The College President as Urban Planner

Subtitled "Franklin & Marshall's John A. Fry helps reclaim industrial site," this Chronicle of Higher Education article by Scott Carlson dives deep into the details of a major effort by Franklin & Marshall College to work with other Lancaster, PA entities in developing a large piece of industrial property (200 buildings on 47 acres + another railway yard of 30 acres). The Northwest Gateway Project and the rail yard project will end up costing $75M. An attorney working for a group of rail yard neighbors calls President Fry's planning efforts on this project "a marvelous example of how to manipulate the public-funding system." The article includes nice photography.

Mr. Fry—a charismatic fast talker whose business background has rubbed some in academe wrong—seems to have a thing for sweeping urban-redevelopment programs. A decade ago, as executive vice president at Penn, he oversaw the multimillion-dollar revitalization of its West Philadelphia neighborhood. He says that endeavor, which marshaled money from the university, local businesses, and the city, was "child's play" compared with the Armstrong project.

"Small institutions don't have to act in small ways," he says in his office one morning, as he shuffles through boards of architectural renderings. "With the right kinds of partnerships and the right kind of thinking, you can really attract big players."

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA