connection summer03

Inside: • Human Capital Dilemmas Cloud New England Outlook• Foreign Immigration, Interstate Migration and the Labor Market• Why Merit Aid Won’t Attract the Best and the Brightest• Outdoor Education Programs Try to Prove their Worth

THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

CONNECTION

VOLUME XVIII

NUMBER 1

SUMMER 2003

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Volume XVIII, No. 1Summer 2003CONNECTION

THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

C O V E R S T O R I E S

13 Bright Futures? Human Capital Dilemmas Cloud New England OutlookNeal R. Peirce and Curtis Johnson

16 Imported TalentForeign Immigration and the New England Labor MarketAndrew Sum, Mykhaylo Trubs’kyy and Neeta P. Fogg

19 Reform Immigration! Richard Freeland

20 Smart RoutesMigration Patterns among New England’s College FreshmenMichael K. Thomas

24 Aid MattersMerit Aid is the Wrong Tool to Attract the Best and the BrightestDonald E. Heller

C O M M E N T A R Y & A N A L Y S I S

26 JobbersNew England Campuses Offer Up Some Workforce Development Surprises James Martin and James E. Samels

28 Local HeroesHow Colleges and Universities Enrich Their Host CommunitiesJudith Steinkamp

31 The Great OutdoorsAdventure Education and Recreation Studies Programs Try to Prove Their WorthMonica Deady

D E P A R T M E N T S

5 Editor’s MemoJohn O. Harney

7 Short Courses

11 Message from the PresidentPracticing What We Preach: A Collaborative StrategyRobert A. Weygand

35 BooksYGB Young, Gifted, and Black reviewed by Sylvia Quarles Simmons

Yalie The Work of the University reviewed by Andrew G. De Rocco

38 ExcerptsAdvice to Governors Robert C. Dickeson of the Lumina Foundation on Prioritizing Academic Programs

40 Campus: News Briefly Noted

44 Data Connection

CONNECTION SUMMER 2003 3

Cover photo by Amber Wendt of the Lewiston Sun Journal.

This year, more than 720 non-traditional adult learners who face barriers to academic success will have an opportunity to earn a college degree.

Through the New England ABE-to-College Transition Project, GED graduates and adult diploma recipients can enroll at one of 25 participating adult learning centers located across New England to take free college preparation courses and receive educational and career planning counseling.They leave the program withimproved academic and study skills, such as writing basic research papers and taking effective notes. Best ofall, they can register at one of 30 colleges and universities that partner with the program.

Each year, the Project exceeds its goals: 60 percent complete the program; and 75 percent of these graduatesgo on to college.

By linking Adult Basic Education to post-secondary education, the New England ABE-to College TransitionProject gives non-traditional adult learners a chance to enrich their own and their families’ lives.

To learn more, contact Jessica Spohn, Project Director, New England Literacy Resource Center, at (617) 482-9485, ext. 513, or through e-mail at [email protected]. (The Project is funded by the Nellie MaeEducation Foundation through the LiFELiNE initiative.)

1250 Hancock Street, Suite 205N • Quincy, MA 02169-4331Tel. 781-348-4200 • Fax 781-348-4299

A Chance to AchieveA Chance to AchieveTheir Dreams


E D I T O R ’ S M E M O

CONNECTION: THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD

OF HIGHER EDUCATION is published five times a year by the New England Board of Higher Education, 45 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111-1325 Phone: 617.357.9620 Fax: 617.338.1577Email: [email protected]

Vol. XVIII, No. 1 Summer 2003 ISSN 0895-6405Copyright © 2003 by the New England Board of Higher Education.

Publisher: Robert A. WeygandExecutive Editor: John O. HarneySenior Director of Communications:

Charlotte StrattonNEBHE/CONNECTION Intern: Monica DeadyDesign and Production: tpgcreative, Boston, MA

Director of Advertising Sales and Marketing: Myha Nguyen

Back Issues: Regular issues $3.95 each; annual directory issue $14.95.

Advertising rates are available upon request.

CONNECTION is printed in New England.

CONNECTION is indexed and abstracted in EBSCOhost’sAcademic Search Elite, Academic Search Premier andProfessional Development Collection, and indexed inPAIS International and ERIC’s Current Index to Journalsin Education. A cumulative index of CONNECTION articles and abstracts of recent articles are also accessible on the World Wide Web at www.nebhe.org.

The New England Boardof Higher Education is anonprofit, congressionallyauthorized, interstateagency whose mission is to promote greater educational opportunitiesand services for the residents of New England. NEBHE was established by the New England Higher Education Compact, a 1955 agreement among the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Chair: Carole Cowan, President, Middlesex Community College

President: Robert A. Weygand

CONNECTION Editorial Advisory Board

Katherine SloanPresident, Massachusetts College of Art

Robert WhitcombEditorial Page Editor, Providence Journal-Bulletin

Ralph Whitehead Jr.Public Service Professor, University of Massachusetts

Robert L. WoodburyFormer Chancellor, University of Maine System

CONNECTIONTHE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

..

John O. Harney is executive editor of CONNECTION.

Growing Our Own

Maybe it’s a good thing that the hundreds of thousands of NewEnglanders who are out of work, out of school and underprepared fortoday’s job market, don’t monitor the stream of economic prescrip-

tions coming out of the region’s business groups and think tanks. They wouldbe appalled by the frequent suggestion that the slow-growing region’s futureeconomic success depends upon recruiting talented people from elsewhere.

A human capital strategy growing out of a year’s worth of New EnglandBoard of Higher Education (NEBHE) conferences on workforce developmentcould offer a refreshing change. The economists, business leaders and edu-cators convened by the board have begun piecing together a strategy to“grow our own,” so to speak—to make sure all New England’s residents,native-born and immigrant alike, have a place in the new economy.

The experts agree that the only way New England can thrive economicallyis on the quality of its workforce. They also agree generally on ways to getthere. Get more kids interested in college, especially in majors leading to high-er-paying science, engineering and information technology occupations. Investmore in, but also demand more accountability from, community colleges. Beefup adult basic education programs. Prepare more and better math teachers.Integrate internships and other work experiences with schoolwork. And ensure“universal success” in Algebra I as a sort of prerequisite for critical thinking.

None of this will be easy. Increasing minority participation in science andtechnology occupations begins with improving poor elementary and secondaryschools. That, in turn, will require experiments with “differential pay” to helpschools compete with industry for the best teachers, and innovative programsto bring unemployed or semi-retired scientists into the classroom as “coaches,”if not full-fledged teachers. But they can’t just be geniuses; they need to knowhow to teach too. And memorization and standardized testing won’t suffice. It’splanting the pea seed in the paper cup that makes kids care about science.

Moreover, improving schools won’t mean much if the pathway to, andthrough, college is paved with obstacles, the most obvious being risingtuition prices. Nearly nine in 10 Massachusetts parents surveyed by theBoston think tank MassINC want the state to make higher education moreaffordable. But whether cash-strapped states will increase need-based student aid in proportion to tuition hikes is doubtful.

Watch CONNECTION for more on a New England human capital strategy.NEBHE plans to further hone the workforce recommendations over the com-ing month and present them to New England’s governors for consideration.

* * * *Growing our own doesn’t mean slamming the door on everyone else.

While a group of Sudanese dancers performed at Rhode Island College in aneffort to promote tolerance and inclusion, Massachusetts House MinorityLeader Rep. Bradley Jones of North Reading was filing legislation banningpeople from Sudan and six other countries recognized as sponsors of ter-rorism from attending public colleges in Massachusetts. The American CivilLiberties Union called the plan “a foolish overreaction.”

* * * *Former University of Maine System Chancellor Robert L. Woodbury’s Spring

2003 CONNECTION article on “How to Make Your College No. 1 in U.S. News &

World Report … and Lose Your Integrity in the Process” was reprinted on theop-ed page of the Providence Journal and excerpted in the Magazines &Journals section of the Chronicle of Higher Education online. The coverageprecipitated a flood of requests for the Spring issue ... lots of praise and a fewprotests from highly rated colleges who insist they don’t do any of those things!

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S H O R T C O U R S E S

ImpactedWhen the going gets tough, colleges… publish economic impact reports?With states slashing higher educationbudgets and revenue-starved localcommunities eyeing colleges’ pre-cious tax-exemptions, institutionsare going to great lengths to remindpolicymakers of their economic vital-ity. A sampling:

Greater Boston’s eight researchuniversities injected $7.4 billion intothe regional economy in 2000, accord-ing to a study done for the institu-tions by Appleseed, a New Yorkeconomics firm. The eight are BostonUniversity, Boston College, Brandeis,Harvard, Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, Northeastern, Tufts andthe University of MassachusettsBoston.

Between 2000 and 2002, asemployment in the region declined,the universities actually added 2,000jobs, bringing their total combinedworkforce to 50,750. The study sug-gests that the multiplier effect of thegroup’s spending in 2000 supportedan additional 37,000 local jobs.

The eight universities spent morethan $1.5 billion, mostly federalfunds, on research and developmentin 2000. They bought $1.3 billionworth of goods and services, andplanned to spend an average $850million a year for the next four yearson construction. In addition, theinstitutions in 2000 received 264patents, signed 250 commerciallicensing agreements and helpedform 41 startup companies.

* * * *Springfield Technical Community

College’s seven-year-old TechnologyPark has created more than 800 jobsfor Springfield, Mass., according toa report by the UMass AmherstCenter for Economic Developmentand Mullin Associates. Communitycollege students intern in the park,while tenant companies tap theexpertise of college faculty.

The college created the park in1996 on a 15-acre site abandoned byDigital Equipment Corp. The firstsuch park in the country associated

with a community college now claims18 tenants, including the SpringfieldEnterprise Center, an “incubator” forhigh-tech startups.

Applying a multiplier that assumesevery job at the park creates 1.42additional jobs elsewhere in theSpringfield area, college officials sug-gest the park’s presence accounts formore than 2,000 area jobs.

The report also notes that proper-ty taxes generated by the park exceedthe cost of municipal services bymore than $170,000 annually.

Most importantly, local boosterssay, the park has nurtured GreaterSpringfield’s technology sector, par-ticularly the once-booming telecom-munications industry.

* * * *The New Hampshire Forum on

Higher Education reports that NewHampshire colleges and universitiesspent $1.5 billion in 2002 for an eco-nomic impact of more than $3 billion—more than double their estimated

$1.4 billion impact in 1992.Beyond traditional economic con-

tributions, the Forum notes that NewHampshire college students and fac-ulty performed $6 million worth ofvolunteer work, while 147,032 com-munity residents attended campuscultural events.

* * * *Middlebury College brings $125

million into Vermont’s AddisonCounty each year, according to astudy by Arthur Woolf and RichardHeaps of Northern EconomicConsulting. Middlebury employs1,253 workers and creates an addi-tional 736 jobs in Addison County,the report says.

Secretary of the College EricDavis commented at a press confer-ence: “Because the college has beenrelatively less affected by the currenteconomic downturn than other sec-tors of the economy (manufacturingand technology), Addison County hasweathered these economic storms


Sunshine Laws?“Senators would adopt a budget rider codifying Pasadena’s climate if theycould. But they’re just state senators. So they concentrated on the cost of livingthing as they went through their budget this week.”

—Massachusetts State House News Service reporter Craig Sandler’s weekly news roundup of May 30. Earlier in the week, the Boston think tankMassINC reported that a quarter of Bay State residents would move if they

could, half of those either because of the weather or the cost of living.

Or Is He Green?“The ‘Old, Rich White Man,’ the result of days of heated discussion by a spe-cially appointed panel of administrators, trustees and students, will be formallyintroduced as the new Dartmouth mascot at an unveiling ceremony scheduledfor next week.”

—Tongue-in-cheek editorial in May 28, 2003 issue of The Dartmouth Online by staff columnist Hemant Joshi on the

decades-long controversy surrounding Dartmouth College’s mascot. The college dropped the Indian as a mascot in 1970 and

has since adopted the mascotless phrase Big Green.

Horse SenseHoof Care for the New Millennium

—Title of May 2003 continuing education course offered at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine.

Snippets

8 NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

with relatively less damage thanother parts of Vermont.” He citedChittenden County, where IBM haslaid off 1,000 workers.

The study suggests that studentsspend $2.7 million per year in town,while their visitors spend $2 millionon hotel rooms, restaurants andother purchases. That’s down from1996 because of the changing natureof local businesses and Internet purchasing.

* * * *Stretching economic impact is

part of the game. One model devel-oped for community colleges byIdaho-based CCbenefits Inc., countsearnings not only from college oper-ations, but also from “past instruc-tion” of students, and places dollarsavings on the reduced crime, betterhealth and other social benefitsassociated with all college-going.

Still, a CCbenefits report showingthat Connecticut’s HousatonicCommunity College accounts for$60 million in annual earnings inGreater Bridgeport and providestaxpayers with a 13 percent returnon their investment has generatedpositive editorial page coverage andwon legislative allies in a year whenthe state’s community colleges havebeen cut by $700,000 and more cutsloom, according to college publicrelations director Anson Smith.

* * * *Greenfield Community College

officials can relate. Targeted formerger under Massachusetts Gov.Mitt Romney’s higher education reor-ganization plan, Greenfield reports itspends $15 million in Massachusettseach year and generates almost $38million in spending—which collegeofficials note is four times the college’sstate appropriation of $9.3 million.

After SchoolWith only 20 percent of a young per-son’s time spent in school, even themost innovative school reforms canhave limited impact. What happensduring the remaining 80 percent ofthe time—especially from 3 p.m. to 6p.m. when a lot of unattended kids

get into life-changing trouble—hasprofound implications for studentlearning. Not surprisingly then, after-school programs are viewed aspromising tools for increasing stu-dent engagement and improving aca-demic performance.

Importantly, afterschool programscan build “prerequisites” to learningsuch as communication skills, relationship-building with adults,anger management, critical thinkingand problem-solving, according toCritical Hours, Afterschool Programs

and Educational Success, a newreview of research on afterschool pro-grams by Beth M. Miller, an indepen-dent consultant and senior researchadvisor to the National Institute of Outof School Time at the Wellesley CollegeCenter for Research on Women.

The report, commissioned by theNellie Mae Education Foundation,focuses on the middle school years, atime when many students become dis-engaged from school. One study refer-enced by Miller found that studentswho spent three or more hours home

Showing OffIn May, University of New Hampshire President Ann Weaver Hart led a three-day bus tour of the Granite State to show nearly two dozen faculty membersand administrators how the university’s teaching, research and outreach benefit the state.

By bringing the new profs from the Seacoast and the Great North Woods tothe Lakes Region, says Hart, “we hope to inspire them to expand our missionof public service to the state in new and creative ways.”

