The Boston Globe - 19.08.2019

A6 The Region The Boston Globe MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019

numbers. There are 900 trees,
100,000 shrubs, and 55,
flowers — and that’s just out-
side.
Inside, mingling with the
slot machines and table
games, the conference space
and hotel rooms, are 4,
potted flowers, many of which
are switched out daily, all of
which are swapped every two
weeks. Special color schemes
are coming for the fall, Christ-
mas, Chinese New Year, and
spring.
“The lobby also evolves as
the seasons evolve,” he said.
Amid the array of flowers
are 4,000 pots of foliage
plants, including 95 kentia
palms, native to Australia.
Each of the casino’s 671 ho-
tel rooms have at least one
plant. More than 120 have a
five-orchid arrangement. The
top-end rooms have even more
greenery.
All the casino resort’s plant
razzle-dazzle isn’t something
you can just go and buy at Ma-
honey’s. Chadwick and his
team of gardeners, florists, su-
pervisors, and managers plan
and plan and plan, he said.
They purchase flowers
about a year in advance and
work with a range of vendors
to bring plants to bloom: seed
companies, propagators, and
growers.
“None of these are flowers
that you can just go buy off the
shelf somewhere,” he said in
the Encore Boston Harbor lob-
by not far from some of his
workers, who were adding
fresh yellow and orange ar-
rangements. “You start talking
about 4,000 flowers every two
weeks — there are not a lot of

uFLOWERS
Continued from Page A

places that can do that.”

Walking through the casi-

no’s front entrance, Chadwick

explains the thinking behind

the thick-leaf blend of yew and

Japanese white pine nearby (a

pleasant look for people being

dropped off on one side; a pro-

tection for outdoor diners at

the fancy Sinatra restaurant

from the glare of headlights on

the other).

The son of a landscape de-

signer and a landscape install-

er, Chadwick regales you with

the story of some of the 89

Scotch pines, all dug up in far-

flung places, trucked to Ever-

ett and placed just so for the

right Wynn Resorts look.

Chadwick speaks with joy

about the weeping cherries

and Taylor junipers, about

how he has a desk, but “most

of the time, my office is out

here.”

He tells you about tree

number one, an autumn splen-

dor maple, that stands as a

marker of the site’s transfor-

mation from a polluted former

Monsanto chemical factory to

a high-end casino resort. (He

doesn’t mention the Exelon

power station that is still

across the street.)

He explains how to build a

six-and-a-half-acre park after

cleaning up loads of toxic

waste: planting the trees, then

putting in the walkways, layer-

ing in shrubs, and installing ir-

rigation.

And he describes the awe

he feels seeing the property

filled with people, finding se-

renity in the natural landscape

he helped create.

He encourages you to walk

the property.

And so you find your way to

the harborwalk near the river

and you look toward Boston.

You can’t even tell you’re

standing right next to a casino,

with all its beeping and flash-

ing slots, hoots and hollers at

the table games, money lost

and won — but mostly lost —

in an instant.

You can’t tell you’re near a

hulking power plant, with its

towering smokestacks.

Chadwick is right. It

doesn’t seem like you’re in a

big city. It just seems like

you’re in a lovely garden where

you can take a breath and en-

joy the wonder of a New Eng-

land summer away from it all.

Joshua Miller can be reached

at [email protected].

“college” in favor of “universi-
ty,” in the hopes that the
grander connotations of a larg-
er institution with more op-
tions will ultimately lure stu-
dents to campus.
In the past decade, Bentley
University, Simmons Universi-
ty, Western New England Uni-
versity, and Bay Path Universi-
ty have made the switch. As-
sumption College in Worcester
will become a university in the
2020-21 school year.
“It’s more attractive,” said
Michael B. Alexander, Lasell’s
president. The university con-
version is “the next step in a
natural evolution,” of Lasell, he
said.
It sets Lasell, a onetime
women’s seminary, on a path
to becoming a “strong and
more prominent” institution,
Alexander said.
Lasell enrolls about 2,
students, including about 440
graduate students, and Alex-
ander said he wants to double
the number earning master’s
degrees. As Lasell University,
the school will make its gradu-
ate offerings more obvious to
potential students, he said.
Lasell also plans to partner
with more businesses to offer
specialized training in areas
such as hospitality and health
sciences, ambitions that will
be lifted with a university des-
ignation, Alexander said.
Whether the cachet of a
university title can actually
boost the trajectory of a school
remains unclear.
“The change of name makes
people recognize that the insti-
tution has graduate programs
who might not have known
otherwise. And it probably is
done in part hoping that this
designation confers prestige,”
said Virginia Sapiro, a Boston
University political science
professor who is working on a
history of US higher educa-
tion. “Whether that is true is
dubious.”
To become a university in
Massachusetts, an institution
must offer graduate programs
in at least four distinct profes-
sional fields of study. It’s a
benchmark that several colleg-
es already meet, even if they
don’t market themselves as
universities.
Other colleges, even if they
have robust graduate pro-
grams, are in no rush to order
new letterhead and signs.
Wentworth Institute of Tech-
nology, for instance, has been

uLASELL
Continued from Page A

granted university status,

though it has maintained its

existing name.

