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Date Posted: 22:36:19 05/06/09 Wed
Author: Bill Manser 67- 73
Author Host/IP: 71.250.45.142
Subject: Re: Franconia College history
In reply to: Terry Province 's message, "Franconia College history" on 11:45:20 04/29/09 Wed

Terry I can only give you some info for your inquirey as I was in the middle years of the colleges operation and don't really have details for the time I was there.

The college began as a small new england college to fill a percieved need for higher education in the area and was begun as a regional project by a number of concerned local citizens who intended to use the old Dow Academy to create that institution. I believe there was an initial endowment from these persons thoguh I have no idea of the actual amount. I do however have a copy of the Littleton Courrier insert that was printed before the college began and that talked about the project somewhere in with my college memorabillia. There is also a copy in the Franconia historical archives as I understand it. I will look for it and get back to you later if there is more detailed info in that series of articles. It's in tabloid format or I would have scanned it a long time ago and would send you a copy.

I might have the e-mail address for the first college president in my address book as he showed up here a while back. I think he is in florida or somewhere like that and he might be a good resource. He might also be in the archived pages here if it didn't roll off into oblivion.

During the time I was at FC I believe the operational budget was in the neighborhood of either 200,000 a year or maybe a semester ( my first year there it was trimesters but it changed due to climate related issues I believe it being a considerable savings to not keep the college open during the height of winter as well as that the college could rent out dorm space to skiers during the season to supplement the budget ) I am not sure what the eventual operational budget ended up to be but am sure it kept increasing due to price increases for such things as fuel and electricity as well as higher shipping costs for supplies and incresed costs for materials.

There was also an issue that developed as a result of the enlarged college campus.
In the beginning the college was to be very small mainly in the dow academy building ( still in the center of town and now condo apartments I believe ).
At some point prior to the college actually opening fore business the owner of the Forest Hills Hotel on the hill above the town decided to give the hotel and it's land to the University of New Hampshire Hotel Management School and they came to the decision that it was too far away from the main campus to be properly integrated into the university and decided to donate it to the new college being formed in Franconia. So the college opened with the hotel as the main center and Dow as an adjunct , or at least that is what I was told. eventually the prior owner passed away and it is my understanding that the transfer to UNH was never properly and legally acomplished making the transfer to FC at best a subject of dispute. The relatives as I understand it wanted about a million for the property which the college was already in occupancy of and there was an agreement that the college would pay off the agreed price over a number of years in equal payments which as I understand it effectively doubled the amount needed to both operate the college and pay off the debt whatever that was determined to be ( this is all heresay obtained from locals and college connected staff and I have no way of documenting this but it might be a matter of public record somewhere if it can be traced and tracked down ).
As for the subject of student loans I am not sure if there were any that were directly obtained from or through the college proper. Maost of us who had loans went through the government backed student loan programs of the time that were done through the banks and repayed after graduation. These were not terribly large but then the dollar was worth more back then , harder to earn , and the economy went trough some rough times like the double digit inflation of the CArter years and the recession of the Nixon years where he basically cut the government spending by half in the middle of one year. Minimum wage in the area was around $1.60 an hour at the time with many people working for less than that and raising a family working in the shoe factory or the glove factory or part timeing it to make ends meet.

I went to the college for two years for my AA as a full time student then entered the upper division as a full time employee of the college and a part time student and worked my way through the next two years for a BA in four. Since you were a professional student I am sure you are familliar with the drill , and I am not the only person I know who used the same methodology to earn their way through Franconia college.

As for the default rate I wouldn't know having paid off the full amount over time but there were some statistics at the time on default rates that were no where like those for the people who went for advanced degrees with deferred payment plans them skipped out like for example the situation that developed out in California with law students that was so well documented.

Back to FC and the time I was there.

The students were required to do a certain amount of work to help the college meet the budget and we all had work program jobs of one sort or another. I began in the dishroom but was not there very long and gravitated to the print shop becomming first an apprentice , then journeyman printer and evetually the director as a full time employee while taking a part time class schedule though it was almost a full time schedule since most of what I did could be done during hours that were quite mutable.
The general way in which the college operated allowed one to set ones own schedule since most of the academic work was done outside of classes first as an " undergrad taking the core program courses that involved once a week lectures and informal seminar classes for discussion as well as a reading list . In the upper division you determined what your subject would be and made a proposal for a course of study that was either approved or disapproved and it ccould be formal classes or individual study or a combination of the two as well as the option of obtaining credit for something completely different. We were probably one of the first colleges in the country that offered an academic rpogram of the " university without walls " type with some student gaining crdit for study or work that was far from the college proper or done at another institution completely.

Enough for now and I hope others will chime in here though at present this forum is not as well used as it has been in the past.

B

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