Here’s a riddle for you:
“Hoisted on mastheads, stripes and stars, crosses and crowns. Count the crowns floating on Bay State Road.”

This is one of 20 questions featured in the new Escape the Road Challenge, a treasure hunt of sorts, where teams of two to six work together to solve riddles related to Bay State Road, its history, and its architecture. The top prize is a $500 Amazon gift card. Note: the competition is open to all members of the BU community, but only student teams are eligible to receive the top prizes; faculty and staff are eligible to receive raffle prizes.

Hosted by the Faculty-in-Residence program of Bay State Road and sponsored by numerous departments and organizations, among them the Pardee School of Global Studies, BU Global House, and several residence hall coordinators, the challenge runs through April 12, 2019. Its name is based off the popular Escape the Room game, where players are locked in a room and must use deductive reasoning and keen observational skills to advance.

The point of the BU challenge is to give players a greater appreciation of the fascinating history and architecture of Bay State Road, says event organizer Liliane Duséwoir (GRS’99), a College of Arts & Sciences senior lecturer in French and Spanish and an upper Bay State Road faculty-in-residence. She says the idea came about a few months ago when Kenneth Elmore (Wheelock’87), associate provost and dean of students, charged the faculty-in-residence with planning an interdisciplinary event. Duséwoir pitched a scavenger hunt–type concept based on something similar she had done as a high school student in Belgium. She’s lived on Bay State Road since September 2018, and says she’s become enamored of her new address.

“I used to walk up and down Bay State Road all the time, but I was rushing to meetings,” says Duséwoir, who found ideas for the trivia questions in local history books, such as Buildings & Builders: An Architectural History of Boston University. “Now that I live here, I started noticing how beautiful the architecture is, transoms above doors, the stained glass windows. I wondered if students knew about these things, and other interesting facts, like how the road used to be a hub for medical research. I thought there was a potential for a fun event.”

Duséwoir and fellow Bay State Road faculty-in-residence mined numerous sources to come up with questions. Several volunteers (Challenge sponsor Elmore and David Zamojski, assistant dean of students and director of Residence Life among them) are testing the game.

“One of our intended goals is to create opportunities for face-to-face interaction,” Duséwoir says. “And with a piece of paper, hopefully participants will disconnect a bit from their phones.”

Want to play? It’s easy. Teams need to pick up a paper questionnaire in person at one of several spots across the Charles River Campus, like the Educational Resource Center, Kilachand Hall, and Towers (find the full list here) and begin playing. Teams have until April 12, 2019, at 11:59 pm to submit their answers digitally using a QR code.

Prizes are a $500 Amazon gift card for the first place team and $300 Amazon gift card for the highest-placing team comprising exclusively Bay State Road residents (each team can receive only one prize). In addition, several raffle prizes will be given for a bonus challenge and an Instagram challenge (see the official rules for more info). The prizes will be handed out at an Escape the Road party on April 18, 2019, in Kilachand Hall (open to the public), and answers will be revealed.

There are 19 faculty-in-residence on the Charles River Campus. They live alongside students in residence halls, where they serve as role models, resources, and advocates, and collaborate with students to plan activities.

“Part of our mission is to engage the students outside the classroom,” says Duséwoir, who joined the Faculty-in-Residence program for the 2018–2019 academic year. “With this event, we want students to use their observation skills. Hopefully it will get them to team up and have fun.”

Prizes will be awarded at the Escape the Road party Thursday, April 18, 2019, from 7 to 9 pm, in Kilachand Hall, 91 Bay State Road. The event is open to the public, and will include food, prizes, and a grand raffle, along with the correct answers.