The first stop was the New Castle Coast Guard Pier, where zoologist HuntHowell discussed the background of the pier and its importance to UNHresearch, and Pingguo He, a UNH specialist on fishing gear technology, talkedabout the university’s involvement in Portsmouth’s fishing industry.

Next stop, Prescott Park in Portsmouth, where UNH operates greenhouses.Then the bus rolled on to UNH-Manchester, where historian Robert Macieskidiscussed the city’s mills. That was followed by a stop at the Union Leader

newspaper, which employs several UNH alumni, and the N.H. InternationalSpeedway in Loudon, which employs UNH interns.

The final stop of the day was Patrick’s Pub in Gilford where tour partici-pants learned how the UNH Cooperative Extension’s food safety program hadhelped the pub and its staff.

Among other stops: the Lakes Region Correctional Facility in Laconia,where nearly 100 inmates are involved in a UNH partnership to help the families of inmates, and the Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch, where UNH scientists have all but banished the black flies that once scared off both guestsand employees.


UNH faculty at the New Hampshire International Speedway, which regularly employs university interns.

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alone during out-of-school time weresignificantly more likely to use drugsand alcohol, experience high levels ofstress, anger, depression and behaviorproblems, and exhibit low self-esteemand poorer academic performance.

Miller concludes that studentsengaged in high-quality out-of-schoolprograms have improved attitudestoward school, higher educationalaspirations and get better grades. Forexample, 83 percent of the 18,000 stu-dents enrolled in LA’s Best, an after-school program sponsored by theCity of Los Angeles, L.A. schools andprivate companies, indicated thatthey liked school more, and aftertheir second year in the program,they boosted their grade point aver-ages by as much as 32 percent.

“We believe the report will helpafterschool providers improve out-of-school programs and support theirconviction that what they do helpsyoung people develop skills that areessential for success in today’sworld,” says foundation PresidentBlenda J. Wilson. For a copy ofCritical Hours, visit the foundationwebsite at http://www.nmefdn.org.

Goodbye Mr. ChipsWhen Northeastern University decidedrecently to convert from a quarterly aca-demic calendar to a semester system,the change had to be reflected in arevised faculty handbook, which openeda new can of worms. One subject fordebate was how long a Northeasternprof could be AWOL before being termi-nated. More than a dozen years ago, twoNortheastern professors disappearedfrom their positions. Since then, “aban-donment” has been a concept in need ofstrict definition.

Current Northeastern policystates that a faculty position is offi-cially abandoned when a professor isout of contact for two weeks. In April,the Faculty Senate consideredexpanding the allowable period tofour weeks. Physics Professor RobertLowndes objected, according to anaccount in the student newspaper. “Ifsomebody’s gone and they haveteaching obligations ... two weeks is

generous, the paper quotes Lowndesas saying, “Unless you are in a comaand you can’t notify anybody, twoweeks seems quite reasonable.”

Workforce GrantThe University of MassachusettsBoston and partners were awarded afour-year, $3 million grant by theNational Science Foundation toestablish a regional consortium fortechnology education. The BostonAdvanced Technology EducationConnections program aims to attractstudents from diverse backgroundsto information technology (IT) fieldsand create internships and other“pathways” between educationalinstitutions and IT employers. The program is a partnershipbetween UMass Boston, Bunker Hill,Middlesex and Roxbury communitycolleges; TechBoston, a technologyprogram in the Boston PublicSchools; and the Metropolitan Schoolto Career Partnership, an IT traininginitiative encompassing 10 Boston-area secondary schools.

Apps Up, But So Are VacanciesTwo-thirds of New England collegesand universities had not filled theirfreshman classes for fall 2003 as of thetraditional May 1 admissions deadline,despite a surge in applications, accord-ing to the New England Board ofHigher Education (NEBHE) 2003 New

England Student Vacancy Survey.

NEBHE asked 214 New Englandcolleges how many applications theyreceived as of May 1 and whether theywould consider additional applications;151 campuses reported fall openings.

The vacancies were reported evenas New England colleges fielded580,000 freshman applications—up12 percent over last year. Admissionsofficers attributed the paradox to ris-ing admissions standards.

The big increase in applications fol-lows a 4 percent increase in freshmanapplications in 2002 and a 3 percentincrease in 2001, according to NEBHE.

One reason applications have beenrising is that the number of tradition-

al college-age New Englanders hasgrown steadily, though slowly, since1995, when the region emerged froma 15-year downturn in the number of18-year-olds. New England’s highschools are expected to graduatemore than 130,000 seniors thisspring, up 3 percent over last year.

Another reason for the increase intotal applications may be that eachstudent is applying to more institu-tions, perhaps encouraged by onlineapplication processes now in place at75 percent of the region’s colleges.

Notably, college programs in nurs-ing and allied health fields, whereNew England is experiencing laborshortages, were generally full tocapacity by May 1 and closed to newapplicants.

Comings and GoingsAnthony W. Marx, a professor anddirector of undergraduate studies inpolitical science at ColumbiaUniversity, was named president ofAmherst College, succeeding Tom

Gerety, who stepped down afternine years in charge. Marx has writ-ten books on nation-building, particu-larly in South Africa, and is thefounder of the Columbia UrbanEducators Program, a teacherrecruitment and training partnership.Gerety became executive director ofNew York University Law School’sBrennan Center for Justice. … FormerMarlboro College President Paul J.

LeBlanc was named president ofSouthern New Hampshire University,succeeding Richard A. Gustafson,

who stepped down after 16 years atthe helm of the institution, formerlycalled New Hampshire College. …Former Massachusetts EducationCommissioner Robert V. Antonucci

was named president of FitchburgState College. Antonucci was thefounding president of the now-defunct Harcourt Higher Educationonline college and more recently,headed, an educational software firmin Cambridge, Mass. … Dale Rogers

Marshall announced she will resignas Wheaton College president in June2004, after 12 years in charge.


For nearly 20 years, readers have found in the pages ofCONNECTION: THE JOURNAL OF

THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER

EDUCATION engaging accounts of bestpractices in New England education aswell as vital analysis and commentarythat has helped shape and improvehigher education policy and practice.The journal has highlighted programsand initiatives that have blazed newtrails to improve quality, access andaffordability in higher education. Our readers have consistently praisedthis work and urged us to continueproviding them with such crucialinformation.

Above all, CONNECTION has encour-aged collaboration and resource-sharing to improve educational oppor-tunities for New England residents—the very principles upon which theNew England Board of HigherEducation (NEBHE) was foundednearly half a century ago. So whensomeone asked us “What new partnerships are you developing forCONNECTION?” it gave us cause to lookat our own shop and begin to practicewhat we preach. Thus, we haveembarked on a quest to find partnerswho share our mission to improve edu-cational opportunities. Our goal was

to establish new relationships forCONNECTION that would continuallyimprove the substance and reach ofthe journal without compromising theeditorial integrity that our readershave come to expect. We have foundthat strategic collaboration in a trust-ed friend, the Nellie Mae EducationFoundation.

With this issue, the Nellie MaeEducation Foundation and the NewEngland Board of Higher Educationare pleased to announce a new part-nership in publishing CONNECTION.

The Nellie Mae Education Foundationis New England’s largest philanthropydevoted exclusively to improving edu-cational attainment and access forunderserved populations. The founda-tion promotes accessibility, qualityand effectiveness of education in thesix New England states. The founda-tion works with education institutionsand associations, community organi-zations, foundations, governmentagencies and others to encourage,establish and maintain programs andservices that promote education.

Over the years, NEBHE has collab-orated with the foundation on diversi-ty initiatives, conferences, reports andpolicy development. It seemed like anatural fit for the two organizations tocollaborate on CONNECTION.

So what changes are in store for thispublication? Well to begin with,CONNECTION will still be the JOURNAL OF

THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER

EDUCATION. You will not see any reduc-tion of the substantive discussions andopinions to which you are accustomed.In fact, you will see an increase in the

breadth and scope of coverage of K–20issues, under-represented populations,data and reports on education and theeconomy and a more holistic approachto the staggering complexities oftoday’s education arena.

The foundation will provide valu-able input, reports and opinions on thecritical issues facing underserved populations and vital commentary andanalysis on higher education attain-ment. Our focus will still be highereducation, but clearly if we are to truly understand how to improve educational outcomes, we must consider the context of the educationcontinuum, not just the years of college and beyond.

This is a strong start in redoublingthe New England Board of HigherEducation’s efforts to provide you withthe best discussions, information and opinions on New England highereducation.

Robert A. Weygand is president

and CEO of the New England Board

of Higher Education and publisher

of CONNECTION.

Practicing What We Preach: A Collaborative StrategyROBERT A. WEYGAND

M E S S A G E F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T

We have embarked on a quest to find partners who

share our mission to improveeducational opportunities.

The Nellie Mae EducationFoundation and the NewEngland Board of HigherEducation are pleased to

announce a new partnership in publishing CONNECTION.

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NEAL R. PEIRCE AND CURTIS JOHNSON

Survey the world scene in the early 21st century,seeking out the region with the best creden-tials for higher learning, and what place on

earth emerges?

New England, of course.But is New England really well positioned to build

on its cachet, its genius as the region devoted to the“industry of the mind”? Can it protect its advantageswith globally famed universities and research preemi-nence in fields from nanotechnology to biotechnology?

More specifically, can a region that relies on privatehigher education, that’s slow to invest in public univer-sities, that’s not distinguished for its community col-lege programs, adapt to the new realities of trainingpeople for 21st century work? Is the region ready tomeet multiple challenges in a global climate that pun-ishes the slow and the timid, and is merciless towardthose who try to cruise along on past successes?

Last year, we conducted a six-state reconnaissanceof strategic regional issues for the New EnglandCouncil, the region’s oldest business group.Immediately, we were struck by New England’s abun-dance of great research and teaching universities, med-ical centers, Ph.D.s, inventors, patents, managementconsulting, computer and biotechnology firms, venturecapital and amazing lead in federal research contracts.All this represents, cumulatively, a true global treasure.

But the more we’ve probed, the more perils we’vediscovered.

As Frank Newman, the distinguished higher educa-tion scholar and former college president who now

heads the Futures Project at Brown University pointsout, New England takes comfort in how many studentsenroll at its colleges, even though less than half of stu-dents from New England’s own working-class familiesget past high school. If this trend persists, will majoremployers remain willing and able to fill jobs byrecruiting talented people into an increasingly highcost-of-living environment?

Additionally, says Newman, college enrollment num-bers always look good in New England, but graduationrates are another story. About half of students at NewEngland’s private colleges and universities and morethan 60 percent at the region’s four-year public institu-tions fail to earn bachelor’s degrees within six years ofstarting. “It’s a ton of young people showing up and atrickle leaving with the right training,” says Newman.

The implications for the region’s future labor supplyare especially serious. New England already tends toexperience labor shortages in a range of occupationsbetween the scientists at the high end of the labormarket and the service jobs filled largely by highschool dropouts at the low end. And the region is notproducing sufficient numbers of graduates to fill thosemiddle-range jobs. During the 1990s, the number ofbachelor’s degrees granted rose by 18 percent national-ly, but by just 2 percent in New England. The numberof associate degrees granted rose by nearly 25 percentnationally, but actually fell 7 percent in New England.

A plan?Northeastern University President Richard Freeland isamong those suggesting that New England needs acomprehensive education and skills training system


Bright Futures?Human Capital Dilemmas Cloud

New England Outlook

targeting young adults who would otherwise disappearfrom the productive economy. There are some isolatedprograms that attempt to fill the gap. The BostonPrivate Industry Council helps school-aged childrenacquire on-site job skills in such areas as health careand banking. And kids involved in programs that con-nect school and work are more likely to attend schooleach day, do well and go on to college. Surely the pro-gram is a factor in the 65 percent college-going ratesthe Boston Foundation tracked for Boston PublicSchools in its recent Indicators Report. Meanwhile,programs such as Rhode Island’s “Times Squared” try to inspire minority students with opportunities inmath and science.

Still, such efforts won’t matter much until they’redistributed far and wide across the six states.

The problem is equally serious among adults who’venever walked through any institution’s admissionsdoors. Some fall below literacy levels required for themost basic types of jobs. As skill level demands onworkers continue to escalate, so does this problem.Foreign immigration accounts for more than 80 per-cent of New England’s 1990s population growth, clear-ly raising the stakes on literacy. But in Rhode Island,for example, which currently spends a little over $1million a year on literacy programs, 20 years would goby while those waiting in today’s line got served. Andthe line gets longer every day.

In some American regions, population growth push-es these issues into the background. Not here. In mostNew England states, there was a clear pattern of peo-ple moving out in the 1990s. Only the influx of immi-grants avoided a net loss of population.

Does that matter? Absolutely. While we’ve found noone wishing to trade places with fast-growth Las Vegasor Atlanta, a stagnant population pattern drags downinvestment. If New England is such a great place, busi-ness investors may ask, why isn’t it growing? While theMountain states showed robust labor force growth of30 percent in the 1990s, and the whole nation managed12 percent growth, New England saw only 2 percentgrowth, and that thanks entirely to foreign immigra-tion. Connecticut’s labor force actually shrank. Says

Northeastern University economist Paul Harrington,“The danger is that New England is becoming France,”with high taxation and extended public employment toaddress slow growth.

And there’s at least one predictable aspect to stag-nant population growth: labor shortages will intensifyin critical high-skill fields where New England hopesto, indeed must, prosper in the years ahead.

By the late 1990s, double-digit vacancy ratesappeared in some New England professional occupa-tions. Some firms, we’ve been told, decided to expandoutside New England because of such skill shortages.Some highly professional technical work was jobbedout, eventually, to such countries as India, Ireland andIsrael—places with strong supplies of technicallytrained university graduates.

New England’s treasured hospitals and health careresearch facilities were hit especially hard. They con-tinue to be impacted seriously by labor shortages. Todate, we hear, one of 10 jobs in health care in NewEngland is vacant. And educators can hardly claim theproblem is outside their purview: the number of asso-ciate and bachelor’s degrees awarded in health carefields in New England declined by 18 percent betweenthe mid-1980s and 2000.

It seems that where the jobs are, students are not.The national and regional economies may still bestumbling, with many workers left unemployed. Butsome New England employers say they’re desperate tofind skilled workers. The shortages are in the veryfields where SAT data show declining student inter-est—in the health care field, interest is down by athird. The gap between industry’s demand for studentsgraduating in technologies and the number showing upas new freshmen gets wider every year.

