Tom Bogart, Ph.D. – Visiting Professor and Chair, Department of Economics

Dear Colleagues:

One doesn’t have to go far in Ohio to find a “small college.” I can walk from my home to two that have fewer than 2000 students: Notre Dame College and Ursuline College. Others that will sound familiar include the College of Wooster, Hiram College, Marietta College and Heidelberg University.

These institutions focus on undergraduate education and almost all get the vast majority of their revenue from undergraduate tuition. They and others like them are private and non-profit. One trade association, the Council of Independent Colleges, reports that its activities relate to “more than 2 million students on more than 660 college and university campuses across the United States and the world.” Small colleges face very diverse circumstances. Some are “elite” institutions like Swarthmore and Haverford, or each of the Claremont colleges. Amherst College, with about 2,000 students, has an endowment of more than $3 billion (much more than CWRU). But most are more like our local examples, and at risk of severe financial stress. A few close (or merge out of independent existence) each year, in some cases with substantial publicity.

Yet one reason for the publicity is that alumni fight to save their institutions, and some of the most highly publicized recent closures – of Sweet Briar in Virginia, or Mills College in Oakland, or Hampshire College in western Massachusetts – haven’t…quite…happened. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that it had been conventional wisdom among its reporters at least since the 2008-09 recession that a “shakeout” among “all these struggling colleges” was coming soon. There were and are lots of reasons to expect “an imminent wave of college closures bound to crest any day.” The reasons may have become stronger. But the wave keeps staying offshore.

The future of small colleges has all sorts of implications for, first of all, somewhat larger institutions that face many similar pressures – such as CWRU. It’s important for many communities in which the campuses may be either a major source of jobs or a potential future retirement-community-development site. It is important because a smaller institution may be the best fit for a significant portion of students.

Therefore it will be my great pleasure to welcome back to campus Tom Bogart as our speaker on October 20. Professor Bogart was Chair of our Department of Economics when I joined the CWRU faculty in 2000. He taught a course that was part of the curriculum of the Public Policy Minor that I direct, and he had helped set up the Center for Policy Studies through which we organize the Public Affairs Discussion Group. But then he left in 2002 to start a new career as an executive in small colleges. After 8 years as chief academic officer (essentially provost) at York College of Pennsylvania, he then spent 10 years as president of Maryville College in Tennessee and three as president of Columbia College in South Carolina.

Now he has returned to our area for family reasons, and the Weatherhead School leadership quickly created a Visiting Professor position for our old colleague and then somehow convinced him to retake the department chair. So he is teaching while working on a book about what he learned in his years of leading small colleges. Please join us while he gives us a preview!

In-Person and Virtual Attendance

This Friday’s meeting has been moved from the Kelvin Smith Library to Mather House 100. Mather House is the building in between the Thwing Center and the Church of the Covenant. The main entrance faces east, towards the Church.

We will also meet in Mather House on Oct 27.

We continue also to offer the meetings on Zoom. We do require pre-registering so as to avoid “zoom-bombing.” The pre-registration link is posted below.

The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. You do not need to show identification to enter Mather House, but I don’t understand why anyone would walk around without any, anyway.

Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments, or submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.

Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.

This week’s Zoom link for registration is:

https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqce2opjkuE9ZMJlwzD_tyBrw0nwY5C8O0

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please also e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about arrangements or any suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,

Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

Dr. William T. (Tom) Bogart is currently visiting professor and interim chair of the Department of Economics within Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Dr. Bogart earned a BA in economics and mathematical sciences from Rice University and his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. He taught Economics at CWRU from 1990-2002, being tenured, promoted to Professor and appointed Chair of the department. As a scholar his research interests have included state and local government tax and spending decisions and other aspects of urban economics and policy. Much of his work was applied research to understand and improve Northeast Ohio. Among his topics were the effect of school redistricting on real estate markets, the effects of environmental damage on property values and the impact of a professional football team leaving a city before the end of its lease. His publications include two books on urban economics and policy: The Economics of Cities and Suburbs (Prentice-Hall, 1998) and Don’t Call it Sprawl: Metropolitan Structure in the Twenty-first Century (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

He left CWRU in 2002 to become Chief Academic Officer of York College of Pennsylvania, became President of Maryville College in Tennessee from 2010-2020 and President of Columbia College (SC) from 2020-2023. During his time at Columbia College the school increased its enrollment by 25 percent, successfully transitioned from a women’s to a coeducational institution, and was reaffirmed for reaccreditation two years after being put on warning status. At Maryville College his successes included a 40% increase in annual giving, near doubling of the endowment to $98 million, and operating with a net unrestricted budget surplus every year. The College received multiple awards for beautification, sustainability, and climate change initiatives.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

October 27: Storefronts, Communities, and the Changing World of Retail. With Michael Goldberg, Associate Professor of Design and Innovation; Executive Director and Associate Vice President, Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship. Alternate Room: Mather House 100

November 3: Dobbs and Doctors. With David N. Hackney MD, Division Director, Maternal Fetal Medicine, University Hospitals of Cleveland.

November 10: Who’s Legally Responsible When “Self-Driving” Cars Go “Eyes Off?” With Cassandra Burke Robertson, JD, John Deaver Drinko – BakerHostetler Professor of Law.

November 17: Axios Cleveland and the Future of Local Media. With Sam Allard, reporter for Axios Cleveland.

November 24: Thanksgiving Break

December 1: Civil-Military Relations in Egypt. With Dina Rashed, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College for Academic Affairs, University of Chicago.

December 8: To Be Determined.