Around Campus

While Bentley’s commitment to providing a world-class business education has not wavered throughout the decades, the university’s student life experience has changed dramatically. Here is a snapshot of an average day in the life as told by students from two distinctly different eras in Bentley’s history.

In my years working on the grounds, I saw both the university and my department change so much. The campus of course continued getting larger and larger, with new buildings going up. Naturally, our department grew too.

From Wednesday night bowling leagues to pizza bagels and mozzarella sticks, alumni through the years share their favorite Bentley student life memories.

Meet the Spencers, one of many families with proud ties to Bentley that span generations: Walter ’48; his son, Robert ’77, MST ’85; and Robert’s son and daughter, Jonathan ’07 and Courtney ’09. Each is inspired by the others to make a difference in the world — and determined to continue their Bentley legacy.

1982, Fenway Park: Jim Rice, Wade Boggs and Dwight Evans lead the Red Sox, as former Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski begins his penultimate season with the team. Mark Balaban ’84, P ’20, then a Bentley sophomore, takes the “T” from Waltham to Yawkey Way more than 30 times from April to September. His seat in the sunshine costs $7.50.

Growing up, Katherine (O’Keefe) O’Leary ’64 was athletic, but couldn’t play sports in her all-girl school. She spent a lot of time playing with kids in a local park — and the guys never minded that she was a girl.

Study and work were the predominant student activities for most of Bentley’s first 40 years. The Boston campus lacked spaces to gather other than smoking lounges.

The story of Bentley’s campus begins in a single room that housed a whist club. We all know of the school’s decades on Boylston street in Boston before moving to Waltham. But the story has an even more improbable start in this obscure card room in the Chambers Huntington building located on Huntington Avenue.

Harry Bentley loved all sports, everything from baseball to horseback riding. He was even known to do gymnastics on the Boston Common during his lunch breaks.

New Bentley program encourages education, meaningful conversation and reflection on controversial issues around diversity and identity.