Academic Building @ Suffolk U | 20 Somerset Street | Beacon Hill

For the past week or so they have been installing the same steel caissons as a Filene's with the same sort of rig. Interestingly, many of the tubes are going into the former sidewalk. Will Somerset Street be narrowed?
 
Suffolk University tightens its belt, sharpens focus as applications tumble

Craig Douglas
Managing editor/online vertical products and research-
Boston Business Journal

Since its founding in 1906, Suffolk University has promoted itself as a diversified, one-stop-shop for college students hoping for a professional career in Greater Boston. Today its mission is much the same, although its aspiration to be all things to all students is getting a serious scrubbing.

Prompted by internal reviews of its operations as well as broader challenges bearing down on all of higher education, Suffolk is in consolidation mode. In the current fall semester, the college’s faculty headcount is down 15 percent on a year-over-year basis. Programs in computer science, environmental engineering, education and video game studies have been eliminated. Undergraduate enrollment is off roughly 3 percent, while first-year enrollment in Suffolk’s law school is down 13 percent.

Much of Suffolk’s reorganization, such as the elimination of some academic programs and the loss of jobs through attrition, has been proactive and strategic; a Suffolk spokesman said the college, under new leadership since 2012, has opted to shed less-popular and competitive academic programs and refocus resources on its core offerings in business and traditional liberal arts programs.

But other changes have come uninvited and reflect deeper, systemic problems plaguing hundreds of private colleges and universities throughout the United States. Those issues have been particularly pronounced in the Northeast, where the annual cost to attend a private four-year school, usually in the $40,000-to-$50,000 range, has proven an increasingly tough sell to students and their families since the recent recession.

Many schools have responded by boosting student aid, spending heavily on marketing and out-of-state recruiting and loosening acceptance standards — none of which bodes well financially over the long term, education experts agree.

The sector’s challenges are being felt at Suffolk, which charges undergraduates roughly $46,000 per year for tuition and housing. Leading up to the current fall semester, freshman applications fell to 9,081, down 4 percent on a year-over-year basis, while transfer applications tumbled by 14 percent.

Over roughly the same span, philanthropic giving at Suffolk has fallen sharply, dropping by 52 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Suffolk countered the drop in applications by boosting its freshmen acceptances, both in number and as a percentage of applications. The college accepted 7,506, or 83 percent, of its freshman applicants for the fall semester, compared to 78 percent in 2012’s corresponding period. The college said 1,165 of those acceptances ultimately enrolled, off 6 percent year-over-year. The average SAT score among Suffolk’s first-year enrollees slipped to 1,504, versus 1,521 in the year-earlier semester.

Suffolk also is digging deeper into its own pockets to lure students to its downtown Boston campus. In fiscal 2013, Suffolk offered $77.5 million in scholarship aid to students, a 10 percent year-over-year increase that brought its total “discount rate” to around 28 percent of gross tuition and fees. The prior year, Suffolk’s discount rate was 25 percent.

The rise in institutional aid resulted in a 2 percent slide in net tuition and fee revenue, which totaled $225 million versus $229 million in 2012’s corresponding period.

Suffolk spokesman Greg Gatlin said the college is committed to recruiting and supporting students from diverse economic and geographic backgrounds and has honed efforts in recent years to target applicants with a high likelihood of graduating and landing full-time employment. He said the university's recent staffing and academic changes dovetail with Suffolk’s strategy to better invest in its core strengths.

“If we can be really focused on the things we do well, we offer better value to our students,” Gatlin said.

Suffolk’s recent cost-cutting and academic reorganization, spearheaded by President James McCarthy after his hiring last year, have more than offset its revenue declines. Last year the college lowered its operating costs to the tune of $7.7 million, a 3 percent drop.

The net result was a 24 percent increase in fiscal 2013 operating income, which totaled $14.7 million.

Add in another $15 million in investment gains and other nonoperating line items, and Suffolk’s change in net assets — essentially its bottom line — was $28.6 million last year, more than double the $11.6 million it booked in fiscal 2012.

McCarthy’s hiring and operating changes followed a turbulent span at Suffolk, which earlier this decade was on track to book losses following a rapid expansion and rise in expenditures. Those financial challenges came to a head roughly three years ago with the disclosure that McCarthy's predecessor, David Sargent, was among the highest-paid college presidents in the country.

