| “ | Nebraska State University is a community first and foremost. Our role in agriculture and energy development, along with education, provides the fuel for the future, for Omaha, and one day, beyond. As we build out our community, we build lives here, in Omaha, and into the future with degrees, trade learning, skill acquisition, and research. Nebraska State University. 'Learn to Live. Live to Learn.'
―NSU Poster.[src]
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The Campus Colony of Omaha, also known as Campus Colony, or simply The University, was a large, secured community in AMC's The Walking Dead: World Beyond, located in Lincoln, Nebraska. With a population of 9,671 people by 2020, it served as a satellite community to the secured city of Omaha and part of the Alliance of the Three, along with Portland and the Civic Republic of Philadelphia (CRP). On the tenth anniversary of Monument Day, the Civic Republic Military (CRM) destroyed the Campus Colony and also massacred Omaha using chlorine gas and a herd of zombies, killing around 100,000 people in total.
Pre-Apocalypse
Lincoln, Nebraska
Prior to the outbreak, this was home to the pre-apocalypse Nebraska State University. Established in 1869, students attended classes for higher education. Leopold Bennett, Amelia, and Isaac Ortiz were among many professors employed at the university. Felix Carlucci was also an enrolled student here.
Post-Apocalypse
As the outbreak began, U.S. Military Command designated the NSU campus as an emergency shelter, and issued out mandatory evacuation orders throughout the state to take refuge at the campus, including for the city of Lincoln. With its status as a safe-zone, it was likely heavily guarded by military personnel, but with the military pulling out of all established safe-zones in a massive retreat as Operation Cobalt was initiated, the gathered refugees at the campus were left to fend for themselves. Despite this, the survivors managed to overcome the early days of the outbreak, and a permanent community was established at the university. Eventually, the campus survivors made contact with the much larger, surviving city of Omaha, and became a satellite to the super colony. Both Nebraska State University and Omaha were later inducted into an even larger network of survivor cities, known as the Alliance of the Three.
As a result of the alliance, the Campus Colony received resources, food and other provisions, with the goal of creating a thriving, self-sustaining settlement in the post-apocalyptic world. A council was soon established, to which an unknown number of residents were elected to serve as councilmembers. A security force was established to police the community and provide safety to its residents. Omahan teenagers, young adults and hundreds of people joined the work force in the community, all contributing to the university becoming a research and academia hub with an established school system. The community grew large enough to house over 9,000 people by the year 2020.
Following the departure of the Endlings, the Campus Colony was destroyed by the Civic Republic Military by gassing the survivors and allowing a massive herd to overrun it, which occurred only days after the CRM orchestrated the destruction of Omaha. The herd was used as a cover for the CRM to experiment with a variant of chlorine gas devised by Dr. Lyla Belshaw of the Civic Republic, and Dr. Samuel Abbott of Portland.
As a part of the Echelon Briefing, Major General Beale reveals the truth about the destruction of Omaha and the Campus Colony to Rick Grimes as well as the CRM's plans to do the same thing to Portland. Along with the destruction of Portland, the CRM planned to use the destruction of Omaha and the Campus Colony to justify declaring martial law over the Civic Republic itself to further the CRM's genocidal goals. However, after the death of Beale and the extermination of the Frontliners and the entire CRM Force Command, the couple reveals the truth about the CRM's atrocities to the Civic Republic Council. Taking emergency oversight of the CRM by unanimous vote, the council determined that the CRM's command hierarchies and layers of operational secrecy indicated that infantry CRM units did not participate in the atrocities perpetrated by the Frontliners.
Government and Society
The community was led by a council of a number of the colony's residents, known as the Campus Colony Council (CCC). The Senior Security Force Officer was Felix Carlucci, a former student at the university. He and his fleet of officers provided law and order to the town, as well as serving as escorts to those traveling via shuttle between the campus and Omaha. Alcohol was illegal for underage students to possess and brew, a heap of which was seized from student Hope Bennett, in preparation for one of her annual 'Feast Day rager' parties in storage room C12.
