On Friday, January 25, Lasell College President Michael B. Alexander was profiled in the Boston Business Journal. Below are a few excerpts from the feature:

• "In an environment in which real family income has been falling for 20 years, states have seriously reduced their investments in higher education, and the demographics of our country are changing, the great challenge is to figure out how to provide a high-quality independent college education to anyone and everyone who wants it."
• ...In early 2017, Alexander helped launch the Lower Cost Models for Independent Colleges Consortium, or LCMC, a group of more than a dozen college presidents nationwide who are pursuing new initiatives for lowering the cost of college.
• And Lasell is doing its part. This year, it launched a new program called Lasell Works, in which students see their tuition actually decrease each year. In order to participate, during their sophomore year the students must live off-campus, take online courses and get a part-time job. The total savings over four years, according to Lasell: $22,000.
• His subsequent detour into the entertainment business left him with a strong financial acumen - or, as he explains it, a keen understanding of "how debt works, how to deal with S&P and Moody's and those people."
• Proof of that can be found in Lasell's relatively strong balance sheet. The college has reported 24 straight years of operating surpluses and has doubled the size of its endowment during Alexander's tenure, he says. A new $24 million science and technology center that opened last November is a monument to Lasell's vision of itself as a leader in STEM education that can prepare students for high-paying jobs in Greater Boston's booming tech and biotech sectors.

The full profile can be found on the Boston Business Journal website [note: subscription required].