I mentioned the University of Idaho in a tangential comment on Résumé Bait and Switch. I focused on its location in Moscow, the city in Idaho not the one in Russia. However, I noticed an additional feature I didn’t discuss at the time. The western edge of the university ran amazingly close to the state border between Idaho and Washington.
University of Idaho
The distance from the farthest western extreme of the University of Idaho to the state of Washington measured 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers). I walk farther than than that to get to the nearest subway station in the morning!
It wouldn’t take much effort to expand the university just a sliver and abut a neighboring state. It probably couldn’t go any farther though. After all, the University of Idaho is a public state institution (i.e., not private or for profit). It’s likely confined within Idaho’s boundaries absent some sort of infinitely complicated sharing agreement with Washington. That would probably involve taxpayer funding, accreditation, enrollment standards, and so on. In other words, basically impossible.
The Search
Was there an instance of a state university bordering directly on another state, I wondered? I set a few ground rules, and this is where the 12MC audience can participate too. I tried to limit the search to public universities and land borders; no private schools that were free of direct state control and no rivers intervening to block a leisurely stroll. Those criteria would also eliminate every minor office suite with a University of Phoenix “campus” and its ilk that happened to fall near a state border from consideration as well. True residential universities with dormitories and signs of on-campus student life would be a bonus. Examples from outside of the United States that featured international borders would be fine as well. I just didn’t have time to explore them.
The search grew difficult even as I slowly relaxed my standards. In fact, I’m still searching for that elusive major state university on a land border. It may exist, and if so I know the eagle eyes of 12MC readers will discover it. Until then I offer my best imperfect discoveries.
University of Texas – El Paso
Take a look at the University of Texas – El Paso. The school came within a thousand feet (0.3 km) of an international border with Mexico at its closest point according to my eyeball estimate. It’s just across from Ciudad Juárez in the state of Chihuahua.
However, it might as well sit a million miles away because of an intervening Interstate Highway, railroad track, border patrol agents (see Street View), concrete wall and river standing in the way. It might be easier to break out of a maximum security prison than to walk from UTEP into Mexico following the most direct path.
University of Kansas School of Medicine
The University of Kansas — KU — in Lawrence, Kansas didn’t exactly hug the border. Nonetheless, the university placed its School of Medicine in Kansas City and that was a different story. State Line Road ran directly along the eastern edge of the medical center. That was great! However, I wanted to find where a main campus of a university matched the criteria, not just a single department.
Purchase College – State University of New York
Purchase College – SUNY seemed to be about 0.3 mi (0.5 km) from the state border. I’d call it a tie with the University of Idaho for borderline proximity. It also gets credit for being located near a genuine geo-oddity, the road that New York stole from Connecticut.
Also, I don’t expect Purchase College to ever change its name to Purchase University. That would make it, well, PU.
John Brown University
The Oklahoma border fell about 0.2 mi (0.3 km) west of John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Also, West University Street seemed to imply future expansion, the name of the road from the current campus all the way to the state line. A mostly-vacant lot separated the university from a potential Oklahoma abutment while residential areas and a cemetery constraining the campus from other directions (map). I could happen someday. The catch? John Brown was a private school.
I’ll mention an interesting aside about making assumptions. I figured the school must have been named for John Brown, the abolitionist. No, it was named for its founder, a different person of the same name, an early 20th Century evangelist. JBU is a private, interdenominational, Christian university with about 2,200 students. Its first three presidents were John Brown, John Brown Jr. and John Brown III. None of them, as far as I could determine, ever raided Harper’s Ferry.
Another Puzzle
When the 12MC audience tires of the previous task, may I suggest another? I also noticed that the University of Idaho was only 6.7 mi (10.7 km) from Washington State University. Can anyone find a shorter driving distance between flagship universities of two different states? I thought I’d cheat with the University of Maryland and the University of the District of Columbia (yes, I know, not a state) and even then I fell short at 8.8 mi (14.3 km).
Universities selected should incorporate the name of the state either as “University of {whatever state}” or as “{whatever state} State” for this puzzle. I’d consider other suffixes for schools with sufficient stature, e.g., Texas A&M or Georgia Tech, although neither of those would score well because they’re too far from a state border. Directional modifiers and/or offshoot campus designations would be less impressive, e.g., “Central Northwest {whatever state} at Stumblebum.”
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