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The colleges already have a campus, and most in less urban areas with ample parking for the students. With the current diminishing enrollment, moving into the big cities will greatly reduce the number of students commuting from the suburbs that are living at home with their parents. The only real downtown college in Seattle, the Art Institute, went under and closed up in 2019.
That was part of a chain of art schools that went bankrupt. The Art Institute (not to be confused with similarly named schools and/or museums in Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City) had a location in Center City Philadelphia...
...which is home to a long-established college dedicated to the visual and performing arts, the University of the Arts.
Center City is also home to one of the city's three biggest medical schools, Thomas Jefferson University. Jefferson's teaching hospital is part of its campus.
Immediately west of Center City, Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania are next-door neighbors.
A few miles north of Center City (in a rougher neighborhood) is Temple University, the city's "school for Everyman." Temple also has a Center City location offering adult continuing education and evening classes.
I think you will find that most of our larger cities have universities in them that could, like Temple, open satellite facilities in the city center. The issue here is whether or not they would be residential. The idea behind the buildings mentioned in the OP is that they would bring students into the city center as residents, not as commuters.
The University of Washington's campus is already located in Seattle, north of the downtown and connected to it by the city's light metro. I suspect it wouldn't be interested in building a downtown residential center, granted. But were there a school in its hinterland that wanted to offer an urban option, it might opt to do so.
Declining global birth rates will force a (potentially painful) downsizing of the higher education establishment in the next decade or so.
This is already happening. The University of Akron, for example, had 30,000 students in 2011. It's now down to under 14,000. It's going to be brutal. We probably have twice as many colleges and universities as we currently need to meet demand now.
This is already happening. The University of Akron, for example, had 30,000 students in 2011. It's now down to under 14,000. It's going to be brutal. We probably have twice as many colleges and universities as we currently need to meet demand now.
Between declining birthrates and AI reducing future white collar employment and the 'benefit' of obtaining a college education, careers in academia will no longer be a safe haven for lifetime employment. Which also means higher education institutions will also no longer be a surefire way to prop up a community economically.
Between declining birthrates and AI reducing future white collar employment and the 'benefit' of obtaining a college education, careers in academia will no longer be a safe haven for lifetime employment. Which also means higher education institutions will also no longer be a surefire way to prop up a community economically.
That's what's happening where I went to college (50 years ago) in NWPA, except for the AI piece. The Pennsylvania state colleges have dumped so much enrollment that three of them to include the one I attended, had to merge programs.
From a high of around 6000 students to maybe 3400 today including grad students. What makes it worse is that it embarked on major building projects about fifteen years ago, replacing dorms and building new ones as well as building new classroom administrative buildings. They also built a huge student center. The current enrollment can't support the infrastructure.
The local businesses are also suffering from it. The college is the last major employer left that pays decent wages now that the mines, a couple factories, a major grocer, the short-line railroad and trucking companies closed down. I mean, whoever has ever heard of bars closing down in a rural Pennsylvania town but all but a couple are gone now.
Hmm, when I graduated from Kent State University, in 2000, I think there were about 23k students at the main campus. I think they went on to peak at about 29k in 2016. But, their 2023 fall enrollment is still about 26k. I'm shocked to hear about the University of Akron.
I don't see academia as some kind of magic bullet that is going to "save" central business districts, especially in larger cities, although they would still be a positive influence. I think they already do play a significant role in the preservation of smaller cities and towns though. At least in Ohio, our strongest towns and small cities have a college/university presence.
Cities with good air connections can draw a lot of international students, and that can boost attendance. Since they're paying out-of-state tuition they can buttress schools' budgets.
It's a win for the region in a lot of ways. Maybe they stick around and boost the economy. Or maybe they go back home and build companies there, but retain their connections to your city.
Hmm, when I graduated from Kent State University, in 2000, I think there were about 23k students at the main campus. I think they went on to peak at about 29k in 2016. But, their 2023 fall enrollment is still about 26k. I'm shocked to hear about the University of Akron.
I don't see academia as some kind of magic bullet that is going to "save" central business districts, especially in larger cities, although they would still be a positive influence. I think they already do play a significant role in the preservation of smaller cities and towns though. At least in Ohio, our strongest towns and small cities have a college/university presence.
The enrollment at Kent State dropped below that of the University of Akron after the 1970 Kent State riots. I see that enrollment at Kent State is now twice that of the University of Akron. I wonder why.
Cities with good air connections can draw a lot of international students, and that can boost attendance. Since they're paying out-of-state tuition they can buttress schools' budgets.
It's a win for the region in a lot of ways. Maybe they stick around and boost the economy. Or maybe they go back home and build companies there, but retain their connections to your city.
I'm hearing a ton of doom and gloom about Universities lacking in students. But everywhere I look schools are busting at the seams. When I was in college, 20k was a huge campus. There was just a handful of schools approaching 50k. Now 50k plus schools seem to be a dime a dozen and just about every school in Florida,Texas and California is 20k plus.
When I was at UH they had like 20-25k students. Now they are approaching 50k in the main campus. The downtown campus had about 7k students then, now it's over 15k. Back then Texas has about 8 or 9 med schools, now they have about 15. Texas A&M has 70k plus students.
I think the doom and gloom about Universities are overstated and the spread of downtown campuses are being understated.
Texas Medical Center is like a downtown and that's mostly due to the dozen or so Schools affiliated with it, including about 6 medical schools. It's not the hospitals that make The Medical center what it is, it's the schools.
I haven't set foot on a college campus since I graduated from graduate school in 2007. Likewise I have only set foot in a downtown district a handful of times since 2007.
just wow
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