November 1, 2021

Not Home

In July of 2020, just as many American residential colleges and universities were announcing that students would not be allowed on campus in the fall, Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University, the once small, regional commuter college that transformed itself into a remote learning behemoth, wrote a piece for Forbes about the important value proposition differences between schools like SNHU and residential colleges and universities. "Traditional age students on a campus," LeBlanc writes, "have two jobs they want done. One job is access to good paying and meaningful work, which is made possible through obtaining a degree. That’s supplied by academic programs. The second job to be done is 'coming of age,' that intoxicating combination of growing up and lifestyle." I contend that independent schools have a similar dual value proposition, preparation for selective secondary schools or colleges, and the many difficult-to-measure rewards of a mission-aligned community, accruing in this case to both students and parents. I've included two pieces here on the community value proposition and the centrality of place, that is, our campuses and the many IRL extensions of those spaces that are separate from our students' homes.