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Emerson College — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Attempted relocation

Though Emerson College has moved to various locations within the city of Boston, the appointment of Allen E. Koenig (the ninth President of Emerson College) almost took the college completely outside of Boston. As soon as he was inaugurated in 1979, Koenig initiated talks with Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to relocate Emerson and merge the two schools. However, an agreement was never reached and the plan was dropped entirely.

At the start of the 1980s, Koenig made a proposal to the board of trustees for a major renovation of the college's facilities. The plan allowed for new performance spaces, classrooms, and faculty offices at Brimmer Street; remodeling the Library and Learning Resources Center at 150 Beacon; remodeling the 303 Berkeley building for the Humanities and Social Sciences Division; a new radio/audio complex at 126 Beacon; and construction of two new television studios behind 130 Beacon. In 1984, 355 Commonwealth Avenue was purchased for Administration and 21 Commonwealth Avenue was purchased for the Communication Studies department. The college also received the authorization to grant MFA degrees in Creative Writing in 1985.

Despite the newly purchased Commonwealth Avenue buildings, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was soon being discussed as a new location for Emerson College, about 44.5 km (27.7 mi) away from Boston. The Mayor of Lawrence announced that the necessary land would be taken by eminent domain and sold to Emerson for a token payment of $100. However, the five affected private landowners disagreed with this arrangement and fought the city in court. Three years later in 1988, Judge John Forte ruled in favor of the City of Lawrence. The river-front site in Lawrence was proposed as the new campus for the college. However, as real estate values in Boston dropped and the costs of constructing a new campus increased, the plans were put on hold. Koenig resigned as president in 1989, and the plan was officially abandoned in 1990.

In 1988, the college bought a building at Zero Marlborough Street (also known as 6 Arlington Street) for dormitories and a dining hall.

Rebirth in the Historic Theater District

John Zacharis became the tenth President of Emerson College and faced a college fractured by the failed move to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Over the course of two years, he worked to restore unity to the campus by purchasing a building at 180 Tremont Street, now called the Ansin Building. This purchase started a transition from Back Bay to the Boston Theater District. Zacharis went on medical leave in 1992 and died of leukemia shortly after.

During Zacharis's leave, Jacqueline Weis Liebergott, then the college's vice president and academic dean, was appointed as Acting President and a year later was inaugurated as the college's first female president. Shortly after, she submitted a 10-year master plan to the Boston Redevelopment Authority which involved moving the college to the Washington Street Theatre District.

In the mid-1990s, a planning document of the college's future plans was drafted and public hearings were held. The college also extended health care benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian faculty, administration and staff. Under the plan, dental coverage and tuition waivers were also available.

In December 1993, the college received a $100,000 gift from Mary E. Tufte, which funded its online debut in 1994. Financed by the contribution, The Tufte Lab was placed on the fourth floor of the Ansin Building and dedicated in Mrs. Tufte's honor. The lab was the catalyst for a telecommunications/fiber optic network installation, which was completed in October 1995.

In addition, the college announced the purchase and restoration of The Little Building (1994) across the street from the Ansin Building and next to Emerson's Majestic Theatre. Restoration work on the facades of the college's buildings at 126, 128, 130, 132–134, 168 Beacon Street, and 21 Commonwealth Avenue was completed in 1994 and 1995.

In 1998, Emerson purchased the Walker Building (Boston) at 120 Boylston. The building currently hosts the school's Department of Television, Radio, Film Production, the Institutional Advancement (Alumni and Development) department, and the Government and Community Relations department. It also contains the school's library and many of its classrooms.

Early 21st century (2000–2019)

The Tufte Performance Production Center (PPC) at 10 Boylston Place opened in 2003. The 11-story steel-and-glass building houses the Department of Performing Arts and includes two theaters (The Semel Theatre and The Greene Theatre), two television studios, makeup and costume labs, faculty offices, and an exhibition area. Also that year, the Cutler Majestic Theatre finished renovations and re-opened as one of the main stages of Emerson Stage productions.

Circa 2001 Emerson adjuncts voted to establish a union and in 2004 ratified its first contract with the college. The Affiliated Faculty of Emerson College, American Association of University Professors (AFEC-AAUP) represents 240 adjunct faculty members at Emerson College as of 2022.

