David Collins: Conn College: Welcome downtown. We thought you'd never get here
Jun. 4—I won't spend too much time here defending Claire Gaudiani, the contentious president of Connecticut College, who was essentially forced out of office more than 20 years ago after a no-confidence vote by the faculty.
And I will agree with Gaudiani's harshest critics that her abrasive manner and inclination to make decisions unilaterally, especially in regards to downtown investments, without the usual collegial collaboration, was her inevitable undoing.
But I will say her vision of the college helping its distressed host city with urban renewal was strategic, forward-thinking, even brilliant.
And as many other well-endowed New England universities and colleges carried out that vision, investing in their communities and addressing town/gown wealth disparity, Connecticut College retreated from it.
Until now, the post-Gaudiani presidents have steered well clear of any of the kind of investments she made in downtown New London buildings and leases, fearing, no doubt, they would meet her fate.
Her successors have not even offered up to the city the loose change from under the sofa cushions that rich donors might have left behind in the president's office.
I have been embarrassed by this as an alumnus and tried to write critically of it as often and as best as I could, as the college taught me to.
But now I am pleased to compliment college President Katherine Bergeron for leading her school to a commitment to house students in downtown New London.
The school announced last week it has signed a long lease for 21 apartments and a commercial space in the Manwaring Building, one of the larger downtown buildings currently undergoing a renovation.
It is hard to quantify how invaluable this contribution will be to the city's work of reviving the downtown. It will not only put feet on the sidewalks, but heads on pillows, a fulsome expansion of an urban neighborhood.
The 60 college students in the Manwaring, joined downtown by many young professionals at Electric Boat filling new rental apartments, surely will bring a creative and dynamic energy to the area.
Best of all, the student housing downtown will finally help link the college on the hill to the center of the city, enriching both. Each one of those 60 downtown student residents will entertain their friends, who will then be exposed to the rich off-campus life New London may offer young people.
This commitment to put students downtown will be much more meaningful and fruitful than any check the college could have written to the city.
And I believe it ultimately will benefit the school immensely, to have a sharing relationship with a growing, interesting host city and its downtown.
President Bergeron, in investing in the city, may have successfully sidestepped the President Gaudiani initiatives that most seemed to rile the faculty, putting classrooms in downtown buildings.
The college cited its campus space constraints in announcing the downtown housing plans. I hope space up on the hill keeps getting tighter.
After all, the developer working on the Manwaring Building also is working on another big Bank Street building, one that could certainly accommodate more college students.
One can only hope that the Manwaring is the start of something even bigger.
This is the opinion of David Collins.