Sargent stepped down from Suffolk in 2010 and was replaced on an interim basis by former Suffolk provost and current Mt. Ida College President Barry Brown.
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This is very interesting. These 2nd and 3rd tier schools prices are starting to catch up.
Wonder if this will affect the building on these developments for Suffolk University future?

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/b...-university-sharpens-focus-amid.html?page=all
 
It sounds as though they are attempting to get on good footing, but I'm wondering: Is there any possibility they could merge with another school?

How about New England School of Law for their grad school, for one thing?
 
I've often wondered whether Emerson and Suffolk might someday merge.
 
Not sure why they'd merge with New England School of Law. Firstly, it'd be redundant. Secondly, although Suffolk Law isn't exactly going to make you a Supreme Court Justice, but New England School of Law isn't even going to prepare you to pass the bar. Emerson maybe though. The Fenway Colleges are the one I've always wondered about merging. They already collaborate on a ton.
 
underground said:
Secondly, although Suffolk Law isn't exactly going to make you a Supreme Court Justice,
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Not many law schools can boast that they have an alumnus who served on the United States Supreme Court. But Suffolk has done very well for itself. Several United States Congressmen, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Speaker of the House, Mayor of Boston, United States District Court Judges, Connecticut and Rhode Island Supreme Court Judges, Owner of NHL team, General Counsel of Pepsi Co. and even a world-renown Poker player. LOL.
 
I know. Sorry, wasn't trying to shit on Suffolk Law. Just saying that, although it might not be the best law school in the country, it's a good school, which New England School of Law is not.
 
I have met a lot of successful people that have gone to Suffolk U. mostly for their Masters in Business. It has a great location for people that work right in downtown area.

Aren't they involved in the Political races also with Suffolk University Polls; they also have their law school.

Emerson is more communications driven and also commands a great location. I actually think this would be a good merger for both schools not sure how their finances are but I think both schools have a good reputation around the city & dorm space is priceless overtime.
 
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The average SAT score among Suffolk’s first-year enrollees slipped to 1,504, versus 1,521 in the year-earlier semester.
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The average SAT for enrolled freshmen at Northeastern is 2075 and at BU it is 1926.

I would think that Suffolk would be a niche school for out of staters who desperately want to study in Boston but lack the stats for the first tier schools.
 
They are packing up the caisson machine and leaving. Only about 12 or 15 were set, most on the Somerset St. side. None were set at the rear of the parcel. Now they are excavating in between the concrete caissons along Somerset and shoring it up with wood planks.
 
Excavation and demolition seems complete at this site. Now a number of sections of 5 foot diameter steel pipe have been brought in.
 
TomOfBoston said:
The average SAT for enrolled freshmen at Northeastern is 2075 and at BU it is 1926.

I would think that Suffolk would be a niche school for out of staters who desperately want to study in Boston but lack the stats for the first tier schools.
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Wow, the times, they are a-changing. When I was in college (10 years ago), Northeastern and Suffolk were at the same level in academics/prestige for undergrads. UMass-Boston was the commuter school. Moving up, NU and Suffolk were for bright kids (both local and from around the Northeast) who didn't do very well in school but wanted to have a "real college" experience. BU was a few notches higher with an element of rich/pretentious/arty types. BC and then Tufts were the next rung up, attracting students who were more conventional but also higher-performing compared to BU. Within Massachusetts, the next rung is farther out from Boston - the Wellesleys, Williamses and Amhersts of the world. Then of course there's Harvard and MIT. Even then NU was doing much better than it was 10 years before when some of my relatives who weren't very academically inclined went there.

My understanding is that since then the growth in international students and overall new level of ambition of some Boston-located schools that historically weren't super-competitive but realize their location gives them cachet they can capitalize on have pushed everything below Tufts / BC up a few notches - particularly NU. Is that right? If so, I certainly welcome it wholeheartedly given the large number of friends/relatives I have who are NU alums...
 
When I was looking at colleges (40 years ago) Northeastern was a few notches above Suffolk. Suffolk and the former Boston State College were the bottom of the barrel. By the way, in the early 1970's, BU and BC were facing bankruptcy and there were rumors that BC would be forced to close.
 
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