There’s no singular campus experience, 
but there are a few moments that are iconi-
cally “Michigan” — walking through the 
Diag, studying in the UgLi, going out to the 
less-than-pristine bars on South University 
Avenue. Until recently, I had never noticed a 
common thread between these scenes, but 
now their similarity strikes me: all of them 
take place on Central Campus. 
The fact that when we think of Michigan 
we think of Central Campus is unsurprising. 
There’s a reason students joke about having 
never been to North Campus, and why incom-
ing freshmen assigned to live on North try to 
pay thousands of dollars to swap dorms with 
someone on Central. Everything we envi-
sion as “The Michigan Experience” revolves 
around Central. Why would anyone sacrifice 
Ann Arbor’s indescribable energy and its his-
toric, vibrant Central Campus for the dated 
’50s architecture and suburban sprawl that is 
North Campus? 
Much has already been said about the 
shortcomings of North Campus. But for better 
or worse, it’s part of the University, and as the 
campus continues to grow, we’ll be increas-
ingly looking toward North for extra space.
But how did North and Central develop 
such distinct characters in the first place? 
And how might we envision a better North 
Campus? 
***
In my final year as a University under-
graduate student, I figured it’s finally time 
to immerse myself in the illusive, evergreen 
acres of North Campus. My plan was this: to 
spend a whole day on North Campus and to 
try to appreciate and evaluate it on its own 
merits, not just in contrast to Central. 
I’d like to think I’ve spent more time on 
North Campus than the average student 
whose classes are all on Central. I never lived 

in Bursley or Baits, but over the pandemic, I 
would frequently drive to the Ford Robotics 
Building to study, since it was one of the few 
buildings on campus that was open into the 
late hours of the night. 
During some of those study sessions, I 
found myself walking through the woods 
behind Bursley, getting takeout off Plym-
outh Road and exploring Pierpont Commons. 
However, I had never spent more than a few 
hours on North Campus and had never truly 
immersed myself in it. 
So, in an effort to understand what it was 
really like to live and learn on North Campus, 
I devised a way to better understand the space. 
Admittedly, spending a day on North is 
nothing compared to living there. Before 
embarking on my north-bound excursion, 
I decided to speak with some of the folks 
who’ve previously made North Campus their 
home. 
Information senior Huda Shulaiba lived in 
Northwood Housing last year, despite only 
having classes on Central, because it was more 
affordable for her than signing a year-long 
lease on Central. Since Northwood is being 
demolished, Shulaiba moved onto Central 
before the beginning of this fall semester — 
but said she would’ve moved to Central even if 
she had the option to live in Northwood again. 
“Northwood was great, but a lot of the 
things that make college life fun don’t really 
happen (there) because everyone else is on 
Central,” Shulaiba explained.
Despite feeling some social isolation there, 
Shulaiba admitted that “I always love talking 
about living on North because I love having 
lived on North. But sometimes I don’t want 
to talk too much about North because then 
everyone will go up there. It’s nice and peace-
ful, and I want to gatekeep it a bit. Central is 
great, but it can be so overstimulating. But you 

can go back up to Northwood, and you get that 
bus ride to switch off school-mode and switch 
on home-mode.” 
Riding the bus up to North, I felt that men-
tal shift Shulaiba was describing, albeit in 
reverse. As the Commuter North approached 
Pierpont Commons, I felt a refreshing sense 
of clarity and focus. Equipped with three 
practice exams for my upcoming midterms, 
a coding project I hadn’t started and a list of 
buildings my friends in engineering had sug-
gested I visit, I set out to experience North. 
***
Maybe the mainstream culture of the Uni-
versity does not lie at North Campus. Howev-
er, fiscally and academically speaking, North 
Campus has been, and will continue to be, the 
future of the University. 
In 1947, the University purchased 267 acres 
north of the Huron River — the land that 
would eventually become North Campus — in 
anticipation of the post-WW2 boom in higher 
education. The rapid increase in enrollment 
also coincided with the rise of STEM posi-
tions in the workforce and a desire for higher 
education. Plans were soon made to gradually 
move the College of Engineering to the unde-
veloped site, and new buildings to house the 
School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the 
School of Architecture and Urban Planning 
followed less than a decade later. 
Construction plans were then scaled back 
in response to shortfalls in the state’s budget 
in the 1970s. Since then, however, North Cam-
pus has continued to grow without interrup-
tion, although not without complaints from 
students that North isn’t “integrated into 
campus,” that the commute between North 
and Central is too long and that living there 
will negatively impact their social life. 

Wednesday, October 26, 2022 // The Statement — 2

BY HALEY JOHNSON, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

‘The grid in the green:’
Envisioning a better North Campus

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

LUCAS CHEN/Daily

LUCAS CHEN/Daily

LUCAS CHEN/Daily

LUCAS CHEN/Daily

Scenes at and around the North Campus Grove Saturday, October 22.

