June 12, 2006
Summer rental | When the academic year ends, Maine colleges host conferences, camps and special events
By Torrey Meeks
In the woods near Unity College a bloodhound wends its way between trees, slowly following a scent. Behind the dog follow a team of U.S. Forest Service Forest Protection Officers under the guidance of Unity College associate professor Tim Peabody, a retired warden. They're pursuing a group of volunteers running ahead of the officers and dog, a test of the team's tracking abilities as part of a one-day, hands-on training event offered to the Forest Service by the school.
The program is just one way the college breaks up the three-month summer idyll by booking its facilities to groups or events looking for a special venue, says Mark Tardif, the school's director of communications. Over the course of the summer, Unity plans to host about 10 such events, while other private colleges such as Bowdoin and Colby will host dozens of their own. And filling the void left by students at the end of the academic year is a good thing, says Tardif, especially as Unity and the majority of Maine's small colleges look to augment their traditional business models to generate greater revenue.
Though the tracking section of Unity's Forest Management course is a short-term affair, it's the type of event small institutions across the nation increasingly have turned to over the last 25 years, says Tim McDonough, director of public affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based American Council on Education. No longer content to let a summer lull descend on their leafy campuses, colleges look at the break in the academic calendar as a chance to host an array of temporary residents. That attitude has come about for a number of reasons, not least of which is the rising cost of campus maintenance, says McDonough.
"The days are long gone when you could leave your campus' physical plant inactive through the course of a summer," he says. "Given the economics of higher education, particularly with institutions that don't have large endowments, it makes good business sense to bring in other sources of revenue."
With an eye toward additional revenue, colleges look at their empty classrooms, dorms, dining halls and sports facilities as venues for camps, conferences, summer education programs and entertainment. As such, they are pieces of Maine's summer tourism infrastructure ˆ albeit a tiny piece. Although most small Maine colleges run their summer operations at a profit, the money is usually a fraction of the institution's total earnings. For example, Unity's facilities generated about $21,000 in lease revenue in the summer of 2005. Colby College's special activities, which include summer programs, account for 1.1% of the school's $106 million annual budget.
Those numbers are pretty standard in Maine, according to Joan Sanzenbacher, Colby's special events coordinator. But at Colby and many of Maine's other small institutions, she says, revenue plays second fiddle to the real payoff of summer programs: exposure. Programs like the state-sponsored Upward Bound program for high school juniors and seniors hosted by Bowdoin College traffic in that priceless ˆ if intangible ˆ coin, says Tony Sprague, Bowdoin's director of events and summer programs. "We tend to have large number of groups that want to keep coming back and we certainly have a lot of inquiries," says Sprague. "That's important because it keeps new people coming through the campus."
Room and board
For colleges to thrive in a competitive academic market, that exposure is vital, says McDonough. And in that environment, summer program managers are careful about the types of events they host. Rather than allowing just anyone to use their campuses, many schools are researching the kinds of groups they want to bring, how to bring them and how to develop a strong brand that inspires a particular conference or group to return. "I think each of [Maine's colleges] has it's own forte," says Sanzenbacher. "Some have more emphasis on youth groups, and some campuses have a great number of state groups, teachers and organizations like that."
Bowdoin, for example, initially picked up programs like the Maine State Music Theater Company because the group didn't have anywhere else to go, according to Steven Peterson, the theater's executive director. Now, that annual event is a hallmark of Bowdoin's summer programs. Coupled with the 40-year-old Bowdoin International Music Festival, it helps the school build on its image as a liberal arts center. Bowdoin's annual hockey clinic, which started because the school had an indoor rink, lodging facilities and cafeterias available, can now help recruit young hockey players who may end up attending the college.
Now, when Bowdoin begins booking its facilities for the coming summer, there aren't too many surprises. That's because the school has been hosting nearly the same list of groups and events for years, including the annual Infrared Spectroscopy Course, which has attracted chemists to Bowdoin's campus every summer since 1972.
Developing a base of regular summer tenants wouldn't be possible if colleges didn't schedule activities based on core missions, says Tardif at Unity. Given Unity's focus on environmental education, it is looking to host events that relate to the field. Enter
co-operative programs with the U.S. Forest Service and the week-long Environmental Writer's Retreat scheduled for June 25-July 1. "At Unity College, we aim to become a model community for sustainability," says Tardif. "We're trying to make ourselves very appealing to groups that value that approach."
In order to do that, Unity is undertaking $1.3 million in construction to update its facilities. Last year it increased room capacity by 27 beds to 197, and renovated its science building and two cafeterias. Tardif hopes the completion of those upgrades will make the college more attractive to conferences looking for a comfortable home to return to year after year.
