What transformation actually looks like.

Cheyney University

Pennsylvania

Had close to 400,000 square feet of building space sitting unoccupied or underused, and opened it to private tenants. Eight companies are on campus now — agribusiness, cancer research, solar manufacturing, additive manufacturing — alongside stadium and auditorium rentals.

A $7.4M deficit became a $2.1M surplus. First balanced budget in eight years.

Purchase College, SUNY

New York

Ground-leased 40 acres to a life-plan senior living community, financed with public bonds. No college capital at risk at any point.

$2 million a year in rent, directed by statute to student scholarships and new faculty lines.

Warren Wilson College

North Carolina

Sold 191 of its 1,100 acres to a land conservancy — with a cooperative management agreement that keeps the college grazing the pasture and teaching in the forest.

$4.7 million, against a $5.5 million deficit. They sold the asset without losing the use of it.

Goucher College

Maryland

Ground-leased three acres out of 287 to a neighboring senior living operator for 127 independent-living apartments.

Zero construction capital from the college. Three acres is a proposal a president can carry into a room.

D'Youville University

New York

Built a health professions building in which a regional health system staffs and operates a community clinic, alongside student simulation space and workforce retraining.

The health system raised $5.07 million toward the project. It is the tenant and the operator.

Lackawanna College

Pennsylvania

A $10 million technology center in a former factory, funded by state money, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and a private energy company. Separately, employers pay tuition directly for their own staff.

The college built it without spending its own capital.

Dakota Wesleyan University

South Dakota

A regional health system funds nursing students’ junior and senior years in exchange for a three-year work commitment after graduation.

$20,000 per student, employer-funded. The health system asked for it.

Alvernia University

Pennsylvania

Bought and repurposed downtown buildings instead of expanding the campus — a community health center with a local provider, an incubator, a YMCA partnership, ground-floor retail.

$43 million invested, $18.5 million of it in secured redevelopment resources including state capital grants.