New BU Building Unveiled: The Panopticon
By: Truck Schachtman
On the edge of the Questrom School of Business, Boston University has released a new updated plan to be unveiled in Spring, 2025: The Panopticon. Boston University’s Rafik B. Hariri Building will soon be joined by a sister structure, rivaling BU’s Jenga building in size. This menacing tower will stretch ever towards the Boston skies and will give future business students a taste of life inside a real corporation. Foucauldian cubicles shall snake through the interior, each outfitted with a single computer to allow for menial data computation and little else. These “New Age” office spaces will create a sense of comfort for both Graduate and Undergraduate students, who will be placed according to GPA. Each room is fitted with a desk, chair, and window, which faces in, rather than out of the building's stark exterior.
Inside this grotesquery lies a single, central tower, wherein a teacher or TA may sit and observe the goings on. While not necessary, this monitoring may take place over days, or even weeks. Acting as a pseudo-internship class, this new structure would allow students to stay and work anywhere between 12 and 36 hours, as the building is outfitted with 24-hour fluorescent lighting, proven to help both awareness and focus in students. Furthermore, the data entry tasks interns are asked to perform are repetitive, their simplicity allowing for students to complete them with little to no extra effort, which enables the body to conserve energy resources and increases its ability to work for much, much longer.
These plans were put into place to increase BU Questrom students’ preparedness for life outside a private institution and allow them to autonomously interact with a true business setting before graduating. On a resume, the Panopticon is an instant boost, with real-world companies such as Google or Amazon offering fully paid positions to students who have already been trained within its depth.
Due to the minimal interaction between cells, the Panopticon does away with workplace gossip, affairs, and harassment; all of which are common in a “traditional” work environment, and decrease a worker's ability to perform drastically. Due to the pressures of AI, new challenges are beginning to appear when it comes to streamlining employee output, challenges that BU is proud to rise and meet with their technologies. Many schools such as Harvard and Brown have already begun their plans when it comes to the implementation of the Panopticon on campus, and it won’t be a surprise to see these new buildings cropping up in almost every city around the country soon.
The BU panopticon will also be fitted with a Starbucks and Raising Cane’s, both located at the bottom floor of the gargantuan structure and accessible by elevator.