Kip Bergstrom, executive director of the RhodeIsland Economic Policy Council, points to focus groupefforts to find out why students run from math andscience courses. Those focus groups revealed that byninth grade, kids saw science as too hard or insuffer-ably boring and disconnected from real life—or justsomething for geeks. Result: most students weren’teven getting through Algebra I, which Bergstrom calls“essential weight training for the brain.”

One would think there would be some very vocal worrying over this. But instead the usual public commenttakes comfort in the record of recruiting talent from Indiaor Ireland or anywhere where young people actuallystudy math and science. If there is a trend worth watch-


If New England is such a great place,business investors may ask, why isn’t it growing?

The Citistates Group (www.citistates.com) is currentlyconducting interviews on strategic issues facing theBoston metropolitan area, to be included in a report to The Boston Foundation and the Barr Foundation and be made available to the Boston Globe and othermedia in the fall of 2003. The authors hope to mount a similar effort for all six New England states in 2004.Responses to this article may be emailed to the authorsat: [email protected] and [email protected].

What Do You Think?

ing now, it’s companies deciding that it’s just as effectiveand a lot less expensive to simply let the engineers stay inBangalore and outsource the work to them.

Growing our ownNew England has to grow its own skilled workforce.But how is it doing now holding on to the annual harvest of college graduates?

Data collected for a year 2000 report by the publicpolicy group Mass Insight suggest that a least someNew England colleges are attracting talent to theregion for the long haul. The data, for example, revealthat 22 percent of Harvard graduates were residing inMassachusetts, though only 14 percent were originallystate residents. For MIT, 21 percent lived inMassachusetts after graduation, though only 9 percentwere originally from the state. At Boston College, 44percent of graduates lived in the state, while 24 per-cent originated there.

“Not so fast,” says Harrington, who warns that sur-veys like that can be misleading. “Look,” he says, “wegrabbed one of 15 new U.S. jobs in the 1980s, and fellto one in 53 in the 1990s. There’s something really sys-temic going on here and we’d better pay attention.”

One explanation: high housing costs are pushingyoung people out of New England. We don’t have hardnumbers, but in a few months of interviewing peoplewe’ve heard plenty of stories. One business executivetold us his son stayed in Arizona after going to gradu-ate school there because the housing prices were somuch lower than in New England. We heard about amedical school graduate taking her elite New Englandcredentials to Birmingham, Ala., and a job that paidthe same as one in New England but also paid off herschool loans. Are these stories harbingers of toughtimes to come, or just colorful exceptions to a stablecomparative New England advantage?

A final thought about the New England future: isthe region marketing its scientific and technical skillssufficiently to keep it on the curve of economic devel-opment in the United States and the world in the early21st century?

We have our doubts. Despite a number of admirablebut small efforts, the region has no counterpart to thestrategic—and state-funded—alliances with business-es that such states as New York and California are nowfostering. New York, with its many private institutions,

is a little like New England. But in New York, a seriesof “centers of regional excellence” are being formedwith roots running into both the public StateUniversity of New York (SUNY) system and the state’sprivate universities. The state is pouring tens of mil-lions of dollars into a new Center of Excellence inEnvironmental Systems based at the private SyracuseUniversity. With $37 million in up-front state invest-ment followed by corporate and philanthropic contri-butions, the project is expected to secure $170 millionin early funding. The partners include 11 Central NewYork universities and research institutions, more than30 corporations and local government arms.

Why did IBM make its largest grant ever—$100 mil-lion—to SUNY Albany for a microchip research center,when Massachusetts alone boasts that almost 20 per-cent of its workforce is made up of scientists and engi-neers? Because, according to Mass Insight PresidentWilliam Guenther, the Bay State has “no long-termtechnology vision or strategy.”

Competitor states—California, Texas and NewYork—are raising the stakes in capital investment intechnology, even as they grapple with operatingdeficits just as severe, if not more severe, than those inNew England. University of Texas system Chancellor

Mark Yudof told us this spring that the SUNY maneu-ver set off a bit of shock-and-awe in Texas circles; ithad them scrambling to nail down their own technologyadvantages. It sounds like the Texans will do just that.In this higher-stakes game, that old attitude sometimesattributed to premier New England institutions—“We’re good, send money”—won’t cut it anymore.

Neal R. Peirce is a syndicated columnist and chair

of the Citistates Group, a network of journalists,

speakers and consultants. He is the author of several

books, including “The New England States.” Curtis

Johnson is president of the Citistates Group and

former chairman of the Metropolitan Council in the

Twin Cities of Minnesota.


By ninth grade, kids saw science as too hard or insufferably boring and disconnected from real life—or justsomething for geeks.

High housing costs are pushing youngpeople out of New England.

If there is a trend worth watching now,it’s companies deciding that it’s just aseffective and a lot less expensive to sim-ply let the engineers stay in Bangaloreand outsource the work to them.

Workforce development policymakingand program planning at the state andlocal level is dependent on the avail-

ability of information on changes in the quantityand quality of the available labor supply. The1990s witnessed powerful demographic shifts inthe composition of the U.S. population and laborforce. Foreign immigration into the United Statesduring the decade reached new historical highsand contributed a substantial share of the growth inthe nation’s population. Between 1990 and 2000,41 percent of the nation’s population growth wasgenerated by new foreign immigrants, and abouthalf the increase in the nation’scivilian labor force between 1990and 2001 was attributable to thisNew Great Wave of foreign immi-grants from an array of nations.

The impacts of foreign immigra-tion on population and labor forcegrowth during the 1990s variedwidely across geographic regions,divisions and states. New Englandwas far more dependent than nearlyall other regions on the new wave offoreign immigrants to achieve itspopulation growth and labor forcegrowth during the past decade. Infact, New England’s labor forcewould have experienced no netgrowth whatsoever in the absenceof these new immigrants.

Immigrant contributionsThe 2000 census reveals that thepopulation of New Englandincreased from 13.2 million in 1990

to 13.9 million in 2000, an increase of 716,000 or 5.4percent. New England’s population growth rate overthe 1990s was well below the national rate of 13 per-cent, and the region ranked last among the nine U.S.census divisions. An analysis of the sources of popula-tion growth and decline during the past decade revealsthat new foreign immigration played a crucial role ingenerating New England’s population growth.

Slightly more than 595,000 new immigrants whocame into the United States from 1990 onward wereresiding in New England at the time of the 2000 cen-sus. These new foreign immigrants generated 83 per-cent of the region’s population growth over the decade,twice as high a contribution as that for the nation andthe second highest among the nine geographic divi-sions. (See Figure 1.) Within New England, new for-eign immigrants accounted for all the population


Imported TalentForeign Immigration and the New England Labor Market

ANDREW SUM, MYKHAYLO TRUBS’KYYAND NEETA P. FOGG

Figure 1: New Foreign Immigrants as a Percent of the Change in Resident Population between 1990 and 2000

U.S. New Conn. R.I. Mass. Maine Vt. N.H.England

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

41%

83%

150%

113%

101%

22% 19% 17%

Source: Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies analysis of U.S. Bureau of the Census data.

growth in the three southern New England states ofConnecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, butonly one-fifth of the population growth in the northerntier of New England states.

Labor force growthMore than 80 percent of these new immigrants were of working age, and immigrant males were strongly“attached” to the labor force as measured by their highrate of labor force participation. As a consequence ofthe high inflow of foreign-born, working-age adults andthe high level of out-migration of native born adultsfrom New England, foreign immigration played an evenmore critical role in generating the modest growth inthe region’s civilian labor force during the 1990s. All ofNew England’s civilian labor forcegrowth between 1990 and 2001 wasattributable to new foreign immigra-tion. Nearly 375,000 new foreignimmigrants were either working oractively looking for work in 2001,while the region’s entire labor forceis estimated to have grown by only103,000. (See Figure 2.)

No other geographic division inthe country was as dependent onforeign immigration for labor forcegrowth as New England was. Alllabor force growth in the threesouthern New England states wasgenerated by new immigrants. Thenative-born labor force in thesethree states declined considerablyover the decade. In the three north-ern New England states, only 10percent to 20 percent of labor forcegrowth was the consequence of newforeign immigration.

During the 1990s, the number ofmales in New England’s labor forceactually declined, primarily as aresult of reduced labor force attach-ment by men over the decade. Whilethe total number of male labor forceparticipants fell by 30,000 between1990 and 2001, the number of newmale immigrants increased by219,000. (See Figure 3.) These find-ings together imply that the numberof native-born workers and estab-lished immigrants in New Englandmust have declined by close to250,000 over this 11-year period.

No serious attention has beenpaid to this steep decline in NewEngland’s male native-born laborforce, though it is surely a criticalworkforce development issue for the

region. This trend should be carefully analyzed byregional and state economic policymakers, and work-force development strategies should be forged to boostthe growth of the male native-born labor force in thecoming decade.

New England’s female labor force grew by 133,000or 4 percent between 1990 and 2001. Yet, immigrantsaccounted for all the net growth in the region’s femalelabor force over this period. During 2001, an estimated155,000 female immigrants who had arrived in theUnited States between 1990 and 2001 were in NewEngland’s labor force. All of the growth—116 per-cent—in the region’s female labor force was attribut-able to foreign immigration. The number of native-born, female workers declined by 22,000 over the


Percent of LaborChange in Labor New Immigrants Force Growth Due

Force, 1990–2001 in Labor Force to Immigrants

New England 103,000 374,000 363%

Connecticut -132,000 81,000 NA

Maine 63,000 4,000 7%

Massachusetts 80,000 249,000 312%

New Hampshire 67,000 13,000 19%

Rhode Island -9,000 24,000 NA

Vermont 34,000 3,000 9%

Note: Ratios cannot be calculated for Connecticut and Rhode Island due to negative denominator.Source: Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies analysis of U.S. Bureau of the Census CurrentPopulation Survey data.

Figure 2: Growth in the Total Civilian Labor Force and Number of New Foreign Immigrants in the Labor Force ofNew England between 1990 and 2001

Figure 3: Growth of New England’s Civilian Labor Force byGender and Nativity Status between 1990 and 2001

All All Male Male Female FemaleNative New Native New Native NewBorn Foreign Born Foreign Born Foreign

Born Born Born

500

400

300

200

100

0

-100

-200

-300

-400

-500

374

-249

-22

155

219

-271

Source: Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies analysis of U.S. Bureau of the Census CurrentPopulation Survey data.

decade, primarily as a consequence of high levels ofout-migration from the region during the decade.

New immigrant workforceMales made up 58 percent of the new immigrant laborforce, compared with 52 percent of the native-bornlabor force. This reflects the greater gender gaps inparticipation ratios among newer immigrants, culturalfactors for some immigrant groups and greater assimi-lation difficulties for immigrant women with limitedEnglish-speaking skills. The newer immigrants alsowere younger than their native-born labor force coun-terparts. Nearly 60 percent of them were under age 35,compared with only 35 percent of the native-born. Theeducational backgrounds of the region’s new immi-grants also were quite diverse. About 25 percent lackeda high school diploma or GED certificate, comparedwith only 9 percent of the native-born. At the sametime, 31 percent of the new immigrant workers held abachelor’s degree or higher, only slightly below thenative-born share of 34 percent.

The newer immigrant workers were employed in allmajor industries and occupational groups throughoutNew England in 2001, but they were over-representedin some key job clusters. By industry, new immigrantswere substantially over-represented in manufacturing

and business/repair/personal service industries andunder-represented in construction, finance/insuranceand the public sector.

New immigrant workers were just as likely asnative-born workers to be employed in professionaland technical occupations, but were heavily under-represented in management-related, high-level salesand administrative support positions. Immigrants werestrongly over-represented in blue-collar production andlaborer positions, especially in manufacturing, and inservice occupations, especially as cooks, domestics,nursing assistants, health care aides, janitors andsecurity guards.

Workforce development implications The very limited growth of New England’s labor forceduring the past decade, along with the steep decline inthe male, native-born labor force and the region’s over-whelming reliance on immigrant workers, have impor-tant implications for New England’s workforcedevelopment.

Restoring growth in the native-born labor force,especially among young men, should be a high priorityfor the region’s economic and education policymakers.

Achieving this goal will require sustained efforts tokeep the current larger cohort of young adults ages 16to 22 in the region as they enter the labor market, toboost the labor force attachment of young male adultswith no postsecondary schooling and to maintain thegrowing cohort of 45- to 64-year-old males (the agingbaby boomers) active in the labor force.

At the same time, however, a diverse array of educa-tion and training strategies for new immigrants willlikely be needed to boost labor market attachment,employability and earnings. National and state labormarket studies have consistently revealed that thelabor force attachment, labor supply and annual earn-ings of immigrant workers are strongly linked to theirEnglish-speaking proficiencies, literacy and math profi-ciencies, and their formal educational attainment,especially schooling acquired in the United States.

Given New England’s current and likely futuredependence on new immigrants for achieving growthin its labor force and employed populations, theregion’s adult basic education agencies, postsecondaryeducation and training institutions and private andpublic employers will have to make unified, criticalinvestments in the immigrant workforce if the region is to achieve broad-based prosperity in the first decadeof the 20th century. This should include efforts toexpand existing English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL)and adult basic education services for adult immi-grants, to retain low-income immigrant children inhigh school, to boost their access to postsecondarytraining and educational programs and to increaseemployer training investments in frontline workers,both native- and foreign-born, especially those with nopostsecondary education. Importantly, the region alsoneeds to undertake more rigorous evaluations of theeffectiveness of such programs in boosting immigrantworkers’ labor market success.

Andrew Sum is director of Northeastern University’s

Center for Labor Market Studies. Mykhaylo Trubs’kyy

is a research associate and Neeta P. Fogg is a

senior economist at the center. Sheila Palma of the

center assisted in word processing and editing the

research reports on which this article is based.


All of New England’s civilian labor forcegrowth between 1990 and 2001 wasattributable to new foreign immigration.

About 25 percent of New England’s new immigrants lacked a high schooldiploma or GED, compared with only 9 percent of the native-born. At thesame time, 31 percent of the new immi-grant workers held a bachelor’s degreeor higher, only slightly below the native-born share of 34 percent.


How can New England ensure that its foreign immigrationtranslates into economic success? The following is excerptedform Northeastern University President Richard Freeland’sremarks at a March 2003 New England Board of HigherEducation conference on building human capital. Freeland’sremarks draw upon data from Northeastern’s Center forLabor Market Studies.

It is virtually impossible to conceive of a thriving NewEngland economy without continued immigration, especially at the high end of the skills hierarchy.Now, I recognize that this is a sensitive issue, and that

serious and legitimate questions have been raised about the continued growth in immigration, as unemployment levels increase and national security andhomeland defense concerns have arisenafter the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.It is true that some displacement of native-born workers has taken place as labormarket conditions deteriorated over the2000 to 2002 period, largely amongthose with fewer years of schooling. But itis important to keep our eyes fixed on thelonger view.

