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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
[b]Good luck figuring out where Harvard is going to house more undergraduates. It has taken literally more than a decade for Harvard to be able to build out some additional (non-residential) buildings in Allston (across the Charles) because of town-gown fights.[/b] Good luck trying to convince anyone in Cambridge -- let alone Boston -- to let Harvard buy more land and build more residence halls.

Stanford wanted to build 2600 additional student beds, among other things, on its property. It ended up ultimately withdrawing its permit request/plans in 2019 after this was demanded of Stanford:

[quote]The coalition of San Mateo County cities, which includes East Palo Alto, Atherton, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City and Woodside, as well as county staff requested $196 million for an affordable-housing fund, $4.62 million for roadway improvements, $15 million for bike and pedestrian connections, $5 million for stormwater management and $6.78 million in “in-lieu property taxes” to compensate communities where Stanford owns properties and enjoys property-tax exemptions.[/quote]

Yes, Stanford has a substantial endowment, but those funds were not given with the intention of passing through $200 Million+ to local governments.

"Oh, but they don't need dorms, just have more undergraduate students live off campus and commute (at Harvard) (at MIT) (at Stanford) (at fill-in-the-blank), like at UToronto!"

Where would students live? There are already immense housing pressures in many of these places. Logistically, where?

Even if someone could afford and find housing off campus, part of the value proposition of places like these is the ability to learn outside of the classroom -- in residential spaces and dining halls, where students debate ideas, share perspectives, and grow as people. That gets lost if half your student body is scattered around a city.

Lastly, intensive classroom experiences -- often, small classes, and many times, discussion-oriented courses -- are some of the hallmarks of these institutions. So, expect to build more academic spaces and hire more faculty (and more offices for them) so you're not cramming hundreds of students into lecture halls -- the hiring part is probably the easiest, excluding the financial outlay, but the rest will require more space. (Not to mention more space for things like dining facilities, et. al., you'll need with a larger student body)

I'm not arguing that the residential college experience is the [b]only[/b] way to achieve a high-quality educational experience. Of course not. But it's part of what makes these institutions the places they are. Just like Cambridge and Oxford.

Places like UBC, UToronto, U Sydney, U Melbourne, U Tokyo, and so forth are able to be so large in part because that they are in the largest population centers of their countries -- some (many, in some cases) students still commute from home. They are also not focused on the residential learning experiences that these American schools are known for in terms of the undergraduate experience. They are amazing places, too, obviously -- but they are offering a different educational experience.

[/quote]

I (Harvard Law alum) actually know something about this. There was a push about a decade or two ago to move the entire Harvard Law School to Allston (yes, across the river) but it never happened and my understanding is that the alums revolted and said "no".  I don't think it was town/gown issue.  The law school alumni simply wanted their school to be where it always has been.  So Harvard used the land for non-student matters.[/quote]

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