Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 13, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 21 Higher ed remains a strong investment V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L BY RICHARD S. LAPIDUS Special to WBJ H igher education stands at an inflection point. In the Northeast in particular, institutions of higher education are grappling with demo- graphic challenges that are creating significant impacts on enrollment. e disruptions caused by the pandemic continue to affect how current and prospective students and families see the value of a college degree. And students are presenting complex mental health challenges that require schools to rethink the support systems that will allow them to persist and graduate. ese challenges are real, and yet I remain extremely optimistic about the future of higher educa- tion. I have had the great privilege of spending almost my entire career in this industry, at institutions large and small, in small cities and major urban centers. Based on the totality of my experiences, I remain bullish about the value of the degrees our graduates complete. While the data demonstrates the long-term return on investment of a college degree, and their proven efficacy in pro- moting social mobility, I believe the enduring value of a college education transcends credentials. at is because at our best, we cultivate the critical thinking skills that prepare students for a lifetime of inquiry, and the ability to reinvent oneself as opportunities present themselves in a rapidly changing world. Similarly, our students are learning how to engage and learn from perspectives that are different from their own. Today's - and tomorrow's - engaged citizens will need to be well-versed in information literacy, able to locate and evaluate reliable sources of knowledge. ese skills, so central to the functioning of a free and democratic society, are foundational to the curriculum that colleges and universities like Fitchburg State create for students. Our institutions themselves have great value. Fitch- burg State is one of the city's largest employers, with an annual economic impact of more than $280 million, ac- cording to an analysis performed by the UMass Amherst Donahue Institute. With the vast majority of our graduates remaining in Massachusetts aer completing their degrees, they become the backbone of their communities as their teachers and nurses, as scientists in their laboratories, the police officers keeping their streets safe, their city councilors and legislators. To address shiing attitudes about higher education, it is incumbent on those of us privileged to do this import- ant work to relitigate the value our institutions provide, both to our elected leaders and the constituents to whom we have undertaken this solemn obligation. I see in our 50,000 alumni how education has changed their lives, and I see bright futures for the students I have been so fortunate to know through this work. Richard S. Lapidus is the 11th president of Fitchburg State University. He is retiring at the end of the 2023-24 academic year and a national search is being undertaken for his successor. A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y R A M Ó N L . S A N D O V A L Even in a slowdown, Central Mass. real estate remains strong Richard S. Lapidus B ack in 2018, a Worcester Business Journal special report looked at the hard economic data behind what has been widely deemed the Worcester Renaissance. e article revealed the national trend of people moving back into cities, coupled with the decade-plus of economic growth that followed e Great Recession, had finally arrived in Worcester, albeit years later than most U.S. peer cities. In the subsequent five years, more population and economic growth have followed, particularly in the housing market. But, as the experts in that 2018 article cautioned: With Worcester late to the game in the economic growth of the 2010s, would it be hit harder once an inevitable slowdown arrived? Central Massachusetts and the nation aren't in a recession, at least not yet, but the economy isn't nearly as rosy as it was during those growth years of the past decade. e red hot real estate market, which has been the hallmark of Worcester's growth, is now facing a slow down. For much of the past two years, it seems almost every week there was a new proposal for a multi-family development or mixed-use project on the table. at frequency has clearly dropped off, and as Staff Writer Timothy Doyle found in his "Aer the party" story starting on page 8, as fewer of those proposed projects are making it from the drawing board to the construction phase. Of 23 major projects proposed in Worcester in the past five years that we've looked at, three have been delayed, one has been downsized, and six remain in the proposal stage. Only six are under construction or nearing completion. And just one has been finished. e slowdown in local commercial real estate projects mirrors the challenges facing real estate development nationwide: construction costs are rising, interest rates and borrowing costs spiked and remain high, all while many businesses are rethinking their space needs. e Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 31 commercial real estate lending is nearing historically low levels, as banks and other lenders have been cutting back their exposure. Central Massachusetts is unlikely to be spared from this pain, and the region's economic development will have to ride this roller coaster, just like everyone else. Aer this period of market adjustment, the region still offers an affordable urban alternative where the cultural tide has shied and greater Worcester is a place where more and more people want to call home. In the meantime, the current headwinds will likely mean that some additional commercial and residential real estate projects will fall by the wayside, but once those market conditions become more favorable again, the long term prognosis here remains strong. In the past, when conditions soened and projects got pulled, it oen felt like a defeat. Maintaining any real development momentum was illusory. Today, the momentum in Worcester and the region has real legs, and any slowdown feels more like a rough patch that we're sure to recover from. The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. W W

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