New England’s immigrants [whoarrived in the 1990s] generally had high-er levels of educational attainment thanthose in other regions, and they were gen-erally more likely to work in the collegelabor market. They were especially con-centrated in science, engineering and information technology(SEIT) fields. In Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island,one-fourth of all technical professionals age 35 and underare foreign immigrants. As the aging baby-boom scientistsand engineers begin to withdraw from the economy, it isclear that growth in the supply of SEIT workers will beincreasingly dependent on foreign-born workers who possessthese highly valued skills. …

The overwhelming majority of foreign-born immigrantswho end up as SEIT professionals have completed a degreeprogram in a technical field at an American college or uni-versity. The technical professional pipeline for immigrantsleads directly through the nation’s higher education system.

Moreover, dependence on foreign workers as a source ofnew technical labor supply is especially acute at the gradu-ate level. In 1990, 26 percent of master’s degrees and 37percent of doctoral degrees in the technical fields awarded

in New England were granted to foreign nationals matricu-lating under a student visa. By 2000, these proportions hadincreased to 37 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

This suggests that the size of our advanced-degree pro-grams and the tremendous research and developmentcapacity they provide the region would be between one-third to one-half as large as they currently are in theabsence of foreign students. Finally, follow-up studies offoreign SEIT graduates of advanced-degree programs sug-gest that an overwhelming proportion become employed inthe United States after graduation.

New England clearly has a strong interest in growing ahighly skilled, well-educated immigrant population. Yet weare moving into a period in which increased federal controls

on international students may well inhibitthe flow of talent into our region. All of usneed to monitor this situation carefully,fully supporting and implementing therequirements of the Patriot Act whileworking with federal officials to maintaina proper balance between heightenedsecurity and maintenance of opportunity.

One step we should consider in thisconnection is linking the nation’s immigra-tion policy more directly with our labor-market policy. I believe, in fact, that astrong case can be made that the tempo-rary work-visa programs for foreign-borngraduates of U.S. schools should bescrapped. In their place, foreign students

who pass muster in terms of the Patriot Act and who excelat, and graduate from, an accredited four-year college oruniversity in a professional field of study might better beplaced on the track to obtain a green card. After a year ortwo of solid work experience, they should be granted agreen card and placed on track for full citizenship.

Since the early 1980s, virtually all the growth in theregional economy has been in the college labor market.When the recovery from the current recession gets underway in the region, it will be industries based on scientificand engineering innovation that lead the way. Our con-gressional delegation must insure that the nation developsan immigration policy that rewards those who invest inthemselves, develop the skills and abilities that are in greatest demand and who as educated persons are most likely to share our common values of democracy and freedom.

REFORM IMMIGRATION!

Northeastern University President Richard Freeland.

Phot

o by

Len

Rub

enste

in.

MICHAEL K. THOMAS

Despite increased competition from other states,New England remains a very popular educa-tion destination for both undergraduate and

graduate students. As with commerce, New Englandhas a “balance of trade,” with students flowing in andout of the region. Given the size of New England(nearly 14 million people in an area roughly equiva-lent to Missouri), the region’s plethora of higher educa-tion institutions and the approximately 100,000prospective freshmen who graduate from the six state’shigh schools each year, it is no surprise that NewEngland also sees significant intraregional migration.

The New England Board of Higher Education’sOffice of Policy and Research recently analyzed statis-tics on New England’s student migration as part of aforthcoming policy report. The data, the most com-plete and recent available, were drawn from the U.S.Department of Education’s 2000 IPEDS Survey. Thedata focus on first-time freshmen who graduated fromhigh school in the 12 months prior to the survey andwho enrolled in degree-granting institutions that par-ticipate in federal financial aid programs.

Admittedly, these statistics tell only part of thetotal migration story. For example, large numbers ofstudents also migrate to and from New England forgraduate study. Significant migration also occurs afterstudents earn their degrees. Yet, the migration patternsof first-time freshmen are important to New Englandand its institutions. They tell us something about thepreferences and decision-making of traditional college-age students and their parents in terms of cost, geogra-phy and types of institutions.

This balance of trade has implications beyond theenrollment management concerns of New England’s

colleges and universities. Every in-migrating studentbrings a significant amount of money in tuition andexpenses along with him or her; every out-migratingstudent takes money out of state and often out of theregion. Moreover, studies suggest that students whoattend college in the same state where they graduatedfrom high school are far more likely to stay and work inthat state after college than those who left the state forcollege are to come back. So, the extent of migrationalso has implications for the return on a home state’sinvestment in primary and secondary education.

Net migrationAs a region, New England enjoys a notable “positive”net migration of first-year college students. That is, farmore freshmen travel to New England for college eachyear than leave the region. The net inflow grew by 14percent between 1992 and 2000. There are, however,notable differences among the six states, differencesthat have persisted over time. For example, four NewEngland states—Massachusetts, Rhode Island,Vermont and New Hampshire—have positive netinflows. Maine and Connecticut, in contrast, have negative net migration flows.

States’ net migration rates also vary over time.Connecticut’s region-leading net loss of 3,199 in 2000reflects a 30 percent improvement over 1992, when4,625 freshmen left the state. Maine’s net loss of 945students in 2000 was down from 1,391 two year’s earli-er, but up from 859 in 1992.

Out-migrationThe six New England states rank among the top 12nationally in terms of the percentage of first-time, first-year freshmen leaving their home state for college.Nationally, on average, 24 percent of first-time fresh-men leave their state of residence.

Vermont ranks second in the nation, with 60 percent


Smart Routes

Migration Patterns among New England’s College Freshmen


of freshmen leaving, up notably from 47 percent in1992. New Hampshire ranks third in the nation, with53 percent leaving, up from 44 percent in 1992.Connecticut ranks fifth, with 48 percent leaving. Thisrepresents a slight improvement over 1994, when 53percent of freshmen left the state. Maine ranked 6th,with 43 percent of freshmen leaving. Rhode Islandranked 9th, with 37 percent leaving and Massachusettsranked 12th with 31 percent leaving. (See Figure 1.)

Another way to depict the outflow of first-timefreshmen is by using the ratio of students staying tothose leaving. Nationally, an average of 4.5 freshmenattend college in their home states for every one wholeaves. By this measure, the New England states rankat the bottom. Vermont ranks 50th (only the District ofColumbia is lower) with 0.68 students staying, followedby New Hampshire at 49th, with 0.89 students. Similarly,Connecticut (47th) has 1.08 and Maine (46th) has 1.34,with Rhode Island (43rd) and Massachusetts (40th)slightly higher at 1.71 and 2.20, respectively. (SeeFigure 2.)

These findings are troublesome for some NewEngland states. The number of Vermont residents, forexample, who report they intend to pursue a collegeeducation outside Vermont hasincreased by 15 percent over thepast 10 years from 44 percent tonearly 60 percent. A recent surveyof Vermont high school seniors bythe Vermont Student AssistanceCorp. finds the most important rea-son for leaving was to “experience adifferent environment.” Anecdotalevidence suggests a similar wander-lust among young people in the rela-tively rural states of Maine and NewHampshire.

Reasons for Connecticut’s signif-icant out-migration may include itsproximity to New York and othernortheastern states (notablyPennsylvania), where reputablehigher education institutionsabound, as well as its relatively highnumber of high school graduatesfrom well-educated, high-incomefamilies.

Where do New Englanders go?Where do New England’s first-timefreshmen go?

NEBHE found that 52 percent ofthe freshmen leaving their states ofresidence end up in one of the fiveother New England states, while 48percent leave the region entirely. Ofthe nearly 19,000 students whocross into another New England

state for college, 13,511 or 71 percent attend privatecolleges. This holds true regardless of which NewEngland states one considers: the vast majority leavetheir home state to attend private institutions. Forexample, 76 percent of the 5,027 freshmen fromConnecticut who enrolled elsewhere in New Englandattended private institutions. Massachusetts had thelowest percentage, but still 68 percent of the 6,925freshmen who left the Bay State to enroll elsewhere in New England went to private institutions.

The story is the same for freshmen who leave NewEngland entirely. Nearly half of the 17,500 studentsleaving New England for college go to either New York(6,191) or Pennsylvania (2,233), followed by Virginia,the District of Columbia, Florida, North Carolina,Maryland and Ohio.

About 13,000 or 73 percent of them enter privateinstitutions. The most popular are Rochester Instituteof Technology, Syracuse University, George WashingtonUniversity, Ithaca College, Rensselaer PolytechnicInstitute, New York University and Cornell University.An interesting exception to the privates-first pattern isVirginia, where nearly three-quarters of in-migratingNew England students attend public institutions.

1st-Time 1st-Time Ratio: FreshmenFreshmen Staying Freshmen Leaving Staying to Leaving

Connecticut 11,824 10,988 1.08

Maine 4,407 3,296 1.34

Massachusetts 29,689 13,518 2.2

New Hampshire 3,805 4,289 0.89

Rhode Island 4,106 2,407 1.71

Vermont 1,455 2,146 0.68

New England 55,286 36,644 1.51

National Average 4.5

Note: Includes first-time, first-year students who graduated high school in the previous 12 months who areenrolled in Title IV participating, degree-granting institutions.

Source: New England Board of Higher Education analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.

Figure 2: First-Time, First-Year Freshmen Staying In and Leaving New England

% of Total Enrollment Due to

% Who Leave Incoming Freshmen

Connecticut 48% 40%

Maine 43% 35%

Massachusetts 31% 42%

New Hampshire 53% 56%

Rhode Island 37% 65%

Vermont 60% 72%

New England 40% 46%

National Average 24% 26%



Figure 1: Migration of First-Time, First-Year Freshmen To andFrom New England, 2000


In-migrationOutflow is only half the freshman migration equation.New England remains a popular destination for fresh-men from around the United States (and the globe),and posts a net gain in migration of college freshmen.

But levels of in-migration vary from state to state.For example, three of the six New England states rankamong the top 15 in the nation in attracting migratingfreshmen. Massachusetts ranks third in the nation,with over 21,400 traveling there for college in 2000.Connecticut ranks 12th, receiving 7,800 freshmen,while Rhode Island ranks 13th, receiving 7,700.

In fact, New England depends heavily on this inflowof students. All six states rank in the top 10 nationallyin terms of in-migrating students as a percentage of allfirst-year freshmen. Vermont ranks second in thenation by this measure, with 72 percent of its totalfreshman enrollment due to in-migration. This reflectsa steady increase from 64 percent in 1992. RhodeIsland ranks 3rd with 65 percent, while NewHampshire ranks 4th with 56 percent. Massachusettsranks 6th with 42 percent of freshman enrollment dueto in-migration, while Connecticut ranks 7th with 40percent, and Maine, 10th, with 35 percent.

The extent to which the New England states com-pensate for out-migration with in-migration is illustrated

by the ratio of freshmen coming to freshmen going.Nationally, the average state attracts 1.4 U.S. freshmenfor every freshman who leaves. Rhode Island has the3rd highest ratio in the nation, with 3.21 studentsmigrating in for every one that leaves. Vermont ranks13th by this measure, with 1.71 students migrating infor every one that leaves. Massachusetts ranks 18thwith a 1.58 ratio. (See Figure 3.)

In contrast, New Hampshire’s ratio is 1.13, justslightly below the national average. Maine’s andConnecticut’s are well below the national average, withonly 0.71 freshmen coming in for every one that leaves.This underscores the reality faced by both states: sig-nificant negative net migration flows.

Private attractionJust as private institutions draw freshmen away fromNew England states, private institutions draw fresh-men in. Of the approximately 26,400 freshman stu-dents traveling to New England in 2000, about 22,600or 85 percent of them entered private institutions. NewEngland’s top private destinations include: BostonUniversity, Boston College, Harvard, Johnson & Wales,Northeastern, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.

There are several reasons for the lopsided attractionto private institutions. First, NewEngland has a relatively large num-ber of private institutions—lots ofcapacity, if you will, to be filled bystudents from all over the regionand the nation. Second, many NewEngland private colleges and uni-versities are in high demand sim-ply because they are among themost prestigious in the country.Third, public institutions have limits on the number of out-of-state students they accept. Fourth,in some instances, the cost ofattending a public institution outof state is somewhat comparableto attending a private institution.

ImplicationsThough the vast majority of NewEngland freshmen who remain intheir home states attend publiccolleges and universities, thereappears to be a disturbing similar-ity between where New Englandstates rank nationally in publiccollege tuition and where theyrank nationally in the percentageof freshmen who leave the state.(See Figure 4.) In short, public colleges and universities in NewEngland, while less expensive thantheir private counterparts, may not

First-Time First-Time Ratio: FreshmenFreshmen Coming In Freshmen Going Out Coming to Going

Connecticut 7,789 10,988 0.71

Maine 2,351 3,296 0.71

Massachusetts 21,404 13,518 1.58

New Hampshire 4,853 4,289 1.13

Rhode Island 7,717 2,407 3.21

Vermont 3,666 2,146 1.71

New England 47,780 36,644 1.3

National Average 1.4



Figure 3: First-Time, First-Year Freshmen Coming to and Leaving New England

U.S. Rank: U.S. Rank:Percentage of Freshmen Average In-State Tuition & Fees

Leaving State at Land-Grant University

Connecticut 5th 9th

Maine 6th 14th

Massachusetts 12th 7th

New Hampshire 3rd 3rd

Rhode Island 9th 10th

Vermont 2nd 1st

Note: Migration data are from 2000 and tuition and fee data are from fall 2002. Both reflect the most currentdata available.

Source: New England Board of Higher Education analysis of U.S. Department of Education and WashingtonHigher Education Coordinating Board data.

Figure 4: Out-Migration and the Cost of Public HigherEducation in the New England States


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seem like a good enough deal to keep many state residents home.

University of Maine econo-mist Philip Trostel, whoauthored a study of first-timecollege students leavingMaine, wrote in the Maine

Policy Review: “Relatively low public support and hencerelatively high tuition, is animportant part of the reasonwhy many students evidentlyfeel that higher education inMaine is not a good deal. …The key issue is the cost andquality of our public highereducation compared to thealternatives. As with otherthings that people buy, whatmatters is the relative costcompared to the relative quality.”

But for the luring capacityof private higher educationinstitutions, some NewEngland states might be at asevere economic and socialdisadvantage due to the largenumber of students who leaveto attend college elsewhere.

The freshmen who leavetheir home states or theregion are often among thebest and brightest, as evi-denced by the list of institu-tions they attend. This raisestough questions, particularlyfor states like Connecticutand Maine, about “braindrain” and those states’apparent inability to keeptheir own brightest studentsat home.