The Campus Colony community celebrated various cultural events, including Feast Day, Monument Day, and Winter Formal. Numerous clubs were available to students, such as a student council, art, modern poetry, Bible study, and orchestra. The campus provided various athletic activities for its students, including karate, track and fencing. The campus also offered survival classes for its students, one of which was taught by Felix Carlucci. The campus was also home to Monument High School, which functioned alongside the higher education departments. Shuttles ran between Omaha and the Campus Colony every two weeks, with the routes to and from known as 'lanes'.
Sections of the campus grounds were known as quadrants. Dorms and apartment buildings across campus were inhabited by students, adults, and families. Sick, at-risk residents in the community inhabited their own bar-protected dorm rooms in the event of reanimation, with reanimated residents being put down by designated hazmat teams. Several academic buildings remained in the school system, while others were used to support societal needs such as food, medicine, and law & order. A power plant was maintained by a crew of experienced workers (including Marco Voci). Newcomers to the community were occasionally welcomed or referred to the university from Omaha, where they were interviewed, filed, and underwent security clearances and psychological exams. The university was surrounded by a stone and iron fence that was routinely patrolled by the community's security force, led by Felix Carlucci.
The NSU campus housed a Genetic Research Laboratory, to which the department focused significantly on working towards a cure for the Wildfire Virus, and eliminating reanimated necrotic matter. Dr. Leopold Bennett, one of the campus' head researchers, authored advanced immunology textbooks, and published his peer-reviewed advanced immunology thesis, "What to Know in the Age of the Unknown".
Inhabitants
- Dr. K (Therapist)
- Mr. Kapadia (Teacher)
- Jan (Student)
- Phoebe (Student)
- Dani (Student)
- Izzy (Security Guard)
- Dwyer (Security Guard)
- Marco Voci (Physical Plant Worker)
- Dr. Bavolar (Researcher)
- Kallenbach (Principal)
- Dre
- Eric
- Kayla
- Destiny
- Campus Student 1
- Campus Student 2
- Campus Student 3
- 9,649 unnamed people
Formerly
- Leopold Bennett
- Will Campbell (Co-Head of Dr. Leo Bennett's Security Detail)
- Felix Carlucci (Survival Instructor/Head of Security)
- Elton Ortiz (Karate Instructor/Student)
- Silas Plaskett (Janitor/Student)
- Iris Bennett (Student)
- Hope Bennett (Student)
- Jennifer Mallick (Security Guard)
- Romano (Co-Head of Dr. Leo Bennett's Security Detail)
- Many unnamed Civic Republic Research Facility personnel and students
- Many unnamed children
Deaths
- Dr. K (Alive and Zombified)
- Mr. Kapadia
- Jan
- Phoebe
- Dani
- Izzy
- Marco Voci
- Dr. Bavolar
- Kallenbach
- Dwyer
- Campus Student 1
- Campus Student 2
- Campus Student 3
- 9,649 unnamed people
- Numerous counts of unnamed people
Appearances
World Beyond
Season 1
- "Brave"
- "The Blaze of Gory" (Flashback)
- "The Tyger and the Lamb" (Flashback)
- "The Wrong End of a Telescope" (Flashback)
- "The Deepest Cut" (Flashback)
- "In This Life" (Flashback)
Season 2
- "Konsekans" (Hallucination)
- "The Last Light" (Flashback)
Trivia
- While the map in "The Blaze of Gory" suggests that the Campus Colony is located in Lincoln, Nebraska, the settlement is considered a branch/satellite community of Omaha the survivor city, as it is officially known as the "Campus Colony of Omaha". Also, TV commercials and an Instagram video by World Beyond label the Campus Colony as part of Omaha, Nebraska. Additionally, it should be noted that Campus Colony and the survivor city of Omaha are "100 miles" from each other, which further contradicts the location of either community.
- The location is possibly based on Dave's statement in The Walking Dead episode "Nebraska" where he mentions to Rick that people were going to the state to escape the walkers.
- In "The Deepest Cut", it's mentioned that the Campus Colony once held an animal adoption event in the east quad.
- The Campus Colony is the second-known post-apocalyptic education establishment in the Walking Dead Universe, with the first and third being the Civic Republic Research Facility and the Commonwealth Education Hall respectively.