycle.[84]

Some students also decide to develop their own co-ops if they wish to do something that is not offered. This usually involves starting a new company or reaching out to a company Northeastern does not have a partnership with and facilitating the creation of a co-op partnership. Many companies continually pass down their co-op opportunities to Northeastern students so these new partnerships are documented in Northeastern's co-op database, known as NUCareers, to be given to future Northeastern students. Students that decide to start their own companies are usually involved with IDEA, Northeastern's Venture Accelerator, and will sometimes spend their entire two or three co-ops solely developing their companies. They might also join the Husky Startup Challenge which also helps develop student-run companies. If a company is successful in either IDEA, the Husky Startup Challenge or both, they often to move onto MassChallenge in Boston which is a huge global non-profit startup accelerator and competition.[85]

All Northeastern students take at least one class which prepares them for their co-op and the expectations of a given industry. Some schools, such as D'Amore-McKim, have students take three different one-credit classes to prepare them for their co-op. During these classes, students work with advisers inside and outside of class to pursue potential co-ops as well as work on strategies to make themselves more competitive against other candidates.[86]

The co-op program has led to the university's high reputation when it comes to job placement. 50% of Northeastern students receive a job offer from a previous co-op employer as of 2017.[11] 92% were either employed or enrolled in graduate school 9 months after graduation.[87] This has also led Northeastern to consistently rank within the top 5 in the Princeton Review's list for "Best Career Services/Internships" within the last decade, mainly taking the top spot. The list split into "Best Career Services" and "Best Internships" in 2016 and Northeastern currently ranks 3rd for career services and 5th for internships in the United States.[88][58]

Northeastern has semester-long study abroad programs with placements in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America. Some participating schools include: University of Cambridge and London School of Economics, England; University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Reims Management School, France; European School of Business, Germany; University of Cape Town, South Africa; University of Auckland, New Zealand; Swinburne University of Technology, Australia; Obirin University, Japan; American College of Thessaloniki, Greece and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile and also Antarctica.[89]

Northeastern's International Business program is a member of the International Partnership of Business Schools. Through this program International Business students have the opportunity to be awarded a dual-degree from Northeastern as well as from a sister school abroad.[90]

Since the arrival of President Aoun in 2006, the school has also been emphasizing co-op abroad, in an effort to make the school more global and internationally engaged. There are many programs being offered including social entrepreneurship in the Peru, Kenya, and South Africa.[91]

Northeastern also has the notable Dialogues of Civilizations program, which features dozens of one-month-long programs (usually taking place in the summer) where a faculty member will teach a group of students in a region related to the curriculum of a specific class. A sort of "mini" study abroad, each program has an area of focus – for example, the Geneva program focuses on small arms and multilateral negotiations, while the South Africa program is based in non-governmental organizations, and the Seattle program focuses on design thinking. This program is meant to be a communicative experience and an exchange of ideas and cultures. It is open to all majors and all years, and is the most popular external study option at Northeastern.[92]

The program is used by some Northeastern students to gain extra credits for a minor or concentration and can also be used by students trying to graduate in 4 years while also participating in one or more co-ops. The program will sometimes take place in multiple locations. Entrepreneurship and Global Consulting in Israel is a dialogue that starts in Boston and eventually has students go to Tel-Aviv and Beer Sheva, Israel.[93] Some dialogues span multiple countries with one being taught in Marrakesh, Morocco, then in Amsterdam and concluding in Paris.[94]

Northeastern also offers a program called "N.U.in" which has first-year students start their first semester studying abroad. This program accepts students into the university but has them spend their first semester studying at a foreign university partnered with Northeastern. Students take classes and these credits transfer over to Northeastern when they arrive on campus in the spring. The program began in 2007 with the creation of N.U.in Australia and only had the option for students to go abroad during their fall semester. An option for freshman to go abroad in their spring was later added called "N.U.in Spring" and later renamed "Global Quest". By 2012, 500 students enrolled in the N.U.in program which at the time offered the destinations of London, Dublin, Thessaloniki (Greece), Sydney, and San José (Costa Rica). By 2017 that number grew to 1,100 students and the program had expanded to Shanghai, Rome, Berlin, Montreal, Melbourne, and removed San José as an N.U.in destination.[95]

