Leaders at Indiana University of Pennsylvania had heard the horror stories: Students would be accepted here, visit the campus, take one look at the outdated dormitories, and decide to go someplace else. Something had to be done. So they made the bold move to replace all student housing, bed for bed--at a cost of $270-million. The public university has already begun tearing down its traditional dorms and is replacing them with upscale, apartment-style suites. In addition to meeting students' demands for better amenities, Indiana is using the project to reinvent its living-and-learning program. Such programs, which have become popular on campuses across the country, are designed to increase student engagement by extending education beyond the classroom. Indiana's effort is one of the largest student-housing-replacement projects in the country, perhaps the largest. And it shows how far some colleges are willing to go--and how much they are prepared to spend--to attract and retain students who expect to be catered to.