Michael K. Thomas is

director of policy and

research at the New England

Board of Higher Education.

The complete version of this

report, including detailed

tables and charts, is avail-

able on NEBHE’s website at

www.nebhe.org/research.html.

Attention H.R. and ADMISSIONS ProfessionalsInternship Fair and College Fair

NEBHE Science Network at MIT

The annual Science Network addresses the unique needs of New England students who have been under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields—particularly African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Southeast Asians.

On Saturday, October 4, 2003, NEBHE will welcome approximate-ly 600 under-represented students to the Science Network at MIT.The Science Network features a college fair and internship fair.Nearly 275 high school students are expected to attend the fairs.

EXHIBITOR’S FEE:nonprofit/education $100 • business/industry $200Information and registration forms can be found at:

www.nebhe.org/sciencenetwork.htmlIncluded in the fee is a workshop designed for exhibitors and lunch.

Please check website for additional details.

DONALD E. HELLER

Regional prosperity requires a well-educatedworkforce. Developing a workforce that iseducated and skilled—which in today’s econo-

my means one with some form of postsecondaryeducation—requires focused efforts to ensure thatall students who can benefit from a college educa-tion have the opportunity to pursue one. This meansthat public resources have to be expended onincreasing college access for those students whoare on the margins of postsecondary attendanceand who historically have not participated in col-lege at the same rates as more advantaged groups.Yet at least one recent policy trend runs counter tothis goal.

Merit-based financial aid has been a growth indus-try in the United States over the past decade. Muchmedia attention has focused on the use of merit aid bycolleges and universities to try to attract academicallytalented students, the type of students who will helpan institution move up in the college rankings guidesproduced by publications such as U.S. News & World

Report and Barron’s.

What has received less attention has been theincrease in merit aid provided directly from statefunds. In 1992, less than 10 percent of all state grantdollars awarded to undergraduates was provided with-out consideration of financial need; by the 2001-2002academic year, this proportion reached 25 percent.Spurred by the creation of the Georgia HOPEScholarship program in 1993, a dozen states have cre-ated broad-based merit aid programs that now award

over $1.2 billion to undergraduate students.A recent report I co-edited for the Civil Rights

Project at Harvard University analyzed the impact oncollege access of four of the nation’s leading merit aidprograms, including three of the four largest programs.Unlike need-based aid, which has a long history ofbeing used to promote access to college for lower-income students—the students who most need thefinancial assistance in order to be able to enroll in col-lege—the state merit aid programs target their awardsto a different population of students. Indeed, merit aidbenefits predominantly students from the groups whohistorically have had the highest college-going rates inthe country, including white and upper-income students.

The findings in the Civil Rights Project report areconsistent regarding the impact of these programs inFlorida, Georgia, Michigan and New Mexico:

• Georgia’s HOPE program, which is funded by thestate’s lottery, is the nation’s oldest and largestbroad-based merit scholarship program, awarding$300 million in the form of full-tuition grants dur-ing the 2000-2001 academic year. ResearchersChristopher Cornwell and David Mustard of theUniversity of Georgia concluded that only 10 per-cent of the state’s expenditures on the HOPE pro-gram resulted in increased college access in thestate; the remaining 90 percent of the funds subsi-dized existing college-going behavior of studentswho likely did not need the assistance to be ableto afford college.

• New Mexico’s Lottery Success Scholarship pro-gram is similar to Georgia’s in that it is funded bythe state’s lottery and provides full tuition grants


Aid MattersMerit Aid is the Wrong Tool to Attract the Best and the Brightest


to students in public institutions. Melissa Binder,Philip T. Ganderton and Kristin Hutchens of theUniversity of New Mexico found that approximately80 percent of the recipients of these scholarshipswere from families earning more than $40,000 peryear, well above the state’s median income ofapproximately $32,000.

• In both Michigan and Florida, the rate at whichscholarships were awarded differed greatly amongstudents from different racial and ethnic groups,and among students from communities of differ-ent income levels. For example, while about one-third of white students in both states receivedscholarships, less than 10 percent of African-American students did. In both states, students in the 20 percent of schools in the wealthiest communities (as measured by the proportion ofstudents on free- or reduced-price lunch in highschool) received scholarships at rates more thantwice that of students in the poorest communities.

The research reveals that these programs were likelyto exacerbate, rather than help eliminate, the gaps incollege participation between rich and poor, andbetween racial majority and minority students. TheCivil Rights Project report concludes: “The studentsleast likely to be awarded a merit scholarship comefrom populations that have traditionally been under-rep-resented in higher education. This hinders the potentialto increase college access among minority and low-income students, especially if these scholarship pro-grams continue to overshadow need-based programs.”

So what does the trend toward merit aid mean forthe development of an educated and skilled workforce?The research has demonstrated that merit aid pro-grams do not increase college access for students whowould otherwise be unlikely to attend college. In fact,these programs allocate resources to the very studentswho are most likely to attend college even without pub-lic assistance. Subsidizing existing college-going behav-ior can do little to help develop a skilled workforce.

Some proponents of merit scholarships argue thatthey are an effective way of stanching “brain drain,” byencouraging a state’s “best and brightest” students toattend college in-state, with the hope that they willstay in the state after they graduate and contribute tothe local economy. But there is no evidence, even fromstates such as Georgia that have had merit scholarshipprograms for a number of years, that these students dostay in the state after graduation.

The problem with using merit scholarships for thispurpose is that the most academically talented stu-dents are exactly the students who are most likely to:1) attend graduate school rather than entering thelabor market after attaining a bachelor’s degree; or 2)be recruited in regional, if not national, labor markets.Both of these facts open the door for the student toleave the state, taking with her the public investmentin her education in the form of both the merit scholar-ship and the state’s subsidy of her education (if sheattended a public institution). Rather than chasingafter these most able students, states would be better offdeveloping the skills of more marginal students. Theseare the people who are most likely to stay in the stateand contribute to the local economy upon graduation.

The New England states have resisted the tempta-tion to use public scholarship funds for purposes unre-lated to increasing college access. The nation’s firstscholarships for needy students were awarded overthree centuries ago by New England institutions thatare still in existence today. While the economic down-turn has certainly affected the willingness and abilityof the states to fund public institutions and financialaid, New England has at least maintained a commit-ment to awarding the bulk of such aid based on thefinancial need of the student. Ninety-eight percent ofthe almost $200 million in grant dollars provided toundergraduates by the six New England states isawarded based on the financial need of the studentand her family. This commitment will ensure that theregion maximizes its public investment in developing a skilled workforce for the future.

Other policies, including loan-forgiveness programsfor students entering high-need occupations, can alsobe used to help states develop a skilled workforce. But need-based assistance is the best financial aid tool to increase college access and promote economicprosperity.

Donald E. Heller is associate professor and senior

research associate at the Center for the Study of

Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State

University.

Subsidizing existing college-goingbehavior can do little to help develop a skilled workforce.

Merit aid programs do not increase college access for students who wouldotherwise be unlikely to attend college.

A s the post-9/11 recession drags onacross New England, some highereducation officials believe they have

found light at the end of the tunnel in work-force development. Once the exclusiveprovince of vocational, technical and careerschools and institutes, workforce develop-ment has become one of the hottest topics on and off campus, capturing the resourcesand imagination of a new group of higher education institutions that may seem to beunlikely hosts.

Indeed, from a creative Catholic liberalarts college enhancing its brand to a universityinside a state office building to a small busi-ness college networking its way into GilletteStadium, a growing group of New Englandcolleges and universities is aggressively seek-ing to capitalize on the educational benefitsand student drawing power of programs thatlink college training to employer needs.

Here are a few sometimes-overlookedexamples of workforce winners:

Assumption College. Distinct from more networked Jesuit Catholic institutions,New England’s only Assumptionist college isrecruiting greater numbers of high-achievingstudents while it develops effective workforcetraining via the Assumption CorporateEducation Center, the Mary E. SwitzerInstitute of Social and Rehabilitation Serviceand the Aaron T. Beck Institute for CognitiveStudies. “Young adults who go to school in

Massachusetts tend to be more likely to stayhere for their careers, be more cognizant ofregional employers and, if they have benefitedfrom an experiential component in their pro-gram, have lower turnover rates,” saysPresident Thomas Plough. Besides, Ploughadds, many colleges turn out graduates withtechnical competence, but few ensure ethicalinsights, common sense and compassion forfair and just treatment of colleagues and cus-tomers. “These are explicit objectives of a col-lege like Assumption,” he says.

University of Maine at Augusta. TheUniversity of Maine at Augusta is the primaryprovider of undergraduate education to Mainestate employees through its Capital CampusProgram and other locations across that partof the state. The retirement rate among Mainestate employees could reach as high as 50percent over the next five years, according to projections. The Capital Campus Programinaugurated in the fall of 2002 offers certifi-cate programs in the Burton Cross StateOffice Building to prepare younger workers in areas such as government management,human resource management and liberal arts.

Charles M. Lyons, the university’s presi-dent and a veteran of the Maine system,offers this overview, “Through our CapitalCampus Program, we deliver live classes inthe Cross State Office Building, and we useour long experience with distance educationby Web and television and with adult learners


JobbersNew England Campuses Offer Up SomeWorkforce Development Surprises

JAMES MARTIN AND JAMES E. SAMELS

A growing groupof New Englandcolleges seeks to capitalize onthe educational benefits and drawing power of programs thatlink training toemployer needs.

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to serve the state workforce over thelength and breadth of New England’slargest state.”

New England College. NewEngland College now offers master’sdegrees in management healthcareadministration at six health care facil-ities across New Hampshire. Slightlymore than half of the students in theprogram hold bachelor’s degrees innursing. So this degree has beendesigned to provide the skills thatNew England nursing leaders willneed to manage the influx of entry-level registered nurses and licensedpractical nurses that New Englandacute care facilities hope to hirebetween now and 2010. “Workforcedevelopment and continuing educa-tion can be one and the same, butthey can also work to very differentpurposes,” says Director of GraduateStudies Richard Keating. “We recog-nize that workforce needs can be met effectively by providing tailored,flexible, degree programs on a gradu-ate level.”

Vermont Technical College.

Vermont’s only technical institution,in collaboration with the VermontState College system, has set work-force education and training as one of its highest priorities for the nextseveral years via the VermontWorkforce Education and TrainingConsortium, according to PresidentAllan Rodgers. Last year, the college’sTechnology Extension Division pro-vided workforce-related trainingopportunities to more than 200 com-panies and 6,000 Vermonters, rangingfrom apprenticeships for plumbers toleadership training for CEOs.

Nichols College. One of the coun-try’s few remaining freestanding business colleges, Nichols of Dudley,Mass., was an early convert to provid-ing every student with a notebookcomputer and teaching via the casestudy method. “At Nichols, every stu-dent creates a learning portfolio, andall have the opportunities to studybusiness etiquette and dressing forsuccess,” says President DebraMurphy. Nichols has also claimed anincreasing chunk of a very attractivestudent recruitment vehicle: profes-sional sports internships. Graduallyexpanding this network every year,

the college recently secured profes-sional learning experiences with theNew England Patriots, Boston Celtics,New York Knicks, the U.S. OlympicCommittee and the Worcester IceCats minor league hockey team.

Springfield Technical

Community College. While moststate governments are cutting theirhigher education budgets, public two-year colleges remain in many waysthe frontline in workforce develop-ment. And few can claim as muchsuccess in this as SpringfieldTechnical Community College (STCC).STCC was selected by Verizon toadminister the New England “NextStep” Program, devising customizedcurricula in telecommunicationswhile serving as the lead institutionin coordinating the work of 10 addi-tional colleges to train more than1,200 Verizon employees across thesix states. Building on a 1997 grantfrom the National Science Foundationto establish a National Center forTelecommunications Technologies,the NCTT has dedicated some of itsresources to setting skills standardsfor telecommunications. KevinDrumm, vice president of enrollmentmanagement, student and publicaffairs, notes that the college is alsomoving into the fast-growing biotech-nology field.

University of Connecticut.

University of Connecticut Chancellorand Provost John Petersen providestwo innovative examples of pathbreak-ing research and development projectsspawning high-end workforce develop-ment. The Connecticut Global Fuel

Cell Center—a partnership among thestate, UConn’s School of Engineeringand the Connecticut fuel cell indus-try—has significantly expanded theuniversity’s capacity to conduct fuelcell research, design, commercialdevelopment and technology transfer.On a parallel track, the university hasopened a $25 million bioscience com-plex which houses several advancedbiotechnology labs, a nationally promi-nent example of which is theConnecticut Center for RegenerativeBiology, which is a leading organiza-tion in the development of embryogenetic manipulation techniques—inother words, cloning a cow. These sci-entific advances are creating cutting-edge workforce training opportunitiesin pharmatech and renewable energy.

James Martin is a professor of

English at Mount Ida College.

James E. Samels is the president

and CEO of The Education Alliance,

a national higher education consult-

ing firm based in Framingham,

Mass. Their new book, “Presidential

Transition in Higher Education:

Managing Leadership Change,”

will be published in 2004 by Johns

Hopkins University Press.


Five Attributes of Successful Workforce Development Programs

1. Respect for theory but emphasis on learning by doing and applied programs.

2. Emphasis on industry-specific, skills-based teaching and learning competencies.

3. Programs that “follow the money” by targeting unmet labor market needs.

4. A mission that endorses linking with regional employers for worksite-based training and tuition reimbursement.

5. Focus on workplace networking to predict what employers will need five years into the future.


Colleges and universities are re-aligningacademic initiatives to link moreclosely to community needs. Campus-

community alliances increasingly focus on:promoting economic development and revital-izing local neighborhoods; promoting culturaltourism and building new cultural venues andrecreational facilities; and developing sustain-able communities, with a particular emphasison affordable housing models.

Difficult economic times force institutionsto question the effectiveness of establishedmodes of operation. At the same time, com-munities face their own challenges, includingdiminished budgets for basic education andsocial services. Campuses raise tuition andfees; communities raise taxes. Both considerpotential layoffs of personnel. The toughtimes also encourage colleges and communi-ties to devise creative solutions to the prob-lems they share.

Consider these best practices:Trinity College of Hartford, Conn., is a

model for a truly engaged institution. The 16-acre Learning Corridor is an exemplaryredevelopment project developed by Trinityand the Southside Institutions Neighbor-hood Alliance (SINA), a coalition of theConnecticut Children’s Medical Center,Connecticut Public Television & Radio,Hartford Hospital and others. The partnershipcreated on a once decrepit tract of land adja-cent to Trinity five educational institutions

including: a Montessori Day Care Center(grades pre-K to 5); a magnet middle school; amath and science academy; and an arts acad-emy. The site also includes a Boy’s and Girl’sClub, a community theater and retail spaces.

