NAU is Straight and Narrow

Northern Arizona University is one of the three state universities, but the geography of the campus is quite different. Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of Arizona in Tucson both have an area that is classified as the “mall” in the center of campus. The mall is used for student gatherings, tailgating, protests and is considered a place for the student body to hang out. However, NAU lacks this geographical feature that most campuses throughout the country have.

NAU is surrounded by cemeteries which makes the campus unique all on its own, but in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when Dr. J. Lawrence Walkup was expanding the campus he did so strategically due to world affairs. Students were coming together to protest the Vietnam War throughout the country and Walkup intended to keep the campus quiet. In comparison to the other two Universities who would gather on their malls to protest and voice their opinions, NAU was the quietest of the three universities.

The campus began to extended towards the south it was as though the northern and southern parts of campus were a simplified of Medieval town models. This set up was because Walkup had intentionally designed the campus to be long and skinny with dining halls on each end of the campus as well as libraries with dorms and classrooms surrounding them. This allowed for separation and kept NAU’s campus and the quiet little mountain town of Flagstaff peaceful.

Today the campus has still kept its narrow stature, but NAU seems to be looking for new outlooks to expand. It's most recent expansion has been to use the former Beaver Street elementary school as classrooms and offices for the Liberal Arts department. The school was originally built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which was a relief program during the Great Depression. Although, the campus has not expanded much to the east and west of the current campus it has taken over many of the grassy fields to add new buildings. As the campus expands and accepts more students it will be interesting to see how the shape of the campus will change in the future.