Okay, so Hudson University doesn't really exist—except in the world of Law & Order, L&O: Special Victims Unit and L&O: Criminal Intent. Need a sociopathic nemesis for Detective Goren? Make her a temporary professor at Hudson. Need someone to be murdered in a parking garage? Why not at Hudson! City Room asked L&O producer Rene Balcer about the school and he explained, "It is the one place you never want to go to school or teach at. Very high crime rate." Totally—as Twitterer Mickbw wrote, "OMG Hudson University from Law & Order SUV must be the worst place ever to live or attend school."
Hudson University is so near and dear to some fans' hearts, the L&O:SVU drinking game suggests you drink once if Hudson is mentioned (you also drink once if "Munch makes a sarcastic remark" or "Ice-T (Fin) says 'that's messed up' or some equivalent" but you drink twice if "Kathy Stabler or Stabler's kids are shown"). Balcer says that Hudson is "a university with two campuses, depending on what our locations can give us. Part looks Columbia and part looks like N.Y.U. Some of the dorms look like the dorms at N.Y.U., but when we want a quadrangle or more Ivy Leaguish-building, that’s the uptown campus of Hudson University." It's also a university on two networks—ABC's drama Castle mentions Hudson University.
According to Wikipedia, Hudson University has been filmed at many schools besides Columbia and NYU (Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Lehman College, Fordham University, etc). Also: "The show has shown Hudson University on a map of New York City where the real life Yeshiva University is located." And another final fun fact: Dick Grayson—aka Robin, Batman's sidekick—attended Hudson.