Beyond the physical buildings, Trinity haslinked its academic initiatives to communityneeds through a number of programs that gobeyond traditional service learning. The Mega-Cities Institute, the Trinity Center forNeighborhoods, the Neighborhood TechnicalCenter’s Smart Neighborhood Initiative, theInstitute for Living, the HART Job Center andthe Aetna Center for Families are all programsthat involve Trinity faculty and students withcommunity leaders to improve the economic,physical and social characteristics of theneighborhood.

The University of Pennsylvania has beena leader in linking public service to communityneeds. Under the direction of Ira Harkavy, thePenn Program for Public Service, establishedin 1989, evolved into the Center for CommunityPartnerships. Its purpose is to support a uni-versity-wide effort to improve the quality of lifein the West Philadelphia neighborhood adja-cent to the university. Like their brethren atTrinity, Penn officials believe the future ofboth the institution and the neighborhood are intertwined.

The center engages in a variety of activi-ties including academically based communityservice, traditional services to the communityand community development initiatives.

Local HeroesHow Colleges and Universities Enrich Their Host Communities

JUDITH STEINKAMP

Tough times encourage collegesand communities to devise creativesolutions to the problems they share.

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Examples include: a university-assist-ed community school, an urban nutri-tion initiative, a community artspartnership, neighborhood-level plan-ning, education and job training foryouth and adults, and minority entre-preneurship training. Ongoing partner-ships are developed with communityorganizations, federal institutions,foundations and other nonprofit groups.

Virginia Tech University inBlacksburg, Va., led an unusual initia-tive to establish an advanced networkinfrastructure called the BlacksburgElectronic Village (BEV). The BEVwired the community and offered avariety of Internet-based services toBlacksburg-area residents, civicgroups and nonprofit organizationsfrom e-mail to an electronic calendarof events and arts websites. From anacademic standpoint, the program fos-ters research in the social, education-al, political, economic and technicalaspects of networking, as faculty andstudents evaluate the use and impactof community networking.

The University of Illinois at

Chicago established the interdiscipli-nary Great Cities Institute (GCI) tocreate, disseminate and apply knowl-edge in community development, met-ropolitan sustainability, workforcedevelopment and professional educa-tion. The focus is the city of Chicago,but the institute also is committed toimproving quality of life in other met-ropolitan areas. For example, theinstitute’s Coastal Business andEnvironment Initiative provides localgovernments and planning agencieswith the academic research supportto achieve a more sustainable eco-nomic and ecological future. Theinstitute’s Chicago WorkforceDevelopment Partnership project promotes economic well-being by providing job access and advance-ment for poor Chicago residents.

Clark University in Worcester,Mass., was the forerunner of promot-ing economic development in adjacentneighborhoods, initially for its ownself-interest. The Main-South area ofWorcester was run-down and crime-ridden—hardly an appealing extendedcampus for a renowned university.Clark established the University ParkPartnership, a collaboration among

residents, Clark organizations,Worcester Public Schools, governmentofficials, local businesses and church-es. The initiative was one of the firstfunded by the U.S. Department ofHousing and Urban Development’sCommunity Outreach PartnershipCenter program, which supports university-community partnerships.Since the program began in 1995,Clark and its partners have renovatedmore than 200 residences and built100 new residences to benefit localresidents and attract faculty and staffto the college neighborhood.

Clark has established its ownEducational Corridor, including acommunity school called theUniversity Park Campus, for grades 7 to 12. Originally located on the campus, it is now a block away. JackFoley, assistant to the president atClark, says all 31 members of theschool’s first graduating class will be

attending college next year, includingup to a dozen who will go to Clarktuition-free as part of the initiative.

One attraction of living in a collegecommunity is the range of culturalvenues and recreational opportunitiesthat contribute to a vital quality oflife. Meanwhile, “cultural tourism”generates about $6 billion in annualspending in New England, accordingto the New England Council, whoseCreative Economy Initiative hasbrought together leaders of culturaland education institutions with theircounterparts in business and govern-ment to strengthen the region’s eco-nomic competitiveness.

Clark is now a major player in the

Worcester Cultural Corridor, an ambi-tious renovation and revitalizationproject spearheaded by an investmentin arts and culture. A master plan forthe area provides affordable housingfor artists and others by renovatingmill buildings and vacant propertiesto create live/work spaces for relatedbusinesses. A contemporary art cen-ter, restaurants, parks, retail andmixed-income housing are all compo-nents of the plan to create a strongarts/business district for the city andarea colleges to stimulate the localarts economy. Says Foley: “Once you’repart of a community partnership, peo-ple look to you to be involved.”

The University of Massachusetts

Amherst has embraced the creativeeconomy with establishment of theWestern Massachusetts Arts Alliance,

a partnership linking culturalresources that contribute to the vitality of the four counties of

western Massachusetts. In addition to hosting workshops such as ArtsCurriculum Frameworks, Making aLiving as an Artist, and a Forum forFunding in the Arts, UMass partneredwith members of the KnowledgeCorridor to create a Connecticut RiverValley Cultural Corridor map. A cultur-al tourism forum held in May broughttogether regional leaders, artists andorganizations to learn more about thecreative economy and the potentialeconomic contributions of arts andculture groups. The next step is devel-opment of a regional arts website.

North of Boston, a partnership that began at Salem State College

is responsible for conceiving

University Park Campus School students on a field trip to Clark.

One attractionof living in a college community isthe range ofcultural venuesand recreationalopportunities.

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ArtsNorth, an organization linkingarts institutions north of Boston. Anumber of other institutions of highereducation including Endicott College,Montserrat College of Art and GordonCollege are also involved in promotingand joint marketing of cultural venuesin the region.

Recreational venues play an important part in promoting culturaltourism. UMass is currently revivinga Five College Bikeway that will linkthe university with Amherst, Smith,Hampshire and Mount Holyoke col-leges, allowing recreational uses aswell as commuting and inter-campustravel by students who take coursesamong the five colleges.

In their role as communityanchors, colleges and universitiesmust support sustainable develop-ment practices through teaching,institutional practices and community

development. This means movingbeyond the current focus on “greenarchitecture” to mitigating trafficimpacts, managing growth, recyclingfacilities and integrating principles ofsustainability in the curriculum.

Hampshire College in Amhersthas developed a model approach—aSustainable Master Plan that outlinesgoals for academic programs, life-cycle costing, environmental preser-vation, resource utilization andcontrolled expansion. Hampshireviews the campus community as a living laboratory for experimentation,encouraging permeable boundarieswith the neighborhood. HampshirePresident Gregory Prince believes it is important to educate young people,

students and the community aboutlong-term sustainability and to modelthe behavior of its’ graduates.

In partnership with the town ofAmherst, Hampshire received aLivable Communities grant to studyhow an “ecological and cultural vil-lage” might be expanded at the edgeof the campus, adjacent to an existingmarket and residential neighborhood.The college seeks to work with neigh-bors to expand the Atkins FarmCountry Market into a true villagecenter, employing sustainable devel-opment guidelines. Says Prince:“Students wanted more connectionsto the community. It was Hampshire’sresponsibility to generate intergenera-tional conversations and to encouragea dialogue with the neighbors.” Aseries of public meetings educatedlocal and college residents about bestpractices in green architecture,

climate-friendly buildings, storm-water management, safe pedestrianstreetscapes, native landscapes, traffic calming and multimodal trans-portation. This model plan will pro-vide housing, retail and commercialspace arranged around a village greenand Main Street configuration withconnections to Hampshire Collegeand the local residential areas thatinclude a retirement village.

Working together, the college and the town will examine existing zoningrestrictions to develop a plan for greaterdensity that promotes a village identity.Hampshire officials hope the plan canbecome a prototype for the entire townthat promotes smart growth and re-development while preserving the

open space character of the area.A major factor in sustaining college

communities is providing a range ofhousing options for university affiliates.In recent years, inflated housing priceshave inhibited recruitment of new facul-ty, staff and graduate students. Groupsof students renting single-family homesand apartments in the communitydeprive local residents of affordablehousing options. Clark addressed thisissue by promoting renovation of hous-ing adjacent to the university throughdownpayment incentives and low-costloans to faculty and staff. In other com-munities, colleges and universities aretaking a much greater responsibility forhousing their own.

New campuses like Florida AtlanticUniversity, the University of CaliforniaMerced and Cal State Monterey Bayare creating new communities, muchlike the Hampshire model, that pro-vide a full range housing for faculty,staff and students, without affectinglocal housing stock. On the WestCoast, the institution typically retainscontrol of the land with the tenantpaying for building/home costs onlyplus a minimal ground lease fee. Inmore established New England com-munities, the strategy is different. InHanover, N.H., Dartmouth College isdeveloping new housing models forfaculty and staff by buying land, act-ing as developers and controllingcosts. Still other urban institutionslike MIT are employing creativemeans of gaining additional housingstock by renovating old mill and factory buildings, an excellent modelfor reuse of existing structures andmaterials.

By sharing their expertise, becom-ing engaged in workforce developmentand practicing sustainable develop-ment principles that improve the qual-ity of life for the campus and thecommunity, colleges and universitiesare enhancing their academic mis-sions while stimulating the economicand cultural vitality of their regions.

Judith Steinkamp is director of cam-

pus planning & space management

for the University of Massachusetts

Amherst. She also consults with other

institutions to foster campus and

community collaborations.


Housing renovated by the Main South Community Development Corp.

In their role as communityanchors, colleges anduniversitiesmust supportsustainabledevelopmentpractices.

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Adventure recreation … adventure edu-

cation … outdoor education … Thesecollege degree programs don’t exactly

conjure up images of New England’s ivy-cov-ered quadrangles, nor for that matter, of high-demand professional fields. They may even bederided as jock majors, gut courses, academicfluff to be cut loose in a difficult budget cli-mate. Even Thayer Raines, coordinator of theadventure recreation major at Green MountainCollege in Vermont, says students might fairlywonder: “Am I getting a license to be a ski bum?”

Not these days.The National Park System reports an aston-

ishing 421 million visits to its more than 375sites each year, while 149 million Americansage 16 and older camped, climbed, hiked,kayaked or participated in another outdooractivity in 2001, according to the OutdoorIndustry Association. Those enthusiasts spent$18 billion on “human-powered” outdoor equip-ment and poured untold amounts into localeconomies. Meanwhile, organizations that usewilderness adventure to develop traits rangingfrom self-reliance to teamwork are flourishing;the 40-year-old Outward Bound program, forexample, counts half a million alumni.

The growing interest in wilderness andoutdoor activities has created demand forhighly competent outdoor professionals whocombine the hard technical skills to lead awilderness expedition, the soft social skills tomanage a group and the scientific knowledge

to be effective teachers. This demand, in turn,has fueled growth in outdoor education pro-grams at New England’s colleges.

Freshman enrollment in the University ofNew Hampshire’s outdoor education concen-tration, for example, has grown from two to13 over the past six years, according to DebSugerman, director of the undergraduate out-door education program. At Green MountainCollege, adventure recreation is the secondmost commonly declared major after environ-mental studies, according to Assistant Deanof Admissions Noka Garrapy. The programenrolled 69 students during the 2002-03 academ-ic year—triple the enrollment of five years ago.

What do they do?The outdoor professional is the ultimate pro-grammer of a person’s leisure experience,says Raines. To determine what people mightenjoy doing, these pros need to understandhuman behavior and development, psycholo-gy, sociology and kinesiology—the study ofthe anatomy, physiology and mechanics ofbody movement. To teach effectively, theyneed a grasp of how the mind relates to thebody and how learning styles differ. Besides,says Raines, they need the physical skills foractivities such as rock climbing or kayaking.They need scientific knowledge of meteorolo-gy, morphology, river formation, geology,astronomy and navigation. And they increas-ingly need to understand and use global posi-tioning systems.

The GreatOutdoorsAdventure Education and Recreation StudiesPrograms Try to Prove Their Worth

MONICA DEADY

Growing interestin wilderness and outdooractivities has created demandfor competentprofessionals whocombine the tech-nical skills to leada wildernessexpedition, thesoft social skills to manage agroup and thescientific knowl-edge to be effec-tive teachers.

Phot

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Tha

yer R

aine

s.


A grounding in the humanitiesdoesn’t hurt either. A guide might beable to tell students where on theinfamous summit of Maine’s MountKatahdin, Henry David Thoreau wrotehis essay “The Maine Woods,” orpoint out Thoreau Spring. A savvyguide might even suggest, as Thoreaudid, “It were as well to be educated inthe shadow of a mountain as in moreclassic shade.”

Graduates of college outdoor educa-tion programs enter a variety of sectors.They may work as outdoor guides or inspecialized outfitting centers, in placesthat specialize in selling products andleading trips, at resorts, camps or out-door centers that offer adventure pro-gramming, in the newly emergingfields of corporate facilitation andwilderness therapy, or in a school.

Todd Miner, executive director ofCornell University’s Phillips OutdoorProgram Center, says he has seen“incredible growth” in fields such astherapeutic wilderness camps andprograms for adjudicated youths, aswell as traditional camp, adventureprogram and youth program jobs.Miner adds that there are approxi-mately 7,500 ropes courses in theUnited States that need facilitators,all of whom could be graduates ofoutdoor and adventure education pro-grams. Add to that job opportunitiesin wilderness programs, hospitals andcolleges and, says Miner, “The jobmarket is booming.”

While jobs may not be hard tocome by, high-paying ones are. Astudy by Miner published in The

Outdoor Network Newsletter lastspring revealed that the averagesalary among outdoor professionalswas $32,620. Adventure programdirectors made slightly more—anaverage of $41,553. “No one is goingto get rich in this field,” says Miner.(See Figure 1.)

A major question?Still, the popularity of outdoor educa-tion-related majors raises some ques-tions. One is whether pursuing anacademic major in the field is neces-sary at all. Though an increasingnumber of students pursue degrees infields such as adventure education,

adventure recreation or outdoor edu-cation and leadership, many outdoorprofessionals get their experience andtraining on their own.

For example, the National OutdoorLeadership School (NOLS), a privatenonprofit that focuses on experientialeducation in a wilderness setting,does not require its instructors to holddegrees specifically in outdoor-relatedfields. Says Admissions Supervisor JoeAustin: “Unfortunately, a lot of peoplewith degrees, even advanced degrees[in an outdoor-related field] don’t haveexperience in the outdoors.”

Moreover, some college outdoorprograms are better than others.

Miner of Cornell says the best degreeprograms include hands-on experi-ence in the wilderness. Miner, whoalso does consulting for schools, rec-ommends at least 100 days of fieldtime in addition to coursework.

