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The Cape Cod campus of Bridgewater State University is in the former MacArthur School on Route 28 in South Yarmouth.
YARMOUTH – Bridgewater State University’s Cape Cod campus held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday, six months after holding its first classes.
Bridgewater President-Elect Frederick Clark Jr. said Bridgewater works as a partner with Cape Cod Community College to offer higher education to Cape Codders.
“We want to intercept those students from going across the bridges and keep them here on the Cape to try to get them to associate’s and eventually bachelor’s degrees,” he said.
Clark, who has been serving as Bridgewater’s executive vice president and vice president for external affairs, credited Bridgewater State University President Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria, who is a Cape Cod resident who attended Cape Cod Community College, with providing the vision and laying the foundation to bring a Bridgewater campus to the Cape.
“That vision essentially included service to the region because it is underserved. We need to do more on the Cape,” Clark said.
Bridgewater State University President-Elect Fred Clark, Bridgewater Cape Cod campus Director Jennifer True, and Bridgewater State University President Dana Mohler-Faria pose at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Clark referred to a study released last October by MassINC, which is the acronym for Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a public policy think tank, that estimated the education attainment figures for Massachusetts, looking out to 2030.
“No part of the state will suffer more than Cape Cod in terms of a reduction of working age folks with college degrees than Cape Cod,” Clark said, citing the study. “It’s a minus 41 percent decline between today and 2030. That, my friends, is a call to action.”
Clark said, it was a concern about the low number of young Cape Codders attaining college education that concerned Mohler-Faria.
“President Mohler-Faria heard that call and here we are to address that need for educational attainment on the Cape,” Clark said. “If we don’t succeed, business and industry and nonprofits will have no choice but to relocate. We have to succeed and we will succeed working together.”
Bridgewater State University has so far spent about $1 million on its Cape Cod campus, Clark said.
He said, the Bridgewater Cape Cod campus has served 500 students since opening in the former Laurence C. MacArthur Elementary School in South Yarmouth in January.
