Contributing Editors

New England higher education: The year in pictures

> Today's T6F Slorles Monday, January 5, 1998
F Today'$ Solumn By Joln O. Hamet

> f0fllIibuliflq As you know, columniss and commentators suffer from a seasonal disorder that compels them
to spend the holidays recalling the five or 10 biggest stories ofthe disappearing year. You've
l Pecple probably akeady read more than you ever cared to about the best thrs and the top that of 199'7.

> Calrfidar
So let's not rehash the Big Stories of the Year in New England Higher Education. You caught
those when they broke, anyway. It's the little ones you may have missed.
F ChrtBpotloora

> 8T frrums To wit, a look back at a few campus initiatives that went largely unreported in the press, but
collectively offer some sense of where New England higher education has been over the past
) Tach Updale 12 months - the Year in Pictures if you wiil.

> Gueslbooli
o In Southern Connecticut, 72-yeu old Ann Passariello of North Branford pledged a
l' Slatl half-million dollars to Sacred Heart to establish a scholarship fund in honor of her late son
Michael. The younger Passariello, it seems, was an average student in high school, but worked
) tnpydnhl hard at Sacred Heart and became vice president of the family real estate development business.
Fittingly, the scholarships in Michael's name will be awarded not !o students with knockout
test scores, but to financiaily needy students with average abilities.
> Atftt
This story is important because colleges and govemment officials spent 1997 replacing
need-based student aid bit by bit with merirbased aid. Officiatly, ment ard rewards smarts and
l loblind.eom offers motivation. But the bottom line is... well, the boftom line. Colleges know that for the
$20,000 or so it costs to offer one poor kid a fulI boat, they could lure four wealthy kids with
) lFBrealinq Hews merit scholarships worth, say, $5,000 and still collect $15,000 is real money from each of
them.
> Hoouors

l Businesslllirg o On Boston's North Shore, Salem State College acquired the Cat Cove Marine Laboratory
and began transforming the former state lab into a cutting-edge aquaculture center. The Salem
l $tsok 0unles Harbor facility will include a marine biology lab foi'research and hands-on learning, a fish
farm and an "aquaculnrre college."
> Frnd City
Academic sprawl is nothing new. But it's worth noting that New England's concentration of
higher education resources served as midwife to the region's important biotechnology and
environmental technology industries. And many observers think aquaculture will be next.
Whether displaced commercial fisherman from places like Gloucester will find good jobs in the
industry remains to be seen.

. In Worcester, the College of the Holy Cross was awarded a three-year $350,000 grant by
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to ensure that every Holy Cross faculty member has a
World Wide Web page with a personal video introduction and various interactive features.

To be sure, the wiring of higher education r:ally belongs with the Big Stories of '97. What's
fascinating about the Holy Cross-Mellon snippet is the recognition at long last that undergrads,
raised on video games, know more bout information technology than their professors. Indeed,
selected Holy Cross students will be enlisted to bring the profs up to speed. Observed Holy
Cross President Gerard Reedy: "Students have the expertise and comfort level with
technology."

o In Durham, N.H., the University of New Hampshire received a $396,000 equipment granr
from NASA to expand its Complex Systems Research Center, where researchers use satellite
data to study climate changes and other systems back on Earth. New England campuses have
captured snazzier and more lucrative science grants, but in this El Nino year, the UNH pro.lect
provides a colorfui image of New England's fabled scientific research enterprise.
Enioyitwhileitlasts.Theregion'sshareofallR&DexpenJrturesbrU.Suniversities in
b 4-p"'.dnt in Iee5 and presumabrv rower
;i,HJi f,Hib l ;;.;;; i;1;';;l;80,i;
'97.

scholarship hono.nng flamboyant

o In provrdence. Brown University introduced an annual
projecrs rhat improre life in the resurgent
i^V*, Vrr** ,l Ci-i J,..';;;;p;;-.traents ana
city.

It,soneoftheexpandingr'aneryofcampusprogramsthatmiehtbepackedundertheheading
,,rown_gown iruriatiues.,lA?"& ;h;;l;;;Eh.d in '97, B-nsroi Community College began
of
;;";ii;s;;;,"i! *o ,;p"fi,r i;i j,iua"urtug.d Far River high school students who
show nromise as turure "rh.;
,*.n.ri'NL* Uampshire c"ottege announced plans to educate
in*-iri.orn. Ilanchester. N.H. residents on tenant and homeowner ngnts'

olnBoston,srudentsattheNewEnglandSchootofLawbeganconductingresearchforthe
in Ne* Haven' Yale
lnternational Cnnunal T.b*; f";;ir?Fo.rn.t Yugo.slavia,
while
i"f".;;;;;'*ut ..i*"t Uf the Khmer Rouge - underscoring the fact
researchers collected
ever more broadly defined'
it ut ttt" "town" in town-gown must be

foundation to fund
Maine's colby coltege, meanwfule, received $6 million from a swiss political oppression'
'rfi;i;:hr;; i"-"t.ri-,.ti"ri'i*?-*ir, *tt emphasis on victims of
",i pursue research overseas in
And LINH began a progrur*.n.ou*grng uno.rgruhuates to
earlv childhood education'
A;p]i;;dc,"; irofi ciuil engineEriig to

a U S visit by manne
o Finallv. in Castine, Maine, the Maine Maritime Academy-coordinated
Iiirpii"n.jtpi"r. om.la, from South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius'

effort is refreshing for two

A lot of campuses are involved in trade promotion. But this
;;;;;;;, G;:;porting nas not-.on'" titvt'wo,to New England's otherwise successful
the regio"n's overall trade record with Al'rica
environmental re.nnotogiind;r,ry. ;"J
rs

Ai.a; tn" continent aciounts for about I percent of New England exports'

on faculry tenure or the campus

Not exactly headline grabbers on the scale of the latest assault
Bur ir mav rum oui that in 1g97, the real Big Stories of the Year in New
excess du iour.
gngt-a Fiigher F-ducation carne in small packages'

New Englaltd's JowTa! Q.f Hisher

John o. Hame;- is thc executive editor of corutectiorl:
E;;;;;;',"d'i;;ii,;;;:';t;ii;;'"c""*t-" i' th' qunriertv iournat of the New
il{AE *74 H t g l* r Educ a ti o n.
"

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