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College Employees Value Campus Environment, 'Chronicle' Survey Finds
When a Chronicle survey asked college employees what they value about their jobs, they put the physical environment in which they work at the top of the list. (Chronicle photograph of Washington & Lee U.)
Rise in Tornadoes, Floods Poses Risk to Colleges
What if the sort of extreme weather that has left the University of Iowa inundated in floodwaters is not a freak event? What if it is a sign of things to come? (Photograph by AP Images)
Art & Architecture Renovations Near Completion at Yale U.
Paul Rudolph's 1963 Brutalist icon is getting a makeover, plus an addition by Charles Gwathmey.
Guest Blogger: Marc Mayerson
Like swashbuckling movie heroes, facilities planners take on herculean tasks.
Other News
U. of Baltimore Competition Draws Designers
In New Headache for SMU's Bush Library, Lobbyist Hints at Cash-for-Meetings Deal
News Analysis: Colleges Should Plan—and Teach—for an Oil-Scarce World
New campus buildings
Multimedia
A Green Building as a Billboard for Science
(A 2006 Chronicle video)
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About Buildings & Grounds
Buildings & Grounds is written by Scott Carlson (left) and Lawrence Biemiller (right). Scott Carlson writes about architecture, facilties, energy, and sustainability, among other topics. Lawrence Biemiller writes about architecture and facilities and contributes to Notes from Academe. What's happening on your campus? Let us know.
Colleges, Cities, and Symbiosis
A story in The Wall Street Journal discusses various universities that are pumping money into redevelopment near their campuses to stay competitive. (Of course, The Chronicle has been there and done that story many times.) In a nutshell, universities and their cities have symbiotic relationships, and if prospective students or faculty members find the city unattractive, this could hurt enrollment or recruitment. The story focuses on Case Western Reserve University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Maryland, whose nearby automobile-oriented commercial strip on Route 1 is truly awful.
Although they are not mentioned in the Journal story, universities in Baltimore, Rochester, and other old industrial cities have struggled with this same problem. Baltimore, of course, is equally well known for crime dramas like The Wire and Homicide as for its higher-education institutions. To help combat the problem, the universities in the city co-operate a bus line that takes students to various entertainment and retail hotspots in the city. In many ways, Baltimore is propped up by the various higher education institutions there — not the least of which is the Johns Hopkins University, which is remaking the entire Charles Village neighborhood to add appeal for students. (Now we’ll see how Baltimore colleges take advantage of growing opinion that Baltimore is the country’s most underrated city. Recently, to the surprise of many, Baltimore was named the country’s fittest city — in part for the health care provided by the university hospitals there. More symbiosis.)
Small colleges are subject to pressures to help their small towns, too. Oberlin College has spent a lot of money to help support their local hospital and town infrastructure, which has included buying fire trucks for the local fire department.
The symbiosis effect also applies when the college, and not the town, is blighted, as was the case with Antioch College. Yellow Springs, Ohio, is a quaint little tourist trap, while Antioch was in a state of decay. People in Yellow Springs wondered how the town would suffer if the college died. —Scott Carlson
Scott Carlson | Thursday February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Contact usComments
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Baltimore is one of our most-underrated cities. I lived in Washington for several years and much preferred to spend time 50 miles away in Balto, where fine restaurants are significantly cheaper, where the Southern heritage is palpable, and where a midnight son still drives the tintinnambulance of bells.
— S. Britchky Feb 29, 01:58 AM #
Carlson’s comment is accurate. As an alumnus and Yellow Springs resident I have witnessed the “frog dying in the pot of boiling water“process as a succession of 15 college presidents failed to save the college, local research institutions and industries departed, and outdated dreams discouraged replacements. Decay can be almost invisible until too late.
— Paul R. Cooper Mar 1, 12:50 PM #