Research Centers and Institutes at Northeastern include:[96]

The university provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in research through the Center for Experiential Education,[98] CenSSIS Research Experience for Undergraduates,[99] Honors Research, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program,[100] and Provost's Office research grants.[101] In FY 2007, annual external research funding exceeded $78 million.[102] In FY 2009–10, the research funding is close to $82 million.[103] In 2002, Northeastern's Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems was designated an NSF Engineering Research Center. In 2004, Northeastern was one of six institutions selected by the National Science Foundation as a center for research in nanotechnology. In 2010, Northeastern was granted $12 million by an alum for a Homeland security research facility,[104] to be named the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security, after its chief benefactor.[104]

Northeastern had 1,352 full-time faculty, 95% of whom possess a doctorate or the terminal degree in their field, and 479 part-time faculty in Fall 2018.[2] Northeastern faculty members direct more than 35 research and education centers, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center, an NSF Nanomanufacturing Center, and two NSF Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship programs.

Completed in 2002, the Behrakis Health Sciences Center houses the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s, as enrollment grew to over 4,600 students, President Frank Palmer Speare announced that Northeastern would build a new campus.[111] Coolidge Shepley Bulfinch and Abbott, a Boston-based architectural firm, was selected to design the campus near the Huntington Avenue YMCA building that continued to house library and classroom spaces. Richards Hall, which housed classrooms, laboratories and administrative offices, was the first building completed in October 1938. Its light gray, glazed brick exterior with vertical strips of windows was replicated in other buildings of what later became known as the 1944 master plan. A mix of Beaux-Arts and Bauhaus architectural styles defined by stripped-down classicism and open courtyards that resembled that of Massachusetts Institute of Technology across the Charles River. In a June 14, 1934 article, the Boston Evening Transcript described the campus design as "modernistic classical."[111] President Carl Ell completed the remaining buildings of the master plan, including construction of the Cabot Physical Education Center, Churchill Hall and Hayden Hall.

In 1961, under President Asa Knowles, the university purchased a 7-acre red brick industrial complex once owned by the United Drug Company to build to athletic facilities. Three of the buildings facing Forsyth Street were demolished, but due to a need for more office and lab space, the remaining buildings were divided into four sections now called Lake Hall, Holmes Hall, Nightingale Hall and Meserve Hall.[112] The historic structure, built in 1911, would influence new campus buildings away from the original gray-brick campus, as exemplified by the extension of the law school's Cargill Hall in the early 1980s. Over past few decades, Northeastern's academic and residential buildings have expanded considerably. Through landscape improvements, the university transformed a commuter school campus, once dominated by asphalt, to a greener environment. For example, the Behrakis Health Sciences Center, named for 1957 pharmaceutical alumnus George Behrakis, is a 240,000 square feet (22,000 m²) mixed-use project that included a residence hall and parking garage containing a garden roof, integrates smoothly into the campus. Centennial Path was added in 1996 and connects the gray- and red-brick sections of campus with trees, flowers, shrubbery and gently curving brick and asphalt surfaces.

During the last few years, major developments include Northeastern becoming recognized as an arboretum, opening a $225 million research and laboratory complex known as the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC), launching the Institute for Experiential Artificial Intelligence with a $50 million donation, as well as renaming the College of Computer and Information Science to the Khoury College of Computer Sciences with another $50 million donation from Amin Khoury.[107][113][114][115]

Upcoming projects include plans to build EXP, another research facility created to support Northeastern's work in autonomous vehicles, drones, and humanoid robots. This building will be approximately 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) larger than ISEC and is expected to be completed by 2023.[116]

Northeastern University campus in the spring.

