Page 27 - BusinessWest May 27, 2024

“Outside of Puerto Rico
and New York City, Western Massachusetts has the largest Hispanic population in the United States. We knew that,
in order to meet the needs of that population, we needed to grow our student services, we knew we needed additional support, and we identified it as a potential growth opportunity.”
nessWest. “We knew that, in order to meet the needs of that population, we needed to grow our student ser- vices, we knew we needed additional support, and we identified it as a potential growth opportunity.
“We wanted a partner that had experience serving this Hispanic market,” she went on, adding that Cam- bridge College, which is a designated Hispanic-serving institution, has this experience, among many other qualities.
Indeed, overall, Bay Path and Cambridge share a number of other strengths — everything from online programs (locally, Cambridge, which had a location in Springfield’s Tower Square, now offers programs only online) to meeting the needs of first-generation col- lege students, said Doran, adding that the schools also share missions and values.
“Those cultural aspects — of serving the same student popula- tions, of thinking about our values and joining together with anoth- er organization and making sure that their values were compatible and strengthened ours — are key; we just knew that, without that shared mission, those shared values, we wouldn’t be able to move forward,” she said, adding that this merger represents the latest in a series of bold moves for Bay Path.
The ones to come before have taken it to levels that might not have been imagined 25 years ago. This latest one will build on those efforts and take the university to different places — quite liter- ally, in the case of Puerto Rico and the Boston market — and figu- ratively when it comes to needed size and higher status among the region’s and country’s higher-ed institutions.
For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at this intriguing merger — how it came about and what it means for Bay Path as it continues its recent history of tak- ing bold steps.
Course of Action
Sounding much like area bank presidents, which have been harping on the need for size in a changing financial-services envi-
Much of Bay Path’s growth is taking place beyond the borders of its Longmeadow campus.
ronment for years now, Doran said growth is perhaps more impor- tant than ever for institutions of higher education.
Given the spiraling costs of doing business and the many chal- lenges facing colleges and universities, including demographics in the form of smaller high-school graduating classes, growth in over- all enrollment is critical.
“To be a financially sustainable institution, it’s important to have 5,000 students or more,” she said, adding that Bay Path now sur- passes that number. “Five thousand students gives you the resourc- es, it gives you the financial strength, the revenue streams — all those things that are essential to a sustainable institution.”
And, as in the banking industry, there are different ways to achieve growth in higher education. One method is organic growth, through everything from more aggressive marketing to creation
of new degree programs, especially at the graduate level, a course taken by many schools locally, including Bay Path.
But there are also opportunities to partner with other schools and, increasingly, to acquire them, especially as more struggle with
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