The Urban College of Boston, a two-year school that educates working women from low-income and immigrant backgrounds, is on the verge of closing amid deep financial troubles and a scuttled alliance with Endicott College.
Urban College, located on Tremont Street, will notify its 600 students this week that fall classes could be canceled, although leaders said they remain hopeful that another college or nonprofit group, along with private donors, will step forward to close a relatively modest deficit of about $250,000.
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Fiscal failure due to overpaying connected executives and staff. New tune same song. Non-profits overpay and go broke.
As an instructor at Urban College for many years and also an administrator from Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center I can say that the college filled a unique and unmet need to offer instruction to immigrant women who spoke Spanish and Chinese and support them to acquire the English to finish their degree in English. Dr. Grace Caines was a force in the field who piloted the first courses in Spanish and Chinese and she and Agnes Cornier fought to maintain and develop a core of degreed instructors who could teach in these languages. This allowed many family child care educators and beginning teachers to get needed instruction while learning English. For the children in our communities it meant access to quality care. This is a resource that is dearly needed. We cannot let this college go down without paying a price for it in our communities. The instructors at Urban many of whom are immigrant men and women themselves has a unique bond with the students. The small environment where everyone knows your name and roots for you helps students who might not feel comfortable in larger environments to succeed. I have been proud to teach with these remarkable men and women and see the dedication, belief in the students and commitment to the field. I regard the hours I have spent teaching here as the most meaningful moments in my career as an early childhood educator.
The only thing Urban College had going for it was its location. No wonder Endicott College was initially interested--a great downtown location for a college looking to expand. But why would any person or institution (such as the Boston Foundation) be foolish enough to try to bail out a deficit when it is an annual event rather than a one-time special situation? (And anyone who refers to a quarter of a million dollars as "relatively modest" has more in common with Mitt Romney than the other 99%!) Bunker Hill Community College has plenty of accessible programs for working adults. And the former president of UCB is now interim president at Roxbury Community College--I'm sure she would be more than happy to arrange appropriate transfer accommodations for any of the 600 students. RIP, UCB.
If it indeed deserves saving, I certainly hope some caring and involved deep-pocket investor steps up. After all, 250K barely pays for one undergraduate degree at Harvard, while this place is helping 600 become contributing member of American society, and since that percentage relationship is a just a fraction of 1%, it should be something even conservatives can support.