Presidential Perspectives
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The President as a Land Developer |
I have never been a fan of hats, but as a university president I wear many hats. Presidents are chief academicians. We are CEOs. We are fundraisers. We are lobbyists. And we are also land developers. At least one characteristic is required to do each of these jobs well—creativity. Long before these challenged economic times, presidents have employed creative techniques to execute our long-term goals and vision for our institutions.
As President of two institutions, San Jose State University and Towson University, developing and improving the physical campus is an area where being resourceful is the only option. Land development was not high on my agenda when I entered the academy, but in many ways it has been the most important part of my agenda as president. In the last six years, Towson University has more than half a billion dollars in construction projects completed, underway, and planned for the immediate future. These projects include a new 300,000 square-foot College of Liberal Arts Building—the campus’ first academic building in 20 years, a major parking garage expansion, a new Center for the Arts, a new Child Care Center, an entirely new West Village Housing community, the West Village Commons—a second student union, a new sports arena, as well as major infrastructure improvements and new gateways, roads, and pedestrian walkways. While seemingly significant, these projects are only a fraction of our Campus Master Plan, which is slowly transforming the landscape of our campus. And the best part, there are still many projects ahead for our growing metropolitan university.
Balancing the needs of the campus as well as an institution’s balance sheet is one of the most difficult, but important tasks that Presidents face. We have to be creative. To some degree, public-private partnerships help us accomplish this goal. After all, metropolitan and urban universities face unique challenges to land development. Internally we are challenged with limited land availability, higher construction costs and externally, we must deal with community concerns about university growth and, in my case, competition for capital funds within my “system.”
I recently partnered with Capstone Development to deliver a presentation to CUMU on utilizing public-private partnerships. Specifically, I presented on the housing development projects underway at Towson University, but creative public-private partnerships can work for any type of project. For example, while president at San Jose State University, then-Mayor of San Jose Susan Hammer and I recognized how libraries help both cities and universities achieve our common goals for an educated citizenry and the well-being of the community. We utilized a public-private partnership with the City of San Jose to build the largest public library west of the Mississippi and the only university-city library in the nation. The cost of the library was shared by the State of California, The City of San Jose, San Jose State University and private fundraising. Today, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library continues to not only serve the institution’s goals, but also a broader societal mission; a creative partnership.
Presidents cannot escape the land developer role, and as leaders of urban and metropolitan universities it behooves us to interact with the communities and the region surrounding our campuses and look to areas where partnerships are mutually beneficial. While all of our outreach initiatives and programs cannot be perfectly reciprocal, when it comes to development we should do what we can to work together—creatively.
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