Dining often is an overlooked element of the hospitality equation, says Sanzenbacher, but it is important on two levels: It allows campuses to retain cafeteria workers year-round (Colby has 30 dining staffers) and it's an attractive amenity to event planners and conference organizers. Bowdoin, in particular, relies on its reputation for excellent food service. Last year, the college's dining experience was rated first in the nation by the Princeton Review. "It's the kind of thing where you used to think, 'I've got to kind of suffer through the food,'" says Sprague. "But we have people clamoring to have events catered by Bowdoin."
Typically, a large group like the West Kingston, R.I.-based Gordon Research Conferences ˆ an academic conference hosting group that holds week-long events at Colby, Bates and the University of New England ˆ will use a college's dining facilities for breakfast and lunch, says Dr. Nancy Ryan, director for the conferences. At night, attendees are free to eat at local restaurants, which generates economic activity for the surrounding area. "People usually don't want to eat in dining hall for five nights," adds Sanzenbacher.
Other groups choose college campuses for specific facilities or amenities. Newport, Pa.-based LongAcre Expeditions, a youth-oriented adventure company, visits Bowdoin every summer as part of its wildlife photography course, says owner Roger Smith. During the last two days of the two-week long trip, the group emerges from the wild, stays in the dormitories and uses the college's extensive computer lab to Photoshop pictures and create portfolios. "The whole trip we're camping," Smith says. "At the end they're pleased to be staying at Bowdoin's dorm instead of camping out."
The non-resort experience
Small colleges hosting conference groups and other summer events inevitably raises the question of competition with traditional hospitality venues. But according to Bill Swain, communications manager at Sugarloaf USA in Carrabasset Valley, there isn't much overlap. "We offer a different experience than traditional college campuses," says Swain. "Groups come here for more of a relaxed working environment... but they utilize amenities, too."
Golf courses, spas and private dining options are all features that attract certain types of conferences to traditional resort venues. But Sanzenbacher at Colby cites a number of large groups that need less upscale dining and sleeping arrangements. For example, the Maine Bike Trek stops off at Colby as part of its three-day ride across Maine June 16-17. The event on average includes 1,500 riders ˆ not a practical number to keep at an upscale hotel for one night.
Such groups also are likely to look for dining and lodging options with a less-than-upscale price tag. However, the college officials interviewed for this story were reluctant to discuss how much they charge groups to use their facilities in the summer. Part of the problem, say Sanzenbacher and Sprague, is that pricing for events and conferences varies widely depending on the size of the group and the specific facilities and amenities used.
Presumably, sharing a room in a college dorm would cost a conference attendee less than a single room in one of Maine's resort hotels. But Swain at Sugarloaf says his resort can price its facilities competitively with college campuses for a simple reason: Summers are slow for ski resorts. That seasonal slowdown allows the facility to keep its prices lower than those offered during the high season, which means corporate events are less likely to have wandering eyes, says Swain.
Still, even if there were no difference in price, groups like the Gordon Research Conferences can feel out of place at a resort, says Ryan. Because they are academic conferences, the goal is to encourage dialogue between the scientists in attendance ˆ and a college campus lends itself well to that end. From cafeteria-style dining to dorm accommodations and the familiar classroom setting, colleges offer the right laid-back atmosphere. "The environment creates a unity among attendees," says Ryan. "They can go on hikes, go canoeing. They use the field to play baseball and soccer at lunch. It's not a group that would stay at an airport-hotel type facility."
Hosting an academic event at a college creates an "academic home away from home," says Ryan, one that allows a scientist or professor from one institution to step into a comfortable summer working environment. The conference is celebrating its 75th anniversary; it's been hosting events at Colby for 60 of those years.
Though colleges are always keeping an eye out for new conferences, groups or events to use their facilities in the summer, the competition between colleges in Maine isn't cutthroat, says Sanzenbacher.
Especially with large, multi-faceted conference groups such as Gordon Research Conferences, sometimes one college can't accommodate all its needs. This summer, for example, GRC is hosting courses in diffraction methods in structural biology and seminars on the origin of life at Bates College, while offering courses in hemostasis and high-temperature materials, processes and diagnosis at Colby College. To that end, there is a great amount of cooperation between different colleges, says Sanzenbacher, on the principal that some business for everybody is better than no business for anyone.
But as colleges continue to improve and upgrade their facilities with new dorms, classroom buildings and sports venues, they likely will continue to find creative ways to generate revenue from those spaces while students are away. "We're seeing everything from family reunions to sports camps. Some are making arrangements with pro-sports teams to use college fields and dorms," says McDonough. "Schools are starting to change. They're becoming very entrepreneurial in ways they approach summer usage."
The program is just one way the college breaks up the three-month summer idyll by booking its facilities to groups or events looking for a special venue, says Mark Tardif, the school's director of communications. Over the course of the summer, Unity plans to host about 10 such events, while other private colleges such as Bowdoin and Colby will host dozens of their own. And filling the void left by students at the end of the academic year is a good thing, says Tardif, especially as Unity and the majority of Maine's small colleges look to augment their traditional business models to generate greater revenue.
Though the tracking section of Unity's Forest Management course is a short-term affair, it's the type of event small institutions across the nation increasingly have turned to over the last 25 years, says Tim McDonough, director of public affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based American Council on Education. No longer content to let a summer lull descend on their leafy campuses, colleges look at the break in the academic calendar as a chance to host an array of temporary residents. That attitude has come about for a number of reasons, not least of which is the rising cost of campus maintenance, says McDonough.
"The days are long gone when you could leave your campus' physical plant inactive through the course of a summer," he says. "Given the economics of higher education, particularly with institutions that don't have large endowments, it makes good business sense to bring in other sources of revenue."
With an eye toward additional revenue, colleges look at their empty classrooms, dorms, dining halls and sports facilities as venues for camps, conferences, summer education programs and entertainment. As such, they are pieces of Maine's summer tourism infrastructure ˆ albeit a tiny piece. Although most small Maine colleges run their summer operations at a profit, the money is usually a fraction of the institution's total earnings. For example, Unity's facilities generated about $21,000 in lease revenue in the summer of 2005. Colby College's special activities, which include summer programs, account for 1.1% of the school's $106 million annual budget.
Those numbers are pretty standard in Maine, according to Joan Sanzenbacher, Colby's special events coordinator. But at Colby and many of Maine's other small institutions, she says, revenue plays second fiddle to the real payoff of summer programs: exposure. Programs like the state-sponsored Upward Bound program for high school juniors and seniors hosted by Bowdoin College traffic in that priceless ˆ if intangible ˆ coin, says Tony Sprague, Bowdoin's director of events and summer programs. "We tend to have large number of groups that want to keep coming back and we certainly have a lot of inquiries," says Sprague. "That's important because it keeps new people coming through the campus."
Room and board
For colleges to thrive in a competitive academic market, that exposure is vital, says McDonough. And in that environment, summer program managers are careful about the types of events they host. Rather than allowing just anyone to use their campuses, many schools are researching the kinds of groups they want to bring, how to bring them and how to develop a strong brand that inspires a particular conference or group to return. "I think each of [Maine's colleges] has it's own forte," says Sanzenbacher. "Some have more emphasis on youth groups, and some campuses have a great number of state groups, teachers and organizations like that."
Bowdoin, for example, initially picked up programs like the Maine State Music Theater Company because the group didn't have anywhere else to go, according to Steven Peterson, the theater's executive director. Now, that annual event is a hallmark of Bowdoin's summer programs. Coupled with the 40-year-old Bowdoin International Music Festival, it helps the school build on its image as a liberal arts center. Bowdoin's annual hockey clinic, which started because the school had an indoor rink, lodging facilities and cafeterias available, can now help recruit young hockey players who may end up attending the college.
Now, when Bowdoin begins booking its facilities for the coming summer, there aren't too many surprises. That's because the school has been hosting nearly the same list of groups and events for years, including the annual Infrared Spectroscopy Course, which has attracted chemists to Bowdoin's campus every summer since 1972.
Developing a base of regular summer tenants wouldn't be possible if colleges didn't schedule activities based on core missions, says Tardif at Unity. Given Unity's focus on environmental education, it is looking to host events that relate to the field. Enter
co-operative programs with the U.S. Forest Service and the week-long Environmental Writer's Retreat scheduled for June 25-July 1. "At Unity College, we aim to become a model community for sustainability," says Tardif. "We're trying to make ourselves very appealing to groups that value that approach."
In order to do that, Unity is undertaking $1.3 million in construction to update its facilities. Last year it increased room capacity by 27 beds to 197, and renovated its science building and two cafeterias. Tardif hopes the completion of those upgrades will make the college more attractive to conferences looking for a comfortable home to return to year after year.
