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About time someone in the Boston media says this.
From The Globe:
How Town Hurts Gown
If Boston doesn't do more to support higher ed, say goodbye to our position as America's premier college city.
(Illustration by Katy Lemay)
By Tom Keane June 8, 2008
Higher education is Boston's golden goose, the linchpin of our high-tech, knowledge-based economy. It's a goose we often love to hate, kicking it around the barnyard when it annoys us and demanding things we wouldn't really ask of any other bird. And why not? It's not as if the goose is going anywhere, right?
Or maybe it is. Graduation ceremonies have just passed, and things may seem good right now. Yet the Boston area's colleges and universities face tough times. Worse, globalization and the Internet threaten to change fundamentally the ways in which they do business. Someday soon, the goose may fly the coop.
No question, we do enjoy picking on higher ed. State legislators are talking about taxing colleges that have large endowments. In April, as it does almost every year, the Boston City Council targeted colleges' tax-exempt status, trying to force them to pay more into city coffers (churches and hospitals - also tax-exempt - were curiously unaffected by the measure). In March, the city imposed rules (now under court challenge) making it harder for college students to live off campus. At the same time, almost every proposal for a new dorm has met with fierce opposition, so much so that Boston has actually asked colleges to consider stopping growth and freezing enrollments. And then there is the insistent demand for "community benefits" whenever a school does expand. Harvard, for example, agreed to pay $25 million to be allowed to build a new science center in Allston.
Contrast this with the way we treat private businesses. When Genzyme recently began expanding its own operations in Allston, it paid nothing in community community benefits. And did anyone object to its growth? Of course not. Indeed, the state and city both did all they could to encourage that growth. Granted, there are differences between a private business and a college. You'll rarely find Genzyme's customers urinating on your front lawn at 3 a.m., for instance. Nevertheless, the cavalier attitude we have toward higher ed is striking.
In a different era, that might not matter. The problem, though, is that higher ed is in trouble. Applications were at a record high this year, but beginning next year, the baby boom bubble bursts, and the applicant pool will start shrinking. In addition, the number of high school seniors in the region is declining, meaning that for schools merely to keep pace, they will need to attract more students from outside. Yet that's getting ever harder to do. We're proud of our longstanding reputation as America's premier college town, but, in fact, only 16 of the top 125 schools in the country are located in New England, according to US News & World Report. The rest fiercely compete against us not only on the basis of class size, lab space, and faculty, but also on amenities such as dorms. Today's students are no longer satisfied with crowded quads and grungy bathrooms down the hall. Quality of life matters, and prevented from building, Boston schools have a tough time delivering.
Equally problematic is competition from overseas. Foreign students once flocked to New England; now their numbers are down. Some are going to colleges elsewhere in the States. Others are staying home and attending newly built schools there. Our own schools are now building elsewhere as well. Emerson opened a campus in LA. MIT is building in Abu Dhabi, Harvard Medical will soon be in Dubai, and the University of Massachusetts is cutting a deal to offer courses in China. If the students aren't coming to Boston, the schools may as well go to them.
Then there's distance learning. Most colleges now offer online courses; community colleges, in fact, report that online enrollment is growing more than five times faster than on-campus enrollment. Eventually, students and schools will figure out that much of their learning can be done without leaving home.
Maybe, you're thinking, that's a good thing. Who needs those cheeky kids coming here and taking over our neighborhoods? That's one perspective. The other is that, should we lose that fresh blood and new thinking, our cutting-edge economy and vibrant culture will stultify. Rather than pitying the problems of left-behind cities such as Detroit, we'll be living them.
Tom Keane, a freelance writer in Boston, contributes regularly to the Globe Magazine.
E-mail him at tomkeane@tomkeane.com
From The Globe:
How Town Hurts Gown
If Boston doesn't do more to support higher ed, say goodbye to our position as America's premier college city.
By Tom Keane June 8, 2008
Higher education is Boston's golden goose, the linchpin of our high-tech, knowledge-based economy. It's a goose we often love to hate, kicking it around the barnyard when it annoys us and demanding things we wouldn't really ask of any other bird. And why not? It's not as if the goose is going anywhere, right?
Or maybe it is. Graduation ceremonies have just passed, and things may seem good right now. Yet the Boston area's colleges and universities face tough times. Worse, globalization and the Internet threaten to change fundamentally the ways in which they do business. Someday soon, the goose may fly the coop.
No question, we do enjoy picking on higher ed. State legislators are talking about taxing colleges that have large endowments. In April, as it does almost every year, the Boston City Council targeted colleges' tax-exempt status, trying to force them to pay more into city coffers (churches and hospitals - also tax-exempt - were curiously unaffected by the measure). In March, the city imposed rules (now under court challenge) making it harder for college students to live off campus. At the same time, almost every proposal for a new dorm has met with fierce opposition, so much so that Boston has actually asked colleges to consider stopping growth and freezing enrollments. And then there is the insistent demand for "community benefits" whenever a school does expand. Harvard, for example, agreed to pay $25 million to be allowed to build a new science center in Allston.
Contrast this with the way we treat private businesses. When Genzyme recently began expanding its own operations in Allston, it paid nothing in community community benefits. And did anyone object to its growth? Of course not. Indeed, the state and city both did all they could to encourage that growth. Granted, there are differences between a private business and a college. You'll rarely find Genzyme's customers urinating on your front lawn at 3 a.m., for instance. Nevertheless, the cavalier attitude we have toward higher ed is striking.
In a different era, that might not matter. The problem, though, is that higher ed is in trouble. Applications were at a record high this year, but beginning next year, the baby boom bubble bursts, and the applicant pool will start shrinking. In addition, the number of high school seniors in the region is declining, meaning that for schools merely to keep pace, they will need to attract more students from outside. Yet that's getting ever harder to do. We're proud of our longstanding reputation as America's premier college town, but, in fact, only 16 of the top 125 schools in the country are located in New England, according to US News & World Report. The rest fiercely compete against us not only on the basis of class size, lab space, and faculty, but also on amenities such as dorms. Today's students are no longer satisfied with crowded quads and grungy bathrooms down the hall. Quality of life matters, and prevented from building, Boston schools have a tough time delivering.
Equally problematic is competition from overseas. Foreign students once flocked to New England; now their numbers are down. Some are going to colleges elsewhere in the States. Others are staying home and attending newly built schools there. Our own schools are now building elsewhere as well. Emerson opened a campus in LA. MIT is building in Abu Dhabi, Harvard Medical will soon be in Dubai, and the University of Massachusetts is cutting a deal to offer courses in China. If the students aren't coming to Boston, the schools may as well go to them.
Then there's distance learning. Most colleges now offer online courses; community colleges, in fact, report that online enrollment is growing more than five times faster than on-campus enrollment. Eventually, students and schools will figure out that much of their learning can be done without leaving home.
Maybe, you're thinking, that's a good thing. Who needs those cheeky kids coming here and taking over our neighborhoods? That's one perspective. The other is that, should we lose that fresh blood and new thinking, our cutting-edge economy and vibrant culture will stultify. Rather than pitying the problems of left-behind cities such as Detroit, we'll be living them.
Tom Keane, a freelance writer in Boston, contributes regularly to the Globe Magazine.
E-mail him at tomkeane@tomkeane.com
