Editorial: Chicago State University has ambitious neighborhood plans

Chicago is blessed with a bounty of colleges and universities within its borders. Most of them, from the University of Chicago in Hyde Park on the South Side to Loyola University in Rogers Park on the North Side, act as economic drivers for their neighborhoods.

They spawn housing, restaurants and retail that serve employees and students at the institutions, as well as the fortunate residents of those “cities within a city.”

One of the few exceptions to this rule is Chicago State University in the Roseland neighborhood on Chicago’s Far South Side. The public university, which has served primarily Black students for more than 50 years, sits on a gorgeous, 161-acre campus, clustered with copses of stately trees that make the grounds look something like an East Coast institution with a far l