Dining often is an overlooked element of the hospitality equation, says Sanzenbacher, but it is important on two levels: It allows campuses to retain cafeteria workers year-round (Colby has 30 dining staffers) and it's an attractive amenity to event planners and conference organizers. Bowdoin, in particular, relies on its reputation for excellent food service. Last year, the college's dining experience was rated first in the nation by the Princeton Review. "It's the kind of thing where you used to think, 'I've got to kind of suffer through the food,'" says Sprague. "But we have people clamoring to have events catered by Bowdoin."
Typically, a large group like the West Kingston, R.I.-based Gordon Research Conferences ˆ an academic conference hosting group that holds week-long events at Colby, Bates and the University of New England ˆ will use a college's dining facilities for breakfast and lunch, says Dr. Nancy Ryan, director for the conferences. At night, attendees are free to eat at local restaurants, which generates economic activity for the surrounding area. "People usually don't want to eat in dining hall for five nights," adds Sanzenbacher.
Other groups choose college campuses for specific facilities or amenities. Newport, Pa.-based LongAcre Expeditions, a youth-oriented adventure company, visits Bowdoin every summer as part of its wildlife photography course, says owner Roger Smith. During the last two days of the two-week long trip, the group emerges from the wild, stays in the dormitories and uses the college's extensive computer lab to Photoshop pictures and create portfolios. "The whole trip we're camping," Smith says. "At the end they're pleased to be staying at Bowdoin's dorm instead of camping out."
The non-resort experience
Small colleges hosting conference groups and other summer events inevitably raises the question of competition with traditional hospitality venues. But according to Bill Swain, communications manager at Sugarloaf USA in Carrabasset Valley, there isn't much overlap. "We offer a different experience than traditional college campuses," says Swain. "Groups come here for more of a relaxed working environment... but they utilize amenities, too."
Golf courses, spas and private dining options are all features that attract certain types of conferences to traditional resort venues. But Sanzenbacher at Colby cites a number of large groups that need less upscale dining and sleeping arrangements. For example, the Maine Bike Trek stops off at Colby as part of its three-day ride across Maine June 16-17. The event on average includes 1,500 riders ˆ not a practical number to keep at an upscale hotel for one night.
Such groups also are likely to look for dining and lodging options with a less-than-upscale price tag. However, the college officials interviewed for this story were reluctant to discuss how much they charge groups to use their facilities in the summer. Part of the problem, say Sanzenbacher and Sprague, is that pricing for events and conferences varies widely depending on the size of the group and the specific facilities and amenities used.
Presumably, sharing a room in a college dorm would cost a conference attendee less than a single room in one of Maine's resort hotels. But Swain at Sugarloaf says his resort can price its facilities competitively with college campuses for a simple reason: Summers are slow for ski resorts. That seasonal slowdown allows the facility to keep its prices lower than those offered during the high season, which means corporate events are less likely to have wandering eyes, says Swain.
Still, even if there were no difference in price, groups like the Gordon Research Conferences can feel out of place at a resort, says Ryan. Because they are academic conferences, the goal is to encourage dialogue between the scientists in attendance ˆ and a college campus lends itself well to that end. From cafeteria-style dining to dorm accommodations and the familiar classroom setting, colleges offer the right laid-back atmosphere. "The environment creates a unity among attendees," says Ryan. "They can go on hikes, go canoeing. They use the field to play baseball and soccer at lunch. It's not a group that would stay at an airport-hotel type facility."
Hosting an academic event at a college creates an "academic home away from home," says Ryan, one that allows a scientist or professor from one institution to step into a comfortable summer working environment. The conference is celebrating its 75th anniversary; it's been hosting events at Colby for 60 of those years.
Though colleges are always keeping an eye out for new conferences, groups or events to use their facilities in the summer, the competition between colleges in Maine isn't cutthroat, says Sanzenbacher.
Especially with large, multi-faceted conference groups such as Gordon Research Conferences, sometimes one college can't accommodate all its needs. This summer, for example, GRC is hosting courses in diffraction methods in structural biology and seminars on the origin of life at Bates College, while offering courses in hemostasis and high-temperature materials, processes and diagnosis at Colby College. To that end, there is a great amount of cooperation between different colleges, says Sanzenbacher, on the principal that some business for everybody is better than no business for anyone.
But as colleges continue to improve and upgrade their facilities with new dorms, classroom buildings and sports venues, they likely will continue to find creative ways to generate revenue from those spaces while students are away. "We're seeing everything from family reunions to sports camps. Some are making arrangements with pro-sports teams to use college fields and dorms," says McDonough. "Schools are starting to change. They're becoming very entrepreneurial in ways they approach summer usage."
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