The college is one of the founding members of the ProArts Consortium, an association of six neighboring institutions in Boston dedicated to arts education at the collegiate level.

Emerson owns and operates the historic Colonial, Paramount, and Cutler Majestic theaters, as well as several smaller performance venues.

At the turn of the century, faculty members Henry and Jessie Eldridge Southwick and William H. Kenney purchased the college from Dr. Emerson.

The college purchased its first piece of real estate with a new women's dormitory building at 373 Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay, and started intramural sports in 1931 with the organization of volleyball games.

In 1953, Emerson opened The Robbins Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic at 145 Beacon Street, furthering the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program.

In 1967, Richard Chapin, former Dean of the Harvard Business School was inaugurated as the seventh president of Emerson College.

As soon as he was inaugurated in 1979, Koenig initiated talks with Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to relocate Emerson and merge the two schools.

[8] Despite the newly purchased Commonwealth Avenue buildings, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was soon being discussed as a new location for Emerson College, about 44.5 km (27.7 mi) away from Boston.

However, as real estate values in Boston dropped and the costs of constructing a new campus increased, the plans were put on hold and eventually abandoned when Koenig resigned as president in 1989.

Shortly after, she submitted a 10-year master plan to the Boston Redevelopment Authority which involved moving the college to the Washington Street Theatre District.

The college also extended health care benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian faculty, administration and staff.

[26] With the addition of dorm space here and at the Paramount Theatre, the school hoped to accommodate up to 75% of its students in on-campus housing by 2010.

In addition to the 590-seat Paramount Theatre, the Paramount Center also houses an experimental black box theater, the Bright Family Screening Room, a sound stage, a scene/prop production shop, nine rehearsal studios, six practice rooms, four classrooms, 20 faculty offices, and a student commons area.

As of 2014[update], two students are suing the college for mishandling their rape cases and failing to provide their Title IX rights.

[38] On April 25, 2024, 118 Emerson students were arrested (and several injured) after Boston Police cleared an encampment that was part of the nationwide college protests against the Israel-Hamas War.

Presently, the majority of the college's acquired properties were reclaimed, renovated and/or restored without having to introduce new developments into the Downtown core.

In addition, Emerson College extends its campus outside Massachusetts state, operating in a fourteenth-century castle in the Netherlands and a major academic center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood for its long-established Los Angeles program.

The building stands 14 stories high and contains all Visual & Media Arts (VMA) labs and facilities, offices for all VMA and Writing, Literature & Publishing (WLP) departments, and is the home of WERS, WECB, and ETIN (Emerson's Talk and Information Network, an online radio service).

The former Union Bank building at 216 Tremont Street houses the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the in-house clinic, The Robbins Speech, Language and Hearing Center.

The set, Will and Grace's living room and kitchen, remained in the library until 2013, when it was moved to Emerson's Los Angeles campus.

The renovated Paramount Center was designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston and built by Bond Brothers, and completed in 2010.

The complex features the 120-seat Liebergott Black Box Theatre, the 174-seat Bright Family Screening Room, nine rehearsal studios ranging from 700 to 1,900 square feet (65 to 177 m2), five practice rooms for individuals and small groups, a sound stage for film production classes, a scene shop, several classrooms, a restaurant, and Emerson faculty and staff offices.

[54][55] The center allows undergraduate students to spend a full fall, spring or summer semester taking classes in Hollywood and participating in a semester-long internship at enterprises related to their field of study.

[56] Emerson College owns and operates Kasteel Well in the rural province of Limburg, Netherlands, a national historical monument that provides living accommodations, classrooms, a resource center, and related facilities.

The women's softball team defeated Western New England College in 2007 to clinch the GNAC championship and earn the department's first appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Emertainment Monthly received the title of Best in Show in the "Website Small School" Category by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2015.

[78] It received the titles of Best in Show in the "Four-Year Weekly" and "Website Small School" categories by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2015.

In addition to participating in internal college activities, the group also engages in community service around the Boston area.

Carol Kamerschen, Greg Weremey, Barry Scott and Russ Weisenbacher were instrumental in fighting the board of trustees, and convincing them to allow Weremey and Weisenbacher to design and build new studios at 126 Beacon Street, replacing the former facilities at 130 Beacon Street, 4th floor.

"[86]: 49  The college is also home to the American Comedy Archives, established in 2005 to "acquire, preserve and make available primary source material that documents the professional activities of the ground breaking individuals who have written, produced or performed comedy for radio, television, motion pictures or live performance".