In 2004, it was announced that the buildings at 96, 100, and 132 Beacon had been sold and would be vacated by the Fall 2006 semester. Construction of a new 14-story residence hall at 150 Boylston Street began in March 2004, and was completed in September 2006. It is the first entirely-new residence hall in Emerson's history. The facility includes residential suites, athletic facilities, offices and meeting rooms for student organizations, informal gathering places for off-campus students, spaces for small-group rehearsals and performances, and dining facilities.

The school purchased Boston's historic Paramount Theatre on Washington Street in 2005, with plans to build a new complex at the site including a 565-seat main stage theater inside the existing Paramount Theater and a 125-seat black box theater in an adjacent new building. Plans also included a 200-seat film screening room, eight rehearsal studios ranging from 700 to 1,900 square feet (65 to 177 m2), six smaller rehearsal spaces, a sound stage for film students, a new scene shop, and a dormitory.

In May 2006, the Campus Center in the Piano Row building was named the Max Mutchnick Campus Center after a major gift from the 1987 graduate and co-creator of the television sitcom Will & Grace. In the same year, the school exercised its purchase option on the Colonial Theatre, adjacent to the Little Building, and then converted the upper floors of the building to a 372-bed dormitory. With the addition of dorm space here and at the Paramount Theatre, the school hoped to accommodate up to 75% of its students in on-campus housing by 2010.

In September 2006, a long-running labor dispute between the administrators and faculty union was resolved. The administration limited the union's role in promotion and tenure, and brought department chairs into administrative roles, where they were not covered by the union. In response, the college agreed not to dismantle the union.

In September 2007, students in Emerson Alliance for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone (E.A.G.L.E.) as well as the Student Government Association (S.G.A.) received the gender neutral bathrooms they had pitched to the administration in the spring. In September 2016, every bathroom on Emerson's campus was converted into a gender inclusive restroom.

On December 2, 2009, President Liebergott announced she would step down in June 2011. On September 8, 2010, the college announced she would be succeeded by M. Lee Pelton of Willamette University.

On March 18, 2010, the newly renovated Paramount Center officially opened, with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino illuminating the Paramount's original art deco marquee, which Emerson had restored. In addition to the 590-seat Paramount Theatre, the Paramount Center also houses an experimental black box theater, the Bright Family Screening Room, a sound stage, a scene/prop production shop, nine rehearsal studios, six practice rooms, four classrooms, 20 faculty offices, and a student commons area.

In 2014, a student sued the college for negligence in an instance of sexual assault and failing to provide her her Title IX rights. A Massachusetts judge ruled in favor of Emerson in this lawsuit and the second one intitiated by the same student in 2017.

In late 2019, Marlboro College announced that it would merge with Emerson at the end of the 2019–20 academic year. Under the agreement, finalized on July 23, 2020, Marlboro gave its endowment to Emerson, which created the Marlboro Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. Marlboro students were guaranteed admission and tenure-track faculty were guaranteed teaching positions at Emerson. At that time, Marlboro had approximately 150 students.

Academic and theater buildings

Once owned by the Boston Edison Company, the Ansin Building was purchased by Emerson in 1992. The building stands 14 stories high and contains all Visual & Media Arts (VMA) labs and facilities, offices for all VMA and Writing, Literature & Publishing (WLP) departments, and is the home of WERS, WECB, and ETIN (Emerson's Talk and Information Network, an online radio service). It also contains the registrar's office, Tufte and 3D computer labs, Digital Production labs, and the Media Services center.

The former Union Bank building at 216 Tremont Street houses the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the in-house clinic, The Robbins Speech, Language and Hearing Center. Also located here are the offices of Student Financial Services, Health Services, Career Services, the Counseling Center and the International Student Center. The Bill Bordy Theater and Auditorium on the ground floor is used for lectures, performances, performance classes and special events.

Provides classrooms, study rooms, offices to various non-academic and academic departments, five computer labs, and the Iwasaki Library. The fifth and sixth floors connect to the Tufte building.