The 2011 Sustainable Endowments Institute's College Sustainability Report Card issued Northeastern a grade of "A−" for its environmental sustainability efforts and programs.[117] Additionally, the Princeton Review rated Northeastern as one of the top 15 "Green Colleges" in the nation in 2010.[118] In 2011, the GreenMetric World University ranking evaluated Northeastern as the second greenest university in the world, and first in the US.[119] Northeastern placed first in the rankings again in 2014.[120]

In accordance with a Boston zoning code amendment in 2007,[121] International Village residence hall was certified as a LEED Gold building in 2010.[122] Dockser Hall was the first building on campus to achieve LEED certification, also Gold, with the completion of its renovation in 2010.[123] East Village was rated LEED Silver in 2016 and the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex was rated LEED Gold in 2018.[124][125] The university affiliated LightView apartment building is targeting a LEED Platinum certification, the first in student housing in the City of Boston.[126]

In 2004, Northeastern was awarded the prestigious gold medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for its Dedham Campus.[127]

A pedestrian bridge, spanning five MBTA and Amtrak rail lines, connects the Huntington Avenue and Columbus Avenue sides of the Boston campus.

The Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) is a full-service law enforcement agency with full powers of arrest on university property or property used by Northeastern students and faculty. In 2019 NUPD received Advanced Accreditation with Excellence from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), one of six agencies in Massachusetts to receive CALEA accreditation.[128][129] The campus is adjacent to the Boston Police Department's headquarters. A 2008 Reader's Digest survey ranked NU as the second safest school in the United States after Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.[130]

Northeastern is bracketed by the MBTA's Orange Line and Green Line E branch. Six stations serve the campus: Massachusetts Avenue and Ruggles on the Orange Line; and Symphony, Northeastern, Museum of Fine Arts, and Longwood Medical Area on the Green Line. The Green Line is paralleled by the #39 bus. Ruggles also serves the Needham, Providence/Stoughton, and Franklin Lines of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, and 14 local bus routes.[131]

Facing Huntington Avenue, Krentzman Quadrangle is the main quadrangle on the campus of Northeastern. It is recognizable by the "Northeastern University" brick sign in front. The quad lies at the heart of the original campus between Ell, Dodge and Richards halls, and serves as a gathering space for community members and outdoor activities. It was named after Harvey Krentzman, a businessman and 1949 alumnus.[132]

View of Ell Hall, constructed in 1947.

Ell Hall, completed in 1947, is one of the oldest buildings on campus and is centered on Krentzman Quadrangle. It contains administrative offices, classrooms, art display space, a 992-seat auditorium and the Northeastern Bookstore. Like Dodge Hall, Ell Hall has five floors and also connects to the tunnel network. The tunnels interconnect the major administrative and traditional academic buildings for use in inclement weather.[133]

Blackman Auditorium, Northeastern's largest event space, hosts many different types of events for classes, theater groups, dance teams, musical groups, choral groups, fraternities, sororities, and orchestral ensembles. Blackman has hosted many talented individuals from Maya Angelou to Seth Meyers.[134]

Gallery 360 is Northeastern University's art gallery, which is free and open to the public throughout the year. The 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) space houses temporary exhibits of artworks by visiting artists, students, faculty, and the surrounding community. Some larger exhibits also include the adjacent hallways for additional space. Curation and administration is under the supervision of the College of Arts Media and Design (CAMD).[135]

Ell Hall was named for Carl Ell, president of Northeastern from 1940 to 1959, who is credited with expanding the campus and making cooperative education an integral part of the university-wide curriculum.[111]

Dodge Hall sits on Krentzman Quadrangle and primarily serves as the home of Northeastern's D'Amore-McKim School of Business. The building was completed in 1952 and named for Robert Gray Dodge, a former chairman of Northeastern's board of trustees. It has five floors.[136] Classrooms and a lounge area occupy the first floor. The business school's undergraduate office is on the second floor and the graduate office is on the third floor. The School of Professional Accounting office is on the fourth floor. The basement houses a computer lab and is connected to the university's large network of tunnels.

From 1953 until Snell Library opened in 1990, Dodge Hall's basement served as the university's main library.[137][138] Directly behind Dodge Hall is the Boston YMCA, where Northeastern was founded in 1898.

Originally known as West Building, Richards Hall borders Krentzman Quadrangle and was the first building constructed on campus in October 1938. Its light gray brick and vertical window strips design was the work of alumnus Herman Voss and was replicated in other surrounding buildings.[111] It is an administrative building with some academic space.

