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Dr. Jay Buckey: North Country needs its own university
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By DR. JAY BUCKEY
Tuesday, Jun. 24, 2008
REV. ELEAZAR Wheelock established Dartmouth College in 1769 to bring "education and instruction" to the wilderness. Today, Dartmouth College and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center are economic drivers for a substantial slice of New Hampshire's Upper Valley economy.
The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts got its start in 1866. Today, as the University of New Hampshire, it's a significant part of the Seacoast economy. So why not put a university in New Hampshire's North Country?
The most straightforward approach to starting a North Country university would be to expand the current White Mountains Community College in Berlin. Right now, students wanting a four-year degree have to transfer from White Mountains to somewhere else.
Instead of transferring those students out, why can't new facilities and programs be transferred in? What if White Mountains became a regional center for biofuel research? The forest resources make it an ideal place for that. Or a hydrogen research station? There are good water power resources available to make hydrogen.
Yet the good news about a university is that it doesn't have to start with a preconceived notion about what kinds of industries or businesses should be developed. Certainly, a university can have a focus, such as engineering or biofuels, and that will have an effect. But just getting a group of dynamic, skilled young people into an area can make things happen. For new enterprises starting up, the university itself is a source of new, educated people who help to keep the area vibrant and growing.
Of course, taking state action to try to grow the economy can be a tricky business. These days, economic development in the United States often transcends state boundaries. In many places we have economic centers that sprawl over several states. For example, the Milken Institute think tank refers to "metropolitan statistical areas" like "Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA" or "Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV" in its reports.
For many, the definition of "Greater Boston" now includes a good slice of southern New Hampshire. And, of course, Manchester's airport is now known as the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Some metropolitan areas grow without regard to state boundaries. Rather than trying to guide this growth, states may be in the role of trying to catch up with what has already taken place.
But in the North Country things are different. The North Country isn't on the border of a rapidly expanding metropolitan area. This area presents a true New Hampshire opportunity, where state policy, local actions, and individual initiative can make a difference. Just look at the past.
Dartmouth College was carved out of the forest. The current University of New Hampshire was surrounded by farmland when it moved to Durham. So the fact that the North Country isn't a major population center right now doesn't mean the area can't support a university.
With the state budget where it is now, this may not be the best time for new initiatives in the university system. An idea like this may need the help of enlightened businesses, property holders, and others to get off the ground. But something has to be done. According to a study done by UNH's Carsey Institute, the percentage of jobs in manufacturing in Coos County has gone from 34 percent in 1969 to 10 percent in 2005. People 20-29 years old continue to leave, and those arriving tend to be over 50.
Clearly, the old way of life in Coos County is changing, but that means there is the potential for something truly new. Rather than wait for the Boston metropolitan area to include Berlin (a troubling thought), enlightened state policy could chart a new path. A new university could capture the Yankee ingenuity that makes this state great, and channel it into new businesses that will be critical for our economic future.
New Hampshire has already shown that it's possible to have great natural beauty and a great economy. The UNH study showed that people in Coos County like the quality of life, but worry about the lack of jobs. A new North Country university may be the best way to get those jobs there.
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Dr. Jay Buckey is a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and an adjunct professor of engineering at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. These opinions are his own and not necessarily those of Dartmouth College.
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YOUR COMMENTS
I agree that the Northern tier is not well served by publicly funded high education. Whether or not NH needs a Forest resource focused college is unclear to me - we have too many building maintenance needs in our existing structure, with many funding challenges across the system.
It would make more sense to expand Granite State college/UNH offerings - they leverage existing buildings and could offer many online/hybrid classes. This type of education could potentially avoid duplication of effort.
The author is on point that we can and should do more to leverage our Northern resources and help our rural citizens. The income and opportunity gap between north and south needs to close.
- Bill, manchester
He's talking a lot farther north then Plymouth.
- Travis, NH
Ever hear of Plymouth State University?
- James, Concord
The lack of employment in NH and the north country especially is a direct result of the Nanny State and NIMBY'ism. We can't have dirty factories polluting our pristine wilderness. So the paper industry was destroyed by Property Taxes and anti-pollution regulations as were Hitchner and Joy Manufacturing all of which provided generations of good paying jobs. They were paying entry level workers 10-14/Hr in the 1980's!!!
Now that the Sierra club types in Concord have taken over all that is left of the job market is part-time service jobs at minimum wage or below.
What's next sending kids into 'service' at 10 years old like in Victorian england. or perhaps revisiting Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' which would be right in line with government's respect for life these days.
Wake up people - if we had reasonable levels of regulation these jobs would still be here now they are in the third-world and China spewing pollutants every which way while the corrupt government officials are paid to look the other way while the few regulations these countries haver are flouted.
- Scott Nagy, Concord NH
Dr. Jay Buckey may want to see if many businesses and wealthy people might want to get buildings named after them and endow many professorships in a North Country University. He could talk to New England businesses, Canadian businesses, European businesses, Asian businesses, and other businesses. Many Asian businesses might want to benefit from the resources of the North Country.
If the North Country wants to do better it needs to attract more tourists from Canada who do not drive cars by having more buses between Canada and the North Country. The North Country should see about getting passenger rail between Canada and the North Country and getting Canadian businesses and New Hampshire businesses to pay for it.
I attended the June 19 10-Year New Hampshire Tourism Plan 2008-2018 Forum. You may answer survey questions for it at http://www.visitnh.gov/tenyearplan
My website is http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH
It would be nice if everyone could have a university in their back yard but not all things that are nice are logical. As you correctly pointed out right now the state could ill afford it. There is also the problem of high energy costs which would not only affect the students but the costs of heating the buildings themselves.
Another issue I have with the idea is I don't see this having a big impact on the economy except for the local area where the school itself would be. I don't think you are going to see businesses move up to northern NH just because you built a school there. There is a little problem known as ifrastructure to overcome and again the high cost of energy would keep others from building there as well.
I will say if some rich person or group wants to put up their own money as an experiment and build the school go for it!
I still think you will see people leaving the area after they graduate because not to many businesses want to move up to where the school is.
- Brian, Laconia
I would agree with Scott as NY did the same thing with their SUNY schools. Lots of overhead and low enrollment.
- Gavin G., Concord, NH
This is a not a good idea from an economic development perspective. This same idea was pursued in Maine where there are now six University of Maine campuses and seven community colleges. In some cases, the universities and community colleges are across the street from one another. Such redundancy has done little for economic development, but has lead to a dysfunctional higher education system that consumer more and more tax dollars despite falling enrollments at some university campuses--most notably at the University of Southern Maine. If the folks in Coos County want/need a university, they certainly can follow the lead of Dartmouth and open a PRIVATE university.
- Scott, Gardiner, ME
Damn you Dr. Buckey and your Democratic ideas which might actually improve the lot of the North Country. The very idea of combining increased education with job creation in an area suffering from the down turn in the economy scares us to death. We here would rather complain and spout slogans from our arm chairs about the horrors of you progressives. Just wait until I think up the catch that must certainly be built in here somewhere. Maybe you think you should be dean of the school or something.
- Robert, Deerfield
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