Austin says that although theoreti-cal knowledge may be valuable, NOLSwants people with experience. “Thewhole point is experiential educa-tion,” he explains, “yet people sit inclassrooms learning about it for fouryears—it’s the ultimate irony.”

The curriculaOutdoor education programs and theirrelatives have image problems. “Thetraditional academic community holdsmajors such as adventure manage-ment and eco-tourism somewhat sus-pect in terms of academic rigor,” saysMassachusetts higher education con-sultant James E. Samels. People think“eco-tourism and adventure manage-ment are code words for academicshallowness,” says Samels, adding thatprogram critics “see the field like ariver: a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Program officials insist, however,that the outdoor curricula are academ-ically rigorous. Strong programs incor-porate plenty of reading, researching

Regional Students OutdoorsThe New England Board of Higher Education’s Regional Student Program (RSP) offers New England residents a tuition break when they study certain majors at public collegesand universities in another New England state that are not offered at a public institution intheir home state.

The RSP offers two options for students interested in outdoor education or an adventure-related field:

Students from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island may pay reducedtuition to pursue a bachelor’s degree in outdoor education at Vermont’s Johnson StateCollege. The program offers concentrations in adventure education/wilderness leadershipand environmental education.

Students from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Islandcan pay reduced tuition to pursue a bachelor’s degree in recreation resource and ski man-agement at Lyndon State College in Vermont. Students may choose a concentration inadventure-based program management, which prepares them to work in organizations thatuse adventure to teach outdoor skills and enhance individual or group development.

In academic year 2001-02, nearly 7,700 New England students saved an average of$5,500 each on their annual tuition bills through the RSP, for total savings of more than$42 million.

Figure 1 Most Common Outdoor EducationPositions, Average Annual Salaries

Director $41,500

Associate Director $33,300

Ropes/Team Director $30,100

Program Manager $29,900

Teacher/Instructor/Guide $28,900

Facilitators $28,600

Logistics/Outfitting $28,400

Counselors/Therapists $27,400

Source: Todd Miner, Cornell University Outdoor Education


and writing, while adhering to thestandards of national associationssuch as the American CanoeAssociation or American MountainGuides, defenders of the programs say.These programs aim to strike a bal-ance between technical skills, leader-ship, theory and even medical training.

At UNH, in fact, students go a level beyond the field standard med-ical certification of Wilderness FirstResponder, completing the moreadvanced Emergency MedicalTechnician (EMT) and WildernessEMT courses, Sugerman says. Thesecourses are among the first that theUNH students take. “If they pass that,they go on,” adds Sugerman.

Plymouth State College, mean-while, is revamping its 22-year-oldoutdoor recreation curriculum,according to Bob Stremba, an associ-ate professor and coordinator ofadventure education at the college.“Often, I think the students see thewords ‘outdoor recreation’ and theythink it’s playing outside and gettingcollege credit for it,” he says.

Beginning in the fall of 2003, a newPlymouth State adventure educationmajor will better prepare students toprovide outdoor programming witheducational value while promotingsustainable outdoor activities. Insteadof snowmobiling and ATV use, thefocus is on human-powered pursuitslike rock climbing and mountaineer-ing. “We are enhancing the curricu-lum with more instructional skills,”says Stremba, adding that the newprogram will require students tospend a minimum of 60 days instruct-ing or leading in the field and to com-plete a seven-week internship.

Anne Morse, dean of students atSterling College in Vermont, seesthese programs as rigorous. “I find itvery stimulating,” she says. AtSterling, she says, the interdiscipli-nary degree program blends scienceand hard skills with psychology andsociology. “It brings a lot of fieldstogether, which I think is one of themost stimulating things” about it.

Miner compares earning a degree in an outdoor-related field to a collegefootball player who could make thepros but instead finishes college before

being drafted. “It’s about focusing onlonger-term goals,” he says, “the goal ofbroadening the mind.” Above all, hesays, the college experience should beabout writing, critical thinking andtechnology, all of which will benefitthe student later on in life.

Raines of Green Mountain Collegehas a theory about why critics contin-ue to think the programs lack rigor:because they’re fun.

Budget concernsWith a national budget crunch affect-ing colleges and universities, the academic soundness of outdoor pro-grams will be under review.

Miner doesn’t think budget cuts willtake a toll on the programs, especiallysince they have been rising in populari-ty. “Student demand and popularity isa great insurance policy against that,”he says. He adds that when higher-upssee the number of students involved inthese types of programs, they tend toleave them alone.

Samels remains skeptical. “Weneed more longitudinal evidence onwhat they [the students and pro-grams] do,” he says. He admits, how-ever, that colleges and universitiesmay keep the adventure majors in thelong run “because they need to servethis career market.”

Green Mountain’s Raines sums upthe notion of why leisure activitiesand programs like these are impor-tant. “Leisure is the reason we [as asociety] work so hard,” he says. Thequality of your life is what you doafter you leave work. “I’ve neverunderstood in an academic environ-ment, in higher education, why some-one would point at that [an adventureeducation program] and say, ‘That hasno value.’ It’s a central life value.”

Monica Deady served as

NEBHE/CONNECTION intern during

the spring of 2003. She earned a

master’s degree in journalism from

Boston University in May 2003.

High School & College Datafrom the Education Data Experts

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• Publish hard-hitting commentaryand analysis of higher educationissues in CONNECTION: THE

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To become a Friend of NEBHE, please complete the form on page 41.For more information, please call us at 617.357.9620 or visit

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Linda A. AcciardoAI ArchitectureGouri BanerjeeBrian BartoliniPhilip G. BenoitWilliam BenoitGail BessetteBeverly BockusHelen C. BodellPamela BoisvertHenry BourgeoisMariam Z. BoyajianTimothy BrennanBrian BrittonMike BurnsPatrick M. CallanKevin CarletonLance CarluccioRobert F. CarniauxFred CarstensenBruce ChandlerMichael ChmuraTom ChmuraMichael CiarlanteKelly ClarkConsigli ConstructionAl CormierClare M. CottonKimberly M. CroneChristine H. DalyPeter K. DavisJ. Alan DayPeter DeckersJohn L. DeLorey, Jr.Joseph N. Desautel, Jr.Joseph P. DiMariaDiMella Shaffer

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B O O K S

YGBSylvia Quarles Simmons

Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting

High Achievement Among African-

American Students, Theresa Perry,

Claude Steele and Asa Hilliard III,

Beacon Press, 2003, $25

The experience and achievement ofAfrican-Americans in school has beenstudied and analyzed with differingand often conflicting results. In thiscollection of complementary, but attimes repetitive essays, three scholarsfrom different disciplines and perspec-tives explore this important subject innew ways, from historical, psychologi-cal and educational viewpoints. Thereader is invited to make the connec-tions between their presentations andto think about a new kind of nationalconversation on this subject.

Wheelock College education ProfessorTheresa Perry’s three-part essay fillsmost of the book’s 167 pages of text.The essay moves the reader toward acontemporary theory of achievementbased on African-American history,theories of group achievement and con-trasts between achievement before andafter the civil rights era.

The first part of the essay explores,the experiences that helped shape a the-ory of knowledge and a philosophy ofeducation in the African-Americancommunity. Perry uses seven narrativesto answer the question of why African-Americans value achievement in anenvironment where learning does notnecessarily reap rewards. The answers,she finds, are freedom for literacy andliteracy for freedom, racial uplift, citi-zenship and leadership. “The philoso-phy of freedom for literacy and literacyfor freedom linked literacy and educa-tion to the social identity of African-Americans, to the very notion of what itmeant to be an African-American, andto African-Americans’ struggle andyearnings for freedom.”

The author tries to use each narrativeto demonstrate the indigenous philoso-phy of education that emerges out of lim-itations, constraints, struggles for

education and lived experiences. Perryasks whether this philosophy is powerfulenough to sustain the desire to achieveamong African-Americans across gener-ations. She answers in the affirmativewithout further analysis. Perry thenidentifies “dilemmas of achievement”such as the perceived intellectual inferi-ority of African-Americans, the lack ofcultural capital and myths relating toblack language and ability.

She concludes that we must figureout how to develop in African-American children, identities ofachievement to counter barriers of

intellectual inferiority or deficienciesin cultural capital and competence.She calls for schools that embrace amission supporting a culture ofachievement for all students (as existsin black colleges, Catholic schools, mil-itary schools, etc.) and for the estab-lishment of social and cultural groupsthat offer a range of academic activitiesand are designed to forge identities ofachievement. Her conclusions are notstartling nor new, but they offer a com-prehensive approach to achievement,create a basis for continued discussionand reaffirm the value of a supportiveand positive learning environment.

Perry’s essay is complemented byAsa Hilliard’s. A professor of urbaneducation at Georgia State University,Hilliard provides examples of individu-als, organizations and programs that

have created climates of achievement.He calls them “gap closers,” referringto the gap separating the current per-formance of African-American stu-dents and excellence, rather than theverifiable achievement gap betweenAfricans and Europeans (his terms).

Hilliard identifies gap closers asprograms that employ good teachers,challenge students, treat them as schol-ars, respect their culture and differ-ences and instill in them pride in theirancestors and traditions. For models,he points to Project SEED, a nationalmathematics education program thatuses a unique Socratic method to teachkids advanced math, along with theclassroom mock trial programs inwhich students are assigned the rolesof individuals involved in imaginary orre-created court trials.

Claude Steele, a professor of socialsciences at Stanford University, offers apsychological perspective based on hisresearch with college students. He sug-gests that a climate of achievement isalready in place for African-Americanstudents but that academic performanceis depressed by other factors. Steele sug-gests that “stereotype threat”—fear ofdoing something that would inadvertent-ly confirm a stereotype—has moreeffect on the achievement of black stu-dents than expectations and motives.Steele’s remedy for stereotype threat isto create an environment of “identitysafety,” in which the threat or its rele-vance is removed. He also would encour-age positive relationships with teachers,provide opportunities for students intheir living places and programs and dis-cuss the characteristics of a safe andsecure environment.

The authors agree on the need for aculture of achievement in a safe envi-ronment and provide some tools toaccomplish this goal. But will they reallyget readers to start a new conversationabout achievement? Unfortunately, thisbook makes one think about what isalready in place, but does not identifywhere new research is needed.

Moreover, there are inevitable over-laps in a book of essays on one subject.Both Perry and Hilliard, for example,address the importance of recognizing

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B O O K S

Ebonics in education and the impor-tance of the African-American tradi-tion. Both discuss the climate ofpessimism and perceived intellectualinferiority that inhibits achievementamong African-American students.The overlaps reinforce some importantpoints, but also leave the reader wish-ing an editor had intervened.

Sylvia Quarles Simmons is chair of

Regis College and former president of

American Student Assistance.

YalieAndrew G. De Rocco

The Work of the University,

Richard C. Levin, Yale University

Press, 2003, $24.95

Ivy League presidents tend to have rel-atively long tenures, partly becausethey are sheltered from vagaries thatperturb the serenity of their less well-established counterparts. Richard C.Levin now marks 10 years as presidentof Yale University, the institution towhich he has devoted his entire career(“like the great university presidents ofthe 19th and early 20th centuries,” theYale Press publicists remind us).

Ten years at the helm of a powerful-ly influential university provides a goodtime to review and reflect. In a sense,that is what this collection of Levin’swritings does, although none was writ-ten for just that purpose. Instead,Levin has assembled pieces composedfor various audiences and deliveredover the decade of his presidency. Theyare by and large of modest length, well-focused and gracefully written. Yettheir content is more suggestive thanfully developed. And inevitably, certainfavorite locutions—“rhetorical flour-ishes” in Levin’s words—are repeatedin exhortations to incoming and outgo-ing classes, in references to Yale’s his-tory, in quotations from Levin’sformative authors and in centralthemes, the virtues of the liberal artssingularly significant among them.

Levin’s dedication to the purposesof civil debate is captured in a concern

for the matter of who to read and why,especially in an age where issues ofgender, race and ethnicity play so for-midable a role. In his first year as pres-ident, Levin told the entering class:“Truly profound works from any cul-tural tradition can serve to develop andexercise one’s capacities for reflectionand critical judgment. Indeed, if thesecapacities were more thoroughly exer-cised in thinking about the curriculumof a liberal education, the debate couldbe guided by the light of reasoned argu-ment rather than the heat of passion.”

It is clear that Levin himself contin-ues to read widely and well. That mes-sage alone is crucial for his audiences,for it invites them to stay the course oflearning in a self-reflective manner. Hisreaders are invited to engage the worksof Harold Bloom and Isaiah Berlin, aswell as Adams, Jefferson, Toqueville,Wordsworth and Whitman. The range isbroad, the ideas central to the purposesof an engaged academy in the life of themind and the well-being of society.

The book is conveniently ordered inseven parts, ranging from his inauguralaspirations for Yale to the role of the uni-versity in society, in particular noting thesignificance of university-based researchfor economic development. There arealso reflections on Yale’s future, encomiafor much admired colleagues, the exhor-tations and two substantial works con-cerned with economic issues.

The concluding two pieces, “Reflec-tions on the American Economy,” are the

most fully developed of this compendium.Here we witness the serious economicsscholar at work. These writings, surelyprofessional, are nonetheless eminentlyreadable and generously instructive.

In a talk delivered in Hong Kong to theAsia Society, Levin documents the sig-nificant role of university research infueling economic growth, owing in largemeasure to the formidable partnershipthat grew between the U.S. research uni-versity and the federal government in theaftermath of World War II. While thatarrangement remains strong, it hasshown some weaknesses of late and forLevin a retreat from a robust relationshipwould be detrimental to each party, bothshort and long term.

Inevitably, readers will find favoritesamong these writings. Mine include“Westward Ho!”, an account of theLewis and Clark expedition, in partrevealing Jefferson’s acute sense of thequalities in Lewis that augured well forthe adventure. Another entitled“Beginnings” places the correspon-dence of Adams and Jefferson in thecontext of their deep friendship andmutual concern for the future of theRepublic. In “Controversy,” Levin urgesthe pursuit of a “better” world even if a“perfect” one will ever be beyond ourgrasp. But were I to choose a singlefavorite it would be his remarks givenupon the dedication of a newly complet-ed building at the Francis Parker Schoolin Chicago. Given its affiliation withDewey’s progressive ideals, Levin’s apttitle, “An Embryonic Democracy,” pro-vides a welcoming entry into a splendidacknowledgment of the power residingin an environment engaged with ideas.