Richards Hall was named for Boston industrialist James Lorin Richards, a former board trustee.[20]

Centennial Common

Centennial Common is a lawn created to mark the 100th anniversary of Northeastern University in 1998. The grassy area borders Shillman Hall, Ryder Hall, Meserve Hall, Leon Street, Forsyth Street and Ruggles Station, and serves as a gateway to the West Campus. The area is a popular gathering spot frequently used by students for recreational purposes and outdoor activities by student organizations.[139]

Interior of the Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex (ISEC).

On February 21, 2014, Northeastern had its groundbreaking ceremony for the new Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex (ISEC) on Columbus Avenue.[140] Completed in 2017, the 220,000-square-foot (20,000 m²) building provides research and educational space for students and faculty from the College of Science, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, College of Engineering, and Khoury College of Computer Sciences. The centerpiece of the complex includes a large atrium, a spiral staircase, and a 280-seat auditorium.[141]

Matthews Arena, home to Northeastern's hockey and basketball teams.

Opened in 1910 and originally known as the Boston Arena, Matthews Arena is the world's oldest surviving indoor ice hockey arena.[142] Located on the eastern edge of Northeastern University's campus, it is home to the Northeastern Huskies men's and women's hockey teams, and men's basketball team as well as the Wentworth Institute of Technology's men's hockey team. The arena is named after former university Board of Trustees Chairman George J. Matthews, a 1956 graduate, and his wife, the late Hope M. Matthews, who helped fund a major renovation in 1982.[143] The arena is the original home of the NHL Boston Bruins and the WHA New England Whalers (now the NHL Carolina Hurricanes). It was also the secondary home to the NBA Boston Celtics in the 1940s. It has hosted all or part of the America East Conference men's basketball tournament a total of seven times and hosted the 1960 Frozen Four. The arena also served as the original home to the annual Beanpot tournament between Boston's four major college hockey programs.[144]

Marino Recreation Center, completed in 1996.

The Marino Recreation Center, named after 1961 alumnus Roger Marino, co-founder of EMC Corporation, is an indoor fitness center that opened in the Fall of 1996. Its first floor contains an atrium with two cafés (Tatte and b.good) and a food market (Wollaston's). The second floor includes a student exercise area, a multipurpose room used for aerobics classes and martial arts clubs, and a gymnasium consisting of three basketball courts. The third floor has a state-of-the-art resistance training area and a fully equipped free weight room. A three-lane suspended track is available for either walking or jogging, and rowing ergometers are available.[145]

Residential halls at Northeastern vary quite significantly from low-rise former Boston apartment buildings to purpose built high-rise dormitories. Residential halls vary in size from as few as 50 students to as many as 1,000 per building.

First-year students are usually divided into groups called Living Learning Communities (LLCs) which place students with certain majors, interests or hobbies together. LLCs host events related to specific areas of interest for members of that LLC to participate in. LLCs can span sections of floors in a residential hall, entire floors, multiple floors or entire buildings.

East Village is Northeastern's newest dorm building and only houses freshmen and upperclassmen who are in the University Honors Program.[146] The building is located at 291 St. Botolph Street and opened in January 2015.[147][148] Honors freshman live in its suite-style rooms whereas upperclassmen can choose full apartments with kitchen facilities. The building also contains 5 classrooms in the basement and an event space on the 17th Floor.[149]

West Village A North residence hall

West Village quadrangle in autumn

The West Village complex includes eight buildings serving mainly as residence halls and classrooms.

• Building A (opened 1999): Residence Hall (two sections, West Village A North and South).
• Building B (opened 2001): Residence Hall.
• Building C (opened 2001): Residence Hall (several floors for upperclassmen honors students) and one classroom.
• Building D – Behrakis Health Science Center (opened 2002): classrooms and laboratories
• Building E (opened 2002): Residence Hall.
• Building G (opened 2004): Residence Hall and several classrooms.
• Building H (opened 2004): Residence Hall. Open to students who are over the age of 21. Single rooms only. It's the new home of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences (several classrooms, offices and computer labs). Building H was originally reserved for honors student, but that rule was dropped.
• Building F (opened 2006): Residence Hall for upper-class students, classrooms, John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute, Admissions Visitors Center.

