Colleges Offering Campuses as Final Resting Places - Creepy or Good Idea?

Parents Forum
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<p>From the NY Times
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/education/18campus.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/education/18campus.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The prices aren’t that high. It doesn’t seem to be being done as a fund raiser. </p>

<p>I wonder what the students think.</p>

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<p>I go to Hendrix College and I am pretty indifferent to the whole thing. We are also getting a “village” for our school where alumni can buy houses and such right next to campus so this was just the next step. Many alumni idolize their alma mater and want to do things like live next to the school, get married at its chapel, and even be buried there.</p>

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<p>The words “ultimate yield” come to mind.</p>

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<p>I was thinking that this takes the notion of “retention” to new heights.</p>

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<p>One vote for “creepy” here…</p>

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<p>I don’t know… for us agnostic types, it solves the problem of “where to put the remains”. I mean, not everyone wants them sitting in an urn on top of the fireplace, and most “memorial parks” are too commercial and sterile. It sounds like a better and better idea to me!</p>

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<p>There is a cemetery at Colgate University.</p>

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<p>UR has a nice memorial to four alumni who died on Sept 11th and the ashes thing is weird. I’m pretty sure there’s this area, a little off center part of campus, and there’s like a fountain type thing where some ashes are…? Someone who knows more about UR can correct me, one of Va’s summer governor’s school is there and some people only discovered it at the end when they were filming for their film class.</p>

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<p>Columbaria are common in the Episcopal church. Some churches have large alcoves/rooms where the visitors see memorial markers for individuals and the ashes are stored behind those. I would guess the columbaria are going to be built in or adjacent to the chapels. I don’t find it creepy.</p>

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<p>What would be interesting is a Benjamin Rand-style plutocrat who establishes a garish, in-your-face, on campus mausoleum as a precondition for a massive donation to the university. A pyramid or an Indian burial mound, for example.</p>

<p>There is mausoleum at Brown University, containing a dead man and his wife. Don’t know if they were alumni.</p>

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<p>

Somewhat off-topic, but you may want to look into something like [Eternal</a> Reefs](<a href=“http://www.eternalreefs.com/]Eternal”>www.eternalreefs.com/), where ashes are used to create a memorial reef which is sunk off-shore to assist in restoring marine ecosystems.</p>

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<p>Cool, but harder to visit. It would be easier to visit your loved one’s remains at an alma mater…</p>

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<p>:D</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.graveaddiction.com/duniv.html[/url]”>http://www.graveaddiction.com/duniv.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There is also a cemetery at Holy Cross College, where many of the Jesuit faculty and presidents are buried.</p>

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<p>Must not be a new thing – A few more –</p>

<p>Fordham cemetery:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.library.fordham.edu/archives/cemetery.html[/url]”>http://www.library.fordham.edu/archives/cemetery.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>University of Virginia:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/uvacemetery/[/url]”>Search;

<p>Iowa State:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.fpm.iastate.edu/cemetery/[/url]”>http://www.fpm.iastate.edu/cemetery/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Notre Dame:</p>

<p><a href=“http://cemetery.nd.edu/[/url]”>http://cemetery.nd.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UNC Chapel Hill:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ibiblio.org/cemetery/history.html[/url]”>http://www.ibiblio.org/cemetery/history.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Clemson University:</p>

<p><a href=“http://cworld.clemson.edu/archive/2004/summer04/cemetery.htm[/url]”>Clemson World Magazine – Clemson University;

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<p>This needs to become the next campus construction fad. </p>

<p>Glass-walled gyms are so passe.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.uchicago.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.uchicago.edu</a></p>

<p>was actually built specifically for burials</p>

<p>where fun comes to die</p>

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<p>(couldn’t resist it. Actually my D absolutely LOVES it there.)</p>

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<p>my school has a very small graveyard. I don’t know exactly who is there, but I believe it might be early Presidents of the College. A very generous donor was laid to rest there this year. It is not open for buying a space.</p>

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<p>At our church there is a small memorial garden, where the ashes are buried in the ground underneath the pachysandra. You’d never know there were so many people there. It’s green and pretty and understated.</p>

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<p>The United States Military Academy has a cemetery on post.</p>