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BU's economic punch soft in the tough 1930s

By David J. Craig

In 1935, when unemployment in Massachusetts soared and BU students walking to class in Copley Square saw homeless people sleeping on sidewalks, the University, its employees, and its students spent a combined $3,150,000 in Metro Boston.

	This building at the corner of Boylston and Clarendon streets near Copley Square is long gone, but it played a key role in Boston University's move to the Charles River Campus. It was originally part of MIT, and when that institution moved to Cambridge, BU rented 525 Boylston and moved in the College of Business Administration (now SMG) and other departments. When plans were made to raze the building in the 1930s, Dean George Makechnie recalls, President Daniel L. Marsh saw it as an opportunity to push for his dream of moving BU west of Kenmore Square. He succeeded, and the Charles Hayden Memorial building opened its doors in June 1939. Photo from the 1924 Syllabus

If that total sounds modest, it was. By the mid-1930s, "people had already learned to economize in a most drastic way," BU President Daniel L. Marsh wrote in the preface to a 1936 report detailing the University's economic impact on Boston during the 1934-35 school year. "When economic conditions are better," he noted, "the expenditures will naturally be greater."

During fiscal 1999, by contrast, BU, its students, and out-of-state visitors spent more than $1 billion in Massachusetts, resulting in a total economic impact of $2.2 billion, according to a recent report by BU's Office of Government and Community Affairs. Of the $271 million BU spent on goods and services in Massachusetts in 1999, the report says, 93 percent was spent in the Boston area, much of it through contracts on construction projects such as the new student residence on Buick St. and the Evans Biomedical Research Center, at 650 Albany St.

While minuscule in comparison, the $3.15 million (about $38.1 million in 1999 dollars) that BU and its students spent in Boston in 1935 was by no means pocket change. By then, BU was the largest private university in New England and a vital part of Boston's economy, which hinged on educational and medical institutions, wholesaling, and financial services.

And although it was still primarily a commuter school, by the 1930s BU was drawing thousands of students from across the United States to Boston, where they laid down money for food, clothing, transportation, and entertainment, not to mention an education. Compared to today, when 60 percent of BU's 29,544 students are from out of state, in 1935 about 42 percent of BU's 5,644 full-time students were from out of state, 30 percent were from metropolitan Boston, and 28 percent were from other parts of Massachusetts.

Not so good ole days

An out-of-state BU student in 1935 paid $17.35 for food and lodging per month, on average, according to Marsh's report, entitled "The Economic Importance of Boston University to the Community." (It is held now in Mugar Library's Special Collections.) The same student spent $2.25 per month on clothing, $1.77 on transportation, $1.24 on laundry, and 38 cents on newspapers and magazines.

"Living expenses of Boston University students range from $1.60 for the student living within walking distance of the University and obtaining meals and lodging at home," reads the report, "to more than $75 monthly for the student from outside of the metropolitan area, rooming and boarding in Boston." The median monthly expense budget for a student from metro Boston was $17.25, the report says, and $44.38 for the student from outside the area but living in the city.

Clearly, the Depression affected the spending habits of students, many of whom were children of first-generation immigrants and attended BU because it was relatively affordable - annual tuition for the College of Liberal Arts was $340 in 1935. "If you can't go to college, go to BU," was a common joke at the time, writes Kathleen Kilgore in Transformations, her 1991 history of BU.

A Boston couple, for instance, could go to the movies in 1935 for well under $2, including the cost of refreshments and cab or subway fare. But, according to Marsh's report, the average out-of-state student spent only 98 cents at the theater and the movies per month, and $1.20 on other recreation. Students from Boston apparently could afford a more vibrant social life. They spent about $2.50 per month on theater and movies, and $3.76 on other recreation. (Incidentally, because of dwindling enrollment, BU faculty members endured salary cuts totaling 19 percent during the 1930s, according to Transformations.)

Rose Nagel Richman (PAL'37). Photo from 1937 HUB

But economics was only one factor keeping BU students from spending more liberally in the 1930s. Rose Richman (PAL'37), who commuted every day to BU from Brockton, Mass., remembers having little time to socialize or splurge on entertainment during the school week.

"If I had an early class, I would take a train in to South Station, another train to Back Bay Station, and then walk the rest of the way to my school on Garrison Ave.," she says. "I would get home around 5 o'clock, and only have time to eat, study, and get ready for bed.

"Once in a while, a girlfriend and I would have time to stop for an ice cream at Bailey's, on Temple Street," she continues, adding that a 50 cent movie at Loew's State Theatre on Washington Street or a $1.50 play at the Colonial Theatre were common excuses for a weekend excursion to the city.

Not surprisingly, students from Boston and the surrounding area spent more on transportation in 1935 than did most out-of-state students, who would likely have lived in a boarding house or University dormitory in Boston. Local students spent $8.41 on transportation per month, while out-of-state students spent just $1.77. The most common mode of transportation to school then was Boston's streetcar and rapid transit system, followed by steam train, automobile, and bus.

Boston and abroad

In the 1930s, as now, BU's impact on its community was not measured merely in dollars, but by considering its cultural and social contributions as well. Even in the midst of the Depression, community involvement was a priority for BU. During the 1935-36 school year, for instance, the University volunteered the services of its academic counselors to help hundreds of Boston high school students make "life-work decisions," as skeletal budgets made it impossible for public schools to "give their students any significant guidance service," Marsh wrote in his 1936 annual report to University Trustees. Today, BU offers outreach programs in education, medicine, social welfare, and a host of other areas.

As war's shadow began to darken Europe, BU students looked abroad. There were 47 student meetings and forums dealing with international politics during the 1935-36 school year, according to Marsh's 1936 report, and several student clubs were established to deal with the subject.

"It may be noted that almost every issue of the Boston University News last year carried some account of student participation in world peace or world fellowship activities," the report reads. "In all, more than forty separate items appeared throughout the year . . . dealing in some respect with the promotion of world peace."

8 December 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations