Worcester Business Journal

24 2023 Economic Forecast • Worcester Business Journal • www.wbjournal.com H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N Developing higher education Central Mass. colleges and universities are setting the table for more changes in 2023, aer 2022 was already a year in transition T op leadership changed at nearly a half dozen Central Massachusetts colleges and universities in 2022. In 2023, leaders can get down to business to address challenges facing students and increase the schools' presence in the community. Expansion Local colleges have been growing throughout 2022. Clark University in Worcester is constructing its new Center for Media Arts, Computing, and Design. e College of the Holy Cross in Worcester opened the $110-million Prior Performing Arts Center and has been buying up property for student and faculty housing. Worcester Polytechnic Institute announced the next phase of its Gateway Park development. Nichols College in Dudley is building student housing. is expansion will continue into 2023. Perhaps Clark will even tell us what it plans on doing with the long-vacant seven-acre former Diamond Chevrolet site on Park Avenue. Working for economic development Area colleges are working to improve the Central Massachusetts economy. Quinsigamond Community BY TIMOTHY DOYLE WBJ Staff Writer College in Worcester and Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner have been adding programs to fill personnel needs in health care. Colleges are working to train more teachers for the workforce. e College of the Holy Cross and Clark University are training entrepreneurs. WPI has hired a new president who is focused on realizing the innovation on its campus. Fitchburg State University is working to transform Fitchburg's downtown area. Expect to see new projects from area colleges in 2023 focused on improving their communities through workforce development and helping students to build a life in Central Massachusetts. Addressing cost Tuition has been rising for years at colleges and universities, and though some colleges paused hikes during the COVID pandemic, it is still difficult to afford higher education. Rising cost of living in Central Massachusetts exacerbates this problem. Community colleges have seen people cutting back on the number of credits they are taking each semester. People are beginning to question whether it's worth going deeply into debt for a degree. Colleges have begun to cut application fees and increase financial aid for students in need. In 2023, colleges and universities will continue to address the problem of affordability. W Top higher education stories from 2022 Framingham State board signs off on Niemi as president A provost at a historically Black university in Maryland became the next president of Framingham State University aer a unanimous vote in February by the state Board of Higher Education. e board signed off on the appointment of Nancy Niemi, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, to succeed retiring Framingham State President F. Javier Cevallos. Cevallos earns an annual salary of $276,047. Niemi, who stepped into the role on July 1, earned the unanimous backing of the Framingham State Board of Trustees in December. One of nine state universities in Massachusetts, Framingham State has more than 4,800 undergraduate and graduate students and offers 62 degree programs. "What intrigued me about Framingham is what it has done -- the nation's oldest public university founded for the education of teachers -- and what it can do now," Niemi told the board during a virtual meeting. "I think we in education are at a radical moment. It's not radical right or le, but radical because our country needs educational institutions to support, uphold and deepen its democracy, and to help us as citizens find new ways of working together." e trustees picked Niemi from a finalist pool that also included Allia Carter, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Virginia Union University, and Roxanne Gonzales-Walker, provost and vice president of academic affairs at New Mexico Highlands University. Trustees chairman Kevin Foley said each finalist visited the campus in December, and all three were "well-qualified" with "excellent experience." Niemi, he said, offered a "strategic viewpoint" and "strong commitment to social equity in higher education." "Her overall presence was very positively commented on and would resonate -- the trustees thought -- would resonate with regional leaders, donors and legislative partners," Foley said. "e overall feedback from various campus groups was also the highest among all candidates and was a high consideration for the Board of Trustees as far as their thought process." Niemi holds both a bachelor's in English literature and a doctorate in education from the University of Rochester, as well as a master's degree in education from Elmira College, according to her resume. She has worked since 2019 at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, which has 2,500 full-time students, a full-time faculty of 220 people, and a total budget of $123 million. Before that, she was the inaugural director of faculty teaching initiatives at Yale University's Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, and Niemi has also been an education professor at the University of New Haven in Connecticut and Nazareth College in New York. PHOTO/COURTESY OF WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE "Grace" Jinliu Wang will start as Worcester Polytechnic Institute's president in April. Nancy Niemi, FSU president

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