THE ORB HAS SPOKEN: "East Campus" Takes the BU Crown, and the Mighty Charles River Campus Is Left Waiting for the Green Line in the Mist

Draw the curtains, light the incense, and gather round the crystal ball, my darlings, because the spirits of Commonwealth Avenue have delivered a verdict. The crowd was asked which campus of Boston University gives students the best daily life: classes, housing, food, and getting around. The orb clouded over, glowed an eerie scarlet, and spat out a name: "East Campus." Not the grand riverside sprawl. Not the hospital quarter. East Campus. The cards trembled. So did I.

Here is what the scrolls actually say. The main Charles River Campus runs along Commonwealth Avenue and the Green Line for over a mile and a half, with most schools and classroom buildings packed on the Main Campus side of the BU Bridge, according to Wikipedia's entry on the university. Across that bridge, West Campus has three high-rise dorms, Claflin, Sleeper and Rich, and a dining hall built on made-to-order stations instead of the usual buffet line, Wikipedia's West Campus page notes. Over in the South End sits the Medical Campus, linked back to the river by the BU Shuttle, as its own entry describes. And East Campus? My research found no student satisfaction survey of any kind, and none of the pages I consulted describes East Campus at all. A phantom has won the crown.

Now the numbers, which always crash in just as the candle flickers. On the Morfi opinion markets, "East Campus" leads with 37% consensus, ahead of the "Charles River Campus" at 22%. Also on the ballot: 2 other sides. So far 30 unique traders have put $167,276 behind their opinions, and the market opened less than a day ago. Remember, these percentages measure how strongly the crowd backs each side, not how many people voted for it. The crowd's conviction is pointing at the one location the reference books leave blank.

My colleague Chef Basil Brawl smelled this mystery early, reporting that East Campus led the cook-off while nobody could find it on the menu. The ghost has gone from first plate to coronation. Meanwhile the written record quietly backs a different contender: residents of West Campus generally prefer it, citing its campus-like feel and closeness to the Student Village and athletic facilities, according to Wikipedia's housing system page. The scrolls whisper West, and the crowd shouts East.

My reading, and the tarot agrees with me, so it is opinion with a lot of drapery: this is the Tower card dressed in a hoodie. I suspect the crowd is not rating a place on a map. It is rating a feeling, the dream of a campus where the dining hall never runs out and the Green Line arrives on time. The Charles River Campus is the Emperor, huge and official and somewhat tired. East Campus is the Moon, all mood and mystery and very little paperwork. I respect the romance. I would still pack an umbrella and a campus map.

What to watch: whether the real Charles River giant wakes up before the candles burn down, and whether West Campus, the darling of the dorm records, finally gets its believers moving. A market this young can flip faster than a tarot deck in a draft. The cards are dealt, but you can still cut them yourself. Join the market on Morfi and put your conviction where your crystal ball is.