In 2008, West Village Building F was recognized in American Institute of Architects New England 2008 Merit Awards for Design Excellence.[150]

Lightview under construction in 2019

Northeastern's southernmost section of campus is located along Columbus Avenue in Roxbury, parallel to the Orange line. The university expanded south into Roxbury at the same time as they were building West Village. In 2001, Davenport Commons was opened, providing 585 students housing in two residence halls while 75 families representing a range of incomes have been able to purchase a condo or townhouse at or below Boston's market value. Davenport Commons also created commercial space on Tremont Street.[151]

During the summer of 2006, Northeastern proposed a new residence hall further away from the main campus, at the corner of Tremont Street and Ruggles Street. Construction began in late February 2007. In the Spring of 2009, the complex was named International Village and opened later that Summer. It consists of three interconnected residential towers, an office tower, administration building, and a gym.[152] A 400-seat dining hall is available to all members of the Northeastern community as well as the public.[153]

Lightview was launched in 2019, which was Boston's first developer-led, equity-financed student housing project built and financed by American Campus Communities exclusively for Northeastern students. The building is 20 stories tall and includes a fitness area as well as social and recreational spaces.[154]

The following buildings make up the South Campus:

Northeastern University Libraries include the Snell Library and the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute Library. The NU School of Law Library is separately administered by the NU School of Law.[155]

The Snell Library opened in 1990 at a cost of $35 million, and contains 1.3 million volumes.[137] The main library is open 24 hours a day, allowing students to research or study at any time they wish.[156] The Digital Media Design Studio within the library is a collaborative and interdisciplinary learning environment for creating course-related multimedia presentations, projects, and portfolios.

The library is home to the Favat Collection, a current collection of children's literature and K-12 curriculum resources, instructional materials, and related information to support courses offered by the School of Education. It contains three computer labs operated by NU Information Services. Two are available to all NU students, faculty, and staff; the other is a teaching lab.

The Snell Library is also home to the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections department, which includes the Benjamin LaGuer papers collection. The Special Collections focus on records of Boston-area community-based organizations that are concerned with social justice issues.[157]

The NU Libraries received federal depository designation in 1963.[137] As a selective depository, the Libraries receive 45% of the federal publication series available to depository libraries.

In June 2016, the library staff adopted an open-access policy to make its members' professional research publicly accessible online.[158]

Dining Facilities

Inside the International Village Dining Hall at Northeastern University

Northeastern features two dining halls with buffet-style offerings. These include the Levine Marketplace at Stetson East and International Village Dining at the International village residence hall on the southern portion of campus. Both halls allow students to gain access either by cashing in a meal pass stored on their Husky Card or purchasing access at the door using a credit card. Once inside, students are able to eat as much food as they please before leaving.[159]

Within the urban environment that characterizes the campus as a whole, NU has carved out a quiet, peaceful space in the centrally located Ell Building for the Spiritual Life Center's Sacred Space. The nondenominational Sacred Space, the center's main assembly hall, can be configured with carpets, mats or chairs. It has a distinctive ceiling consisting of 3 hanging domes made of overlapping aluminum tiles with an origami-like effect, warm wood floors and accents, and glass-paneled walls that lean outward slightly, their shape and material giving a sense of openness and volume to the space. Faucets for ablution are available in a flanking antechamber, and the center also contains a smaller meeting space and library.[160] The Sacred Space opened in 1998. The architects Office dA (Nader Tehrani & Monica Ponce de Leon) received the 2002 Harleston Parker Medal from the Boston Society of Architects for the design.[161]

Since 1927, Northeastern University's intercollegiate athletic teams have been known as the Huskies.[174] Prior to 1927, Northeastern had no official mascot. A committee was formed to choose a mascot and members eventually settled on the Siberian Husky. In February 1927, a pup was selected from legendary Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race competitor Leonhard Seppala's kennel in Poland Springs, Maine. On March 4, 1927, King Husky I arrived at Northeastern in a campus celebration for which classes were canceled. Since then, live mascots have been a Siberian Husky breed, but after losing two mascots in three months in the early 1970s and after upheaval due to having live canine mascots, the university's administration was reluctant to continue the live mascot tradition. In 2005, the university resumed the live mascot tradition; the current live mascot is named Moses.[175] The university's official costumed mascot is Paws.

