City Council Discusses School Closing

After nearly three hours of public comment, the Cambridge City Council voted last night to oppose the scheduled closing of a community extension school on the MIT campus.

The plan, authored by MIT President Charles Vest, would abolish the Lowell Institute, a vocational and computer training school funded by MIT which has served middle-class Cambridge residents since 1904.

City councillors said they were surprised that MIT made the decision to close the school without first consulting city officials. They also said the proposal was insensitive to working class Cambridge residents.

"We will work hard to try and keep this program going," said City Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio.

Although the Lowell Institute does not issue degrees, the school provides an opportunity for area residents to acquire technological skills and job training, Bruce D. Wedlock, the school's director, said at last night's meeting.

Wedlock said that nearly all of the classes are offered during the afternoon or evening, and a large number of the 1,100 students at the school are minorities or immigrants who have had little previous education.

Lowell's tuition is only $300 per credit-hour, making it far cheaper than attending the Harvard Extension School, said Susan C. Gomez, a former Lowell student, who said that many area residents will be severely disadvantaged if the school closes.

"This is another example of the powerful denying power to the powerless," Gomez said.

Wedlock agreed. "This school allows many people to [attend college] who otherwise couldn't afford it," he said.

MIT officials previously have said that they are slashing institute programs in hopes of trimming the multi-million dollar budget deficit which MIT has accumulated over the past several years.

But Wedlock said that Lowell School only accounts for $100,000 out of MIT's annual budget of $1.4 billion. He added that most of the $100,000 is actually returned to the university as tuition from Lowell students.

According to Wedlock, the true cost of funding the community school is almost nothing.

"MIT makes zero financial contribution to this school other than [my] salary" of about $60,000, he said.

An 'Elitist' Attitude

Citizens and council members said they were surprised that MIT did not send any official representatives to last night's meeting.

Earlier this month, the city council asked MIT officials to provide the council with an evaluation of the institute, including an analysis of program costs, course offerings and job placement for school graduates.

But MIT instead sent the council an "inadequate" one-page memo which failed to address any of those concerns, said Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55.

"This letter could have been written in five minutes, frankly, because it doesn't say anything," he said. "The least we deserve is an adequate explanation."

Shirley D. Nelson, a former teacher at Lowell, said the memo shows an "elitist" disdain by MIT for the larger Cambridge community.

"They chose to deal with the Nobel Prize winners...not with the city council or the people of Cambridge," Nelson said.

Councillors criticized MIT officials for eliminating an institution designed to educate Cambridge residents. In return for MIT's city tax exemption, councillors said the institute should work to strengthen community ties.

The $100,000 expenditure is "woefully and scandalously meager considering their tax-exempt status," Councillor Kathleen L. Born said.

"MIT is very much a public institution and, as such, it should be providing education to the public," she said.

Aram G. Hollman, a Lowell student, said the proposed school closing will do little to improve MIT's "image problem" within Cambridge.

"MIT is much less accessible to the Cambridge community than is Harvard, down the street," Hollman said. "It's a foreign place for most people in Cambridge."

Keeping the school open, however, would cost little money, further MIT's mission of providing quality education and enhance MIT's standing in the community, he said.

Gomez said she could not understand why MIT would close Lowell, especially since Lowell has historically helped residents access quality higher education.

"To take a strong, successful and helpful school and to close it is shameful," she said.

Some councillors and residents said legal action may be necessary to reverse MIT's decision.

According to John R. Pitkin, president of the Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Association, a mayoral panel of residents and Harvard, MIT and Lesley College officials has set strict guidelines about school/community relations.

The blue-ribbon panel decided that colleges must meet with residents before embarking on major policy changes which might affect neighborhood life, he said.

"I question if MIT's decision to close Lowell School is in violation of the letter, if not the spirit, of that report," he said.

Cambridge resident John Sorenson said that the city should require the colleges to make a positive contribution towards Cambridge life.

"What do Harvard and MIT do in exchange for the pork we give them?" he said.

Although Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72 said MIT has begun several programs which teach math and science to children in the Cambridge public schools, he said that MIT has made a serious error by "insulting the council" last night.

"They do have a responsibility to this city," Reeves said. "I do think MIT calculated wrong by not coming here tonight. No information to the Cambridge City Council is an insult, and they insulted us directly."