The writings constitute a fittingreflection on Levin’s presidency, one hebegan with devoted allegiance to theideals of liberal education. In an increas-ingly commodified enterprise, such adevotion is warmly welcomed. If there isa disappointment here it is the absenceof Levin’s audacious assault against thepolicy of early decision. One may hopethat at another junction, he will addressthis and other substantive policy issues.

Andrew G. De Rocco is former com-

missioner of higher education

in Connecticut.

Excerpts

There are 10 criteria to measure both academic andnon-academic programs. Governors should knowthese criteria, request data to buttress collegiate pro-grams in light of these criteria, and then ask the pen-etrating questions to secure responsible answers. …

Criterion 1: History, development and expec-

tations. Have the expectations for this programchanged since it was established? How has the programadapted to changing demographics of the institution’sstudents (e.g. more part-timers, more nontraditional,less academically prepared, less likely to be motivatedto succeed)? Governor’s key question: Does this pro-

gram meet today’s changed expectations?

Criterion 2: External demand. Is there evidencethat students are attracted to the campus because ofthe program? Has this demand changed over time? Isthe institution required to offer this program?Governor’s key question: Who wants this program?

Criterion 3: Internal demand. What other pro-grams in the institution rely on this program? Whatservices does the program offer that are expected inother programs at the institution? Is there potentialfor internal demand because this program has pio-neered new approaches (e.g., collaborative learning,uses of technology) other institutional programs mayemulate? Governor’s key question: Is this program

required for the success of another program?

Criterion 4: Quality of program inputs and

processes. How current is the program’s staff? Wouldthey stack up well against similar staff in comparableor competing institutions? Does the program operatewith a quality design? When last was it overhauled?How does the program take advantage of changes intechnology? What is the quality of equipment, facilitiesand other resources? Governor’s key question: How

good are the resources invested in this program?

Criterion 5: Quality of program outcomes.

How do students benefit from this program? Whatmeasurable objectives were achieved or competen-cies attained, including employer satisfaction and jobplacement? Did the program succeed in multiple mea-sures of student development? Do the outcomes mir-

ror the best practices of similar institutions?Governor’s key question: What are the quality

results of this program?

Criterion 6: Size, scope and productivity. Howmany students—or clients, customers, patrons—arebeing served? How many staff are committed to thisprogram? What’s the resulting productivity? Is the pro-gram of sufficient size and scope to meet critical massand is it conducted effectively? Governor’s key question:

How many people truly benefit from this program?

Criterion 7: Revenue and other resources gen-

erated. What internal subsidy is appropriate to accountfor the enrollment the program attracts? Are there fees,grants, fundraising or other sources of revenue attribut-able to this program? Does the program enjoy relation-ships—external, community, economic—that arevaluable to the institution? Governor’s key question:

What does this program bring in financially?

Criterion 8: Costs and other expenses. Whatare the total costs—direct and indirect—associatedwith delivering the program? Are there demonstrableefficiencies in delivering the program that benefit theinstitution? What additional investment is needed tobring the program up to a high level of quality?Governor’s key question: What’s the real outlay for

this program?

Criterion 9: Impact, justification and overall

essentiality. How essential is this program to theinstitution’s mission? Does this program serve peoplein ways no other program does? Does it respond to aunique societal need the institution values? Governor’s

key question: How is this program linked with the

institution’s—or the state’s—overall strategy?

Criterion 10: Opportunity analysis. How mightthe program capture opportunities not heretofore con-sidered? What external factors can this programseize? Are there opportunities for productivity gainsthat might save the program? Where is duplicationavoidable? What is the relationship between this pro-gram and emerging trends in student development?Governor’s key question: If resources are reinvested

in this program, what would be the benefits? ■


Advice for GovernorsOne way states contain public higher education costs in bad times is by shifting scarce funds from weak

academic programs to strong programs. But how can governors and others pick academic winners and

losers? The following is excerpted from “Containing College Costs: The Case for Reallocation,” an essay by

Robert C. Dickeson, the senior vice president for higher education policy, research and evaluation at the

Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education. The essay appears in the 2002 National Governors

Association report, titled “Higher Expectations: Influencing the Future of Higher Education.” Dickeson

previously served as an aide to former Govs. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona and Roy Romer of Colorado.

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C A M P U S

ORONO, MAINE—Researchers at theUniversity of Maine and CornellUniversity developed a new variety ofpotato that could be especially valu-able to farmers who sell to potato chipprocessors. The new Monticello potatowas developed by plant breeders atCornell and field-tested in Maine todetermine how well it would grow inMaine’s soil and climate. Consumertests were conducted by UMaine’sDepartment of Food Science andHuman Nutrition.

POULTNEY, VT.— Green MountainCollege received a $50,000 grant fromthe Educational Foundation of Americato charter a new consortium of eightcolleges devoted to sustainability in allaspects of college life. The “Eco-8” con-sortium will collaborate on developinginterdisciplinary curricula, studentexchange programs, sustainable pur-chasing practices, distance educationand other initiatives. Green Mountain’spartners in the consortium are BereaCollege in Kentucky, College of theAtlantic in Maine, Northland College inMinnesota, Antioch College in Ohio,Warren Wilson College in NorthCarolina, Alaska Pacific University andPrescott College in Arizona.

ORONO, MAINE—Researchers in theUniversity of Maine’s Department ofResource Economics and Policyreceived $51,037 from the U.S. ForestService to calculate the economicdamage caused by the non-nativeinsect, the hemlock wooly adelgid,which is attacking Eastern hemlocktrees. The researchers will exploredamages to residential landscapes and forested public lands throughoutthe eastern United States, emphasizingthe pest’s impacts on recreationalactivities.

BAR HARBOR, MAINE—College of theAtlantic was awarded a three-year,$360,000 grant from the U.S.Department of Education’s Fund forImprovement of Post SecondaryEducation (FIPSE) to develop a modelfor experiential teaching using thewatersheds in Hancock County. Themodel will address the issues of

sprawl, pollution, overcrowding, degra-dation of water quality and wildlifepreservation in the communitiesaround Acadia National Park. Fundswill be used to develop a college-com-munity watershed curriculum forregional planning and to support facul-ty development and enrichment andcommunity education. Communitymembers will also help design courses.

NORTON, MASS.— Wheaton Collegechemist Janina Benoit and GordonCollege biologist David H. Shull wereawarded a $77,000 grant by MITSeaGrant to study how mercury fromindustrial sources makes its way intoinland and coastal waters and is con-verted to more dangerous methyl mer-cury through the work of anaerobicbacteria. The grant supports samplingwork in Boston Harbor, laboratoryequipment and salaries for studentresearchers. Benoit also received $30,000from the Center for EnvironmentalBioinorganic Chemistry to support theresearch into methyl mercury, whichcan exist in high enough concentrationsin Massachusetts coastal and inlandwaters to pose health threats to anyoneconsuming fish from those areas.

NEW BRITAIN, CONN.—CentralConnecticut State University received$1 million from the American SavingsFoundation to establish an endowedchair in banking and finance and anInstitute for Banking and Finance. Theinstitute will work with faculty, stu-dents, and the banking and financialservices industry to conduct appliedresearch, curriculum development andother collaborations among academia,the private sector and public schools.The institute will provide studentswith lectures on trends in banking,business and economic issues, andconduct programs for area businessleaders on new venture evaluation andsmall business management.

BRATTLEBORO, VT.—The PersonsSchool of Marlboro College and theCommunity College of Vermont signedan articulation agreement making iteasier for students who earn associatedegrees from the public two-year college

to transfer to the private four-year col-lege. Formerly known as the MarlboroCollege Graduate Center and renamedfor founding trustee Henry Persons, theschool offers technology degree pro-grams, including an online bachelor’sdegree program in managing informa-tion systems. Under the agreement, thePersons School will accept all associ-ate-level Community College of Vermontcredits in computer systems manage-ment and network administration.

WARWICK, R.I.—New England Instituteof Technology introduced a bachelor’sdegree program in digital recordingarts technology to prepare students forwork in the electronic media industry.Students will study techniques frommulti-track studio recording to graphicdesign as they learn to conceptualize,budget, schedule and professionallyproduce broadcast and client-basedprojects. The institute also introduceda new bachelor’s degree program inmechanical engineering technology,focusing on product, tool and machinedesign, and a new associate degreeprogram in computer-aided design andmechanical technology to prepare stu-dents to use design software in industry.

DURHAM, N.H.—The University ofNew Hampshire introduced a master’sdegree program in the management oftechnology. In announcing the pro-gram, campus officials cited interest incommercializing emerging informationtechnology, nanotechnology andbiotechnology. The 18-month programemphasizing interdisciplinary teamprojects aims to prepare college gradu-ates with engineering and sciencebackgrounds for leadership roles inresearch and development, design andproduct engineering and other technol-ogy management roles. Industry-spon-sored projects and internships are akey part of the program.

BIDDEFORD, MAINE—The Universityof New England announced it wouldbegin offering a doctoral degree pro-gram in physical therapy in fall 2004.The three-year program will combinecoursework, lab experience and clinicalpractica to prepare students for direct


C A M P U S

patient care as well as scholarship,consultation and administration inphysical therapy. The entire physicaltherapy department will move to theuniversity’s Portland campus in 2004,where students in other health profes-sions programs already work collabo-ratively as part of an integrated healthand healing initiative.

WORCESTER, MASS.—Clark Universitywas awarded a three-year, $1 milliongrant from the U.S. Department ofEducation to launch teacher-recruit-ment efforts in collaboration with theWorcester Public Schools and theWorcester Education Partnership. Thegrant, one of just 20 awarded national-ly, will fund full scholarships andstipends for master’s degree candi-dates in a teaching program run jointlyby Clark and the Worcester schools.Scholarships will be targeted towardfuture math and science teachers andminority candidates in all fields.

Recipients must commit to a teachingposition in Worcester or another urbansetting for at least one year after com-pleting the program.

FORT KENT, MAINE—The Universityof Maine at Fort Kent received approvalfrom the UMaine System trustees tobuild a 150-bed residence hall to beready for student occupancy in fall2004. University leaders have set a goalto increase enrollment to 1,000, withabout half the students housed on cam-pus. But the campus currently has justtwo residence halls with space for atotal of 125 students. The new dormwill also feature air conditioning toaccommodate expanded summer pro-gramming at Fort Kent.

BOSTON, MASS.—Simmons Collegewas awarded $66,240 by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation to providescholarships to students pursuing master’s degrees in library science

and careers in public librarianship.The grants will be available to four full-time students at the SimmonsGraduate School of Library andInformation Science sites in Bostonand on the campus of Mount HolyokeCollege is western Massachusetts.

LOWELL, MASS.—The University ofMassachusetts Lowell began offeringLowell’s fifth- and eighth-grade historyteachers a set of three-day seminars,summer institutes, mini-sabbaticals andother professional development initia-tives focused on the city’s rich industrialhistory. The collaborative programs aresupported by a three-year, $1 milliongrant from the U.S. Department ofEducation to the Lowell Public Schools.The goal is to make sure teachers are upto the task when in 2008, Massachusettsbegins requiring students to pass anAmerican history test in order to gradu-ate from high school. In initial testing, 96percent of Lowell eighth-graders scoredshort of “proficient.”

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■ Percentage of females in the Massachusetts high school Class of 2000 who planned to attend college upon graduation: 81%

■ Percentage of males who planned to: 68%

■ Average annual earnings of men with bachelor’s degrees: $63,354

■ Average annual earnings of women with bachelor’s degrees: $36,913

■ Average annual earnings of direct care workers in Maine, including certified nursing assistants, personal care attendants and home health aides: $18,075

■ Average annual earnings of CEOs of “mature” New England software companies with more than $5 billion in revenues: $1,700,000

■ Average annual earnings of CEOs of “emerging” New England software companies with less than $50 million in revenues: $276,600

■ Approximate number of applicants to Harvard’s Class of 2005 who scored a perfect 800 on their SAT math tests: 2,000

■ Approximate number of applicants to Harvard’s Class of 2007 who did: 3,000

■ Percentage of students who were accepted to Harvard’s Class of 2007 but chose not to enroll in September: 21%

■ Percentage of American teenagers who say they miss needed sleep because of the demands of school and extracurricular activities: 47%

■ Percentage of U.S. executives who say employees are more competitive with their co-workers than they were 10 year ago: 55%

■ Percentage of Massachusetts residents who rank their personal financial situation as either fair or poor: 40%

■ Chance that a Massachusetts worker who died on the job last year was an immigrant: 1 in 4

■ Percent change in master’s degrees granted in the United States, 1990-2000: 42%

■ Percent change in master’s degrees granted in health sciences: 110%

■ In physical sciences: -11%

■ Number of joint M.D./M.B.A. programs at U.S. universities in 1993: 6

■ Number in 2001: 33

■ Percentage of Americans who have a great deal of confidence in doctors: 40%

■ Percentage who have a great deal of confidence in large corporations: 6%

■ Percentage who have a great deal of confidence in private four-year colleges and universities: 51%

■ In public four-year colleges and universities: 46%

■ In community colleges: 43%

■ Estimated added value of a seller’s good reputation in a retail transaction: 7.6%

■ Respective U.S. ranks of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire in the value of agricultural products sold directly to consumers by individual farms through farmers markets and other local sales: 1,2,3,4

■ Change between 2001 and 2002 in income received by Vermont farmers: -37%

■ Percentage of Massachusetts cranberry growers who are age 50 or older: 75%

Sources: 1,2 Massachusetts Department of Education; 3,4 Postsecondary Education Opportunity; 5 Maine Center for Economic Policy; 6,7 Mass High Tech Pulse of Technology; 8,9,10Harvard University; 11 Gallup Tuesday Briefing; 12 Accountemps; 13 MassINC; 14 Massachusetts AFL-CIO and Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health; 15,16,17 Council of Graduate Schools analysis of federal data; 18,19 Yale University Professor Howard P. Forman, 20,21,22,23,24 Chronicle of Higher Education; 25 Harvard University ProfessorRichard Zeckhauser; 26 Northeast-Midwest Institute; 27 Bureau of Economic Analysis; 28 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

• Situated on 235 acres in the center of Bridgewater, located inthe geographic heart ofSoutheastern Massachusetts

Provides a broad range of degreeprograms through its three schools• School of Education and

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• School of Arts and Sciences

• School of Management andAviation Science

• 11th largest college or university in Massachusettsfor undergraduate enrollmentand the 16th largest for graduate enrollment

• Approximately 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students

• The largest state college in the Massachusetts PublicHigher Education system

• Approximately 42,750 living undergraduate and graduate alumni

• Ranked one of the Top 50 Most Wired Colleges +Universities in the nationby Yahoo Internet Lifemagazine

Undergraduate Admissions508.531.1237

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General508.531.1200

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