The university's official colors are Northeastern red and black, with white often used as an alternate color. The university fight song, "All Hail, Northeastern," was composed by Charles A. Pethybridge, class of 1932.[176] Since 2005, 14 of 18 Northeastern varsity sports teams primarily compete in NCAA Division I's Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).[177] Northeastern maintains crosstown athletic rivalries primarily with Boston University, Harvard University and Boston College. It also regularly competes against in-state rival University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

During its first decades, Northeastern initially had seven athletics teams: basketball, cross country, indoor track, outdoor track, crew and football.[111] It has since expanded to more than 16 varsity teams.

Northeastern sponsors the following sports teams:[177]

• (M) Baseball
• (M), (W) Basketball
• (M), (W) Cross country
• (W) Field hockey
• (M), (W) Ice hockey (in Hockey East)
• (M), (W) Rowing (in Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges and Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges)
• (M), (W) Soccer
• (W) Swimming and diving
• (M), (W) Track and field
• (W) Volleyball

The baseball, soccer, lacrosse and rugby teams compete at Parsons Field, a multipurpose facility located in Brookline, a mile and a half from the campus. The field's baseball diamond was named Friedman Diamond in 1988. The field hockey team, along with the Huskies' track and field teams, compete at a sports complex about 10 miles (16 km) away from campus in Dedham.[178] Matthews Arena, which opened 1910, is home to the hockey and basketball programs. The 4,666-seat arena is located close to campus, just off Massachusetts Avenue. It is considered the world's oldest multi-purpose athletic building. Henderson Boathouse is home to the Huskies' men's & women's rowing squads. The Henderson Boathouse is located on the Charles River near Soldiers Field Road in Allston. The university also maintains the Cabot Physical Education Center, which opened in 1954 and includes a basketball court; an indoor track and natatorium; the 10,755 square feet (999.2 m²) Gries Center for Sports Medicine and Performance Center; a squash facility; and the William E. Carter Playground, a renovated community park on Columbus Avenue.[179]

The baseball team was founded in 1921 and has since competed in one College World Series and played in the NCAA regionals seven times.[177] It regularly competes in the Baseball Beanpot, a tournament contested annually between Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, Northeastern University and University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It has won the tournament six times.

The history of the men's basketball team dates back to its first season in 1920–21. In its first year in the CAA, the team finished in 6th place out of 12 teams and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament. The CAA proved to be a competitive conference in the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament, as George Mason University advanced to the Final Four. The women's basketball program began in 1966. In 2007, its second year in the CAA, the women's track team captured the conference championship, while the volleyball team finished second. The women's basketball team won 10 more games in 2008 than the previous year, the biggest one-year turnaround in the CAA, and advanced to the tournament quarterfinals.

The Northeastern crew team consistently ranks as one of the top 10 teams in the nation.[180] In the 2008 National Championship, the team made the Grand Finals and placed fourth behind University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Washington, and University of California, Berkeley, while defeating Brown University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.[181]

In 2009, Northeastern eliminated its 74-year-old football program.[182] From 1933 to 2009, the Northeastern Huskies football program's all-time record was 290-365-17 (.444), it produced 20 All-Americans and won the 2002 Atlantic 10 Conference championship.[183] Citing sparse attendance, numerous losing seasons and the expense to renovate Parsons Field to an acceptable standard, the university's Board of Trustees voted on November 20, 2009, to end the football program. According to President Joseph Aoun, "Leadership requires that we make these choices. This decision allows us to focus on our existing athletic programs."[184]

