Wellesley and Its Colleges Support and Influence Each Other

By Jane Lebak

Wellesley doesn’t “feel” like a college town, but with three thriving colleges, the colleges have a very strong influence on the town’s character.

Wellesley Select Board Chair Tom Ulfelder says, “There’s a wide variety in terms of perceptions of the colleges in town. Our goal is to have everyone feel welcome and create a sense of belonging.”

 Wellesley College Botanic Gardens are enjoyed by the public in Wellesley. Photo by Marjorie Turner Hollman, 

www.marjorieturner.com 

Wellesley College was founded in 1870 (as the Wellesley Female Seminary) and interestingly, although settled in 1660, the town itself wasn’t incorporated until 1881. As such, Wellesley College and the Town of Wellesley have come of age together, mutually influencing one another over the decades. Babson College opened its doors in 1919. MassBay Community College campus is a relative newcomer, with the Wellesley campus opening at the location of the former Elizabeth Seton High School in 1975.

With a combined enrollment of ten thousand students, the three colleges are bound to have an impact on Wellesley’s culture, Wellesley’s values, and Wellesley’s economy.

Jeremy Solomon, MassBay’s Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Marketing, and Communications, says, “The diverse student body from MassBay not only serves the Wellesley community as consumers--frequenting local businesses for goods and services--they also provide vibrancy as they walk about our town.”

All three colleges stress the importance of community service. On their website, Babson College boasts 27,000 hours of community service annually by their students, in both ongoing and one-time service opportunities as well as service-learning opportunities. The Natalie Taylor Scholars Program combines community service and entrepreneurship, and among the requirements are 300 service hours.

Wellesley College features a Civic Engagement program for their students, although they’ve had to flex with the impact of COVID-19. Students have become creative with their service work, hosting blood drives and finding other ways to help the community even when person-to-person service opportunities were limited.

MassBay’s “Buccaneer Volunteers” are also active, with the website helping students find personal ways to give back. But, because it’s a community college with three thousand part-time students, many of whom may be struggling to pay for college, MassBay straddles the line between offering community service and receiving community services. “I think we were all shocked at the level of food insecurity among MassBay students,” says Ulfelder. 

Because of this, this past February, MassBay Community College and Temple Beth Elohim (TBE) collaborated to provide free meals to students through the volunteer-based TBE Table program.

Food insecurity isn’t limited to MassBay. Starting in 2020, Wellesley College opened two food pantries on campus for students facing food insecurity when the dining halls were closed in December and early January. Students were able to avail themselves of meals like mac and cheese, ramen noodles, yogurt, and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Cultural events on the colleges are often open to the public. Jeremy Solomon says, “In addition, MassBay frequently hosts educational and other cultural events and activities open to the public, which can be found on our website: https://www.massbay.edu/upcoming-events. MassBay also proudly partners with local businesses and organizations, sponsoring events and community service activities that contribute to the quality of life in the Wellesley community.”

For example, the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, now in its 72nd season, has a relationship with MassBay. Solomon says, “Since 1984, MassBay has been proud to host the exemplary Wellesley Symphony Orchestra as our orchestra-in-residence, with performances open to the public taking place throughout the year in our McKenzie Auditorium on the Wellesley campus.”

The Wellesley Symphony Orchestra performs not only familiar classical pieces but also provides opportunities to new composers and young performers. The Young Soloist competition is scheduled to resume next year after a pause due to the pandemic.

The public is also able to enjoy the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and the H. H. Hunnewell Arboretum, located on the Wellesley College campus. While the buildings are still closed due to COVID-19, the outdoor gardens are open to the public and feature thousands of plants from over a hundred and fifty different plant families. At the H. H. Hunnewell Arboretum, guests can view several habitats, including a swamp, meadow, different forest types, and even a butterfly garden.

From an economic perspective, the colleges have a massive impact on the town’s finances. According to the Wellesley 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the colleges were three of the top seven employers in the town, with Wellesley College coming in first place with 1050 employees, Babson in third place, and MassBay in seventh. To put that into perspective, that makes up eighteen percent of total town employment (excluding employment by the town itself). Wellesley College is the fifth highest principal taxpayer in the town.

The colleges also have impact on the economy on a smaller scale. “Coming out of the pandemic, we’ve made efforts to revive our retail sector,” says Ulfelder. “We have a number of smaller, new restaurants, and that’s giving students an opportunity to work, to dine, to be downtown, and to look at the other shops.”

From his work with the Select Board, Tom Ulfelder has a unique view into students as a powerful political force. “We’ve seen in the past years an increase in college student participation in social issues in town--issues around sustainability and environment, following Roe vs Wade, following George Floyd, these students are making their opinions known. We welcome this, and it lends momentum to these issues.