*Collage of Portland scenes from Wikipedia*

The New England Council’s (newenglandcoincil.com) comments on Northeastern University’s plan to use a $100 million gift to open a new research institute in Portland:

“The new center, named the Roux Institute after its benefactors David and Barbara Roux, will focus on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the digital and life sciences. Citing the Boston-based university as ‘an elite university that’s not elitist,’ Roux selected Northeastern after a two-year search for the right fit to lead the institute. The new campus will offer graduate degrees and certificate programs in order to help create a tech hub in the largest city in Maine. Additionally, the Roux Institute will feature partnerships with leading employers in Maine and across the country. The move highlights Northeastern’s continuing expansion, with regional campuses in Charlotte, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and London already established by the university in recent years.

“‘The Roux Institute at Northeastern University brings a new vision, critical investment and proven research capacity to the Portland region,’ said Dannel Malloy, University of Maine system chancellor. ‘It can be a game-changer for Maine’s participation in the innovation economy and create new opportunities for Maine’s students and entrepreneurs.’’’

“Because Northeastern’s new campus will offer only graduate programs, it won’t be directly competing with many of Maine’s higher education institutions, according to Malloy. The new venture can, however, provide both school systems with a potential new influx of students and opportunities for joint programs and fellowships between them, Malloy said. A rural state with an aging population, Maine has subsequently been facing enrollment challenges in higher education; the Roux Institute is a bet that the new Portland research institute can change that.

“‘The impact of the Roux Institute will reverberate across the region for generations to come. It will serve as a national model for expanding growth and innovation, and reducing inequality,’ Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun said.’’

*“If Wishes Were Horses (For Dad)”, by Timothy Harney, a professor at the Montserrat College of Art, in Beverly, Mass. He’s the brother of John O. Harney.*

From The New England Journal of Higher Education, a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)

FICE-y conditions. MIT recently alerted its staff that federal immigration officials would be checking the status of foreign postdoctoral students, researchers and visiting scholars in the sciences, and urged them to cooperate. … Meanwhile, an Iranian student, returning to study at Northeastern University, was detained at Boston’s Logan International Airport then deported, despite having a valid student visa and court order permitting him to stay in the U.S. The stories reminded me of Politico’s report on “5 ways universities can support students in a post-DACA world” by Jose Magaña-Salgado, of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. And of own NEJHE piece by Harvard attorney Jason Corral, whose job is advising undocumented students in the age of the Trump administration.

Caste away. Brandeis University announced it will include “castes” in its non-discrimination policy. Discrimination based on this system of inherited social class will now be expressly prohibited along with more familiar measures such as race, color, religion, gender identity and expression, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status.

Institution news. Massachusetts approved new regulations on how to screen colleges and universities for financial risks and potential closures. … The University of Maine System Board of Trustees adopted a recommendation from Chancellor Dannel Malloy to transition the separate institutional accreditations of Maine’s public universities into a single “unified institutional accreditation” for the 30,000-student University of Maine System through the New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE). One institution the UMaine System is likely to collaborate with according to Malloy’s office: Northeastern University’s planned Roux Institute for advanced graduate study and research to open in Portland, Maine. … In Connecticut, meanwhile, Goodwin College became Goodwin University. Such rebranding has been something of a trend in recent years. … In other institution news, monks at Saint Anselm College challenged the New Hampshire Catholic college’s board of trustees over a move the monks say could lead to increased secularization. The college’s charter dictated that the monks have the power to amend laws governing the school. Saint Anselm College President Joseph Favazza said in a letter that the board was not trying to change the mission of the college, but rather aiming to meet the standards set by NECHE, the accrediting body.

Cold War chills. Primary Research Group Inc. has published its 2020 edition of Export Controls Compliance Practices Benchmarks for Higher Education with this grim reminder: “Increasingly, U.S. universities and their corporate and government research partners are under pressure to demonstrate compliance with U.S. export control and other technology transfer restriction and control policies. The deterioration of U.S.-relations with China and Russia threatens the return of export control philosophies common during the Cold War. Major universities in the U.K., Australia and Canada, among other countries, are experiencing similar changes.”

Media is not the enemy, but … The free Metro Boston newspaper ended operation after 19 years, following the sale of the New York and Philadelphia Metro papers. One explanation offered by a columnist at The Boston Globe, which is a part-owner of the Boston Metro: more commuters using their phones to catch up on news.

Latest from LearnLaunch. Watch NEJHE for reports from the 2020 Learn Launch Across Boundaries Conference, including an exclusive Q&A with the new LearnLaunch president, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift.

John O. Harney is executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.