In addition to intercollegiate athletics, Northeastern offers 40 club sports, including sailing, judo, rugby, lacrosse, Olympic-Style taekwondo, alpine skiing, squash, cycling, and ultimate Frisbee. In 2005 the women's rugby team finished third in the nation in Division II, while in the same year the men's rugby team won the largest annual tournament in the United States. Recently, the women's rugby team competed and placed 11th at the Collegiate Rugby Championship. The men's lacrosse team began the 2008 season ranked in the Top 10 nationally. The men's and women's squash team finished the 2008 season ranked in the Top 20 nationally. In the 2008–09 academic year the Northeastern Club Field Hockey and Women's Basketball teams won their respective National Championships. From 2007 to 2009, the Northeastern Club Baseball team won three straight New England Club Baseball Association championships.[185] The Club Taekwondo team placed 1st overall in Division II for the 2018–19 Season in the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference.[186]

On May 25, 2010, the club baseball team defeated Penn State to win the National Club Baseball Association Division II World Series and the national championship.[187]

Some notable athletes have competed for Northeastern's athletic teams. Dan Ross played football at Northeastern long before setting the Super Bowl record for receptions in a game. Reggie Lewis still holds the men's basketball career scoring record. José Barea played point guard for the Huskies and averaged 21 points, 4.4 rebounds, 8.4 assists per game as a senior. Barea was signed by the Dallas Mavericks in 2006. Carlos Peña was named Major League Baseball's American League Comeback Player of the Year in 2007 and an AL Gold Glove winner in 2008. The U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey teams have included Northeastern alumni Shelley Looney and Chanda Gunn.

Ice hockey has been one of Northeastern's most prominent athletic programs. The men's and women's hockey teams compete in the Hockey East conference. During the 2007–08 season, the men's team ranked as high at #7 in the country and held the top spot in the conference before finishing the season in sixth place in Hockey East. Both teams also participate in the annual ice hockey Beanpot tournament between the Boston area's four major college hockey schools. Northeastern's men's team has won the annual event 6 times in its 56-year history, while the women's team has captured the Beanpot 14 times. During the 2008–09 season, the men's team ranked as high as 3rd in the nation and held the top spot in Hockey East until the last weekend of the season; the team made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994, the Beanpot championship game for the first time since 2004, and goalie Brad Thiessen made the Hobey Hat Trick, only the second Northeastern player to do so. Northeastern won the 2018 Beanpot championship by defeating Boston College 3–0 in the first match and defeating Boston University 5–2 in the final match. The victory came after Northeastern attained the highest placement in the 2017–2018 standings of the Beanpot competitors. Northeastern defeated Boston College 4–2 to win the 2019 Beanpot and defeated Boston University 5–4 to win the 2020 Beanpot.[188] In 2020, Northeastern beat Boston University 5–4 in overtime to win the Beanpot for the third year in a row.[189]

The Beanpot also presents two awards to individual players. One is for the most valuable player and one is to the best goalie (determined by best save percentage). The second award is named the Eberly award after Glen and Dan Eberly who were goalies at Northeastern and Boston University. In addition to winning the Beanpot title, Northeastern took home both awards with the award for most valuable player being presented to Adam Gaudette and the Eberly Award being presented to Cayden Primeau who had a save percentage of .974 (making him the goalie with second highest save percentage to win the award in the 44 years the award has been given).[190]

Started in 2005, the Underwear Run is a Northeastern-sponsored event around fall midterm season in which students strip down to their underwear and run a track around campus and near parts of the city. The Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) supervises the event to maintain the flow of traffic through the city. Students have described it as a "liberating experience" that "brings a sense of community and builds school spirit."[191] Though the event was officially cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns, it was unofficially organized by students in fall of 2021.[192]

Organized by the Resident Student Association, Husky Hunt is a 24-hour city-wide scavenger hunt that has 50 teams of students roaming around the Greater Boston area in search of locations that correspond to clues, games, puzzles, and riddles.[193] The scavenger hunt starts with a preliminary qualifying quiz of which only 1/3 of the total group of participating teams progress to the hunt. Prizes like iPads and Beats headphones are given to the highest scoring teams.[194]

• Michael Dukakis, Former Governor of Massachusetts, Democratic Presidential Nominee in 1988, Professor of Political Science
• Matthias Felleisen, Author of How to Design Programs, Professor of Computer Science
• Mary Florentine, psychoacoustician, Matthews Distinguished Professor
• Pran Nath, co-developer of the theory of supergravity
• Nada Sanders, Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business