Computer labs: Advanced Projects Lab (APL), Advanced Teaching Lab (ATL), Communication & Marketing Labs (CML) 1, 2, and Journalism Lab (JRL)

Production facilities: Newsroom TV Studio, Newsroom Editing Labs

Academic facilities: Iwasaki Library, Emerson College Archives and Special Collections

One of the sets of popular NBC sitcom Will & Grace (1998–2006, 2017–2020), donated by Emerson alumnus Max Mutchnick, was displayed in the Iwasaki Library. The set, Will and Grace's living room and kitchen, remained in the library until 2013, when it was moved to Emerson's Los Angeles campus.

The 11-story building is home to two television studios, two performing art theaters, the Huret and Spector Gallery, set and costume studios, classrooms, and the offices of the Department of Performing Arts. The fifth and sixth floors of the building are connected to the Walker Building.

Computer labs: CAD Lab

Performance theaters and facilities: Semel Theatre, The Kermit and Elinore Greene Theater, The Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Design Technology and Makeup Studio

Television studio and facilities: Di Bona Television Studio & Control Room, Studio B & Control Room

The Cutler Majestic Theatre is home to ArtsEmerson and Emerson Stage productions each year, various speaking events, Open House, and the EVVY Awards, Emerson's own award show and the largest student-run live television production in the country.

Opening in 1932 as a movie theatre seating 1,700, the Paramount Center was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking motion pictures. In 2005, Emerson College announced plans to renovate the Paramount Theatre, building an entire performing arts facility in and around the theatre. The renovated Paramount Center was designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston and built by Bond Brothers, and completed in 2010.

The project included not only renovating the Paramount Theatre into a 550-seat theater, but building both a new Performance Development Center and a new residence hall for the school on the 6th through 9th floors of the building. The complex features the 120-seat Liebergott Black Box Theatre, the 174-seat Bright Family Screening Room, nine rehearsal studios ranging from 700 to 1,900 square feet (65 to 177 m2), five practice rooms for individuals and small groups, a sound stage for film production classes, a scene shop, several classrooms, a restaurant, and Emerson faculty and staff offices.

Piano row is a 14-story building that houses 558 students in double occupancy rooms within four and six-person suites. Inside the building students can find The Max Mutchnick Campus Center and the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gymnasium are important campus buildings. The former features several conference, meeting, and rehearsal spaces open to all students, offices for Student Life and the Student Government Association, and storage for any student organization. Also housing new offices for the Athletics Department, it is Emerson College's first-ever indoor athletic facility. The construction of the gym was controversial at the time of its announcement, considering the lack of performing space on campus and the lack of enthusiasm around athletics at Emerson.

Emerson College purchased the building in 1994 and converted it into a 750-bed dormitory, which opened in September 1995. In 2016, the college unveiled plans to do a complete renovation of the Little Building, which would replace and restore the building's façade and add an additional floor behind the parapet on the top of the building, adding approximately 300 beds. The renovated dorm opened for the Fall 2019 semester and now houses up to 1,035 residents.

The Little Building is home to the school's Student Performance Center, commonly known as the SPC. Located on the Lower Level of the building the space is home to the Judee Wales Watson Theater (formerly the SPC Theatre) and the SPC Black Box, as well as two dance studios, three rehearsal rooms, and a production space.

2 Boylston Place opened in 2017, and contains an 18-story residence hall that houses approximately 375 students.

172 Tremont Street, opened in 2019. It connects the Paramount Center and Avery Street spaces with the main campus at the intersection of Tremont and Boylston streets. It houses administrative offices, including the Cultural Engagement Center and the Center for Spiritual Life, as well as space for student organizations.

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Emerson College across IJR

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History

Origins

Early expansion and growth

Administrative restructuring

Post-war era

Financial crisis of 1952 and recovery

Back Bay as Emerson's campus

Attempted relocation

Rebirth in the Historic Theater District

Early 21st century (2000–2019)

Post-COVID and onward (2020–present)

Campus

Academic and theater buildings

External programs

Academics

Film

Athletics

Student organizations

The EVVY Awards

Emerson Channel

Emerson Independent Video

Student Magazines and Newspapers

Student performance organizations

Student radio

Comedy Troupes

List of presidents

Emerson College across IJR