Smith College, Boston Col-

lege, and Dartmouth College

in New Hampshire are well

known for both their under-

graduate and graduate degree

programs, but none has ex-

pressed interest in a university

makeover.

Many smaller colleges don’t

have that widespread reputa-

tion, and this is a way to stand

out, college presidents said.

“We’re laying the founda-

tion for future growth and sus-

tainability in the face of the

challenges,” said Francesco Ce-

sareo, the president of As-

sumption College.

And those challenges are

significant.

Across New England, small,

private colleges are shuttering

or fighting for survival as en-

rollments decline and finances

falter. Newbury College in

Brookline closed this year, as

did three schools in Vermont:

Southern Vermont College,

Green Mountain College, and

the College of St. Joseph.

Hampshire College in Western

Massachusetts is frantically

trying to raise millions to keep

that school afloat for the long

term. And in 2018, Mount Ida

College in Newton, which at

one point considered a merger

with Lasell, abruptly closed af-

ter plans to combine the two

colleges fell apart.

Assumption, a 2,430-stu-

dent campus in Worcester, be-

gan considering converting to

a university several years ago

in the face of these headwinds,

Cesareo said.

For example, enrollment at

Assumption dropped from its

peak of nearly 2,880 in 2008

even as it increased the

amount of grants and financial

aid it offered undergraduate

students to attend, according

to federal data.

Assumption will be restruc-

turing and expanding its pro-

grams into specific schools,

adding administrative posi-

tions, such as deans, to the

campus, and expanding its

athletics offerings, as part of

the university conversion. A

donor gave the college more

than $1 million to help pay for

the changes, Cesareo said.

The college hopes that as a

university it will attract more

students, especially interna-

tionally, and foster more pride

and greater donations from

alumni, who may be reluctant

to donate to a business depart-

ment but would be willing to

give to a school of business, he

said.

Overseas students, who are

appealing to institutions since

they pay more to attend, are fa-

miliar with the university la-

bel, while colleges suggest

more vocational-type educa-

tion in many countries, ex-

perts said.

That can make it more diffi-

cult for American colleges to

explain their value and offer-

ings when they are trying to

recruit internationally, said

Benjamin Waxman, chief exec-

utive of Intead, a Salem firm

that helps colleges and univer-

sities with their global brand-

ing.

“It’s one less hurdle,” Wax-

man said. “That explanation

doesn’t need to happen if you

have university after your

name.... The term ‘college’

doesn’t hold any prestige inter-

nationally.”

At Lasell, where about

7 percent of students are inter-

national, primarily from Saudi

Arabia and China, officials

hope that the university tag

will attract more applicants

from abroad and ensure that

those who come freshman year

will stick around through

graduation, Alexander said.

Lasell estimates that it los-

es about 40 percent of interna-

tional students after the first

year, when they transfer to

larger American universities in

the Boston area or elsewhere.

“We’ve been told, ‘You’ll get

more students, and keep more

students,’ ” Alexander said.

For Simmons University,

the transformation of its cam-

pus last year into four distinct

colleges has helped recruit a

higher caliber of administra-

tors to the school and in-

creased faculty collaboration

across fields, said Katie Con-

boy, the provost.

Whether it will attract more

students, bring in additional

money, and ultimately help the

university withstand the fiscal

and demographic pressures is

less certain.

Simmons revealed this

summer that it would elimi-

nate pay increases and reduce

retirement matches for em-

ployees in an effort to cut

costs. The school exceeded its

expectations for undergradu-

ate enrollment this upcoming

fall but is forecasting enroll-

ment declines in graduate and

online programs, according to

university officials.

Conboy said she expects

the conversion to ultimately

benefit Simmons as it tries to

compete in the crowded Bos-

ton higher education market

and eventually pitch itself to

international students.

“It’s really hard to say any-

thing yet,” Conboy said. “But

we know this positions us dif-

ferently.”

Deirdre Fernandes can be

reached at deirdre.fernandes

@globe.com. Follow her on

Twitter @fernandesglobe.

Encore’s flora blooms under his highly cultivated expertise

PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Clockwise from above:

Mums surrounded a

decorative urn in the lobby

at the Encore Casino;

Patrick Chadwick paused

from his horticultural

labors; brilliant floral beds

formed a carpet around a

trio of sculptures.

Small colleges seek edge by shifting to university format

JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

Lasell College in Newton gained permission from the state last week to change its name to Lasell University.