Babson College Impact Report 2010

For more than three decades, Babson College has granted scholarships to qualified residents of Wellesley and Needham. In this academic year, five students from Wellesley received $31,000 in Wellesley Town Scholarships, and five students from Needham were awarded $25,500 in Needham Town Scholarships.

Babson sponsors teams that participate in the annual Wellesley Spelling Bee. Babson donated $4,275 and sent a faculty team to compete.

Wellesley and Needham senior citizens have the opportunity to audit Babson’s undergraduate classes on a space-available basis at no cost. This academic year, four Wellesley senior citizens took advantage of this opportunity, taking five courses worth $24,400, and five senior citizens from Needham took seven courses worth $29,280.

Since its inception, Babson has supported the World of Wellesley (WOW). This year, in addition to staff time, a donation of $500 was contributed.

Sodexo Education Services, which provides dining services in all Babson facilities (except for Babson Executive Conference Center):

• Works closely with the parent-teacher associations of Wellesley’s Ernest F. Upham School, Fiske Elementary School, St. John’s CYO, and the Wellesley Middle School on fundraising events
• Donates the use of kitchen and dining facilities at Trim Dining Hall for the Wellesley Middle School’s annual pasta dinner
• Donates catering for the annual Wellesley Club dinner held on the Babson campus
• Supports the Wellesley Seniors’ Thanksgiving dinner held the Saturday before Thanksgiving in Trim Dining Hall
• Contributes to the Annual Wellesley Community Children’s Center Annual Fun Run

Sodexo and the Babson College community (sororities, fraternities, the Bernon Center, and the Athletic Department) join efforts every November to support the Cans Across America food drive. This past year, a total of 500 pounds of canned food was donated to the Place to Turn Food Bank in Natick. Sodexo also supports the annual Bernon Center Spaghetti Luncheon, which funds the student participation in Habitat for Humanity.

As one of the sites for the Pan-Mass Challenge, Babson hosted more than 2,500 riders in August 2009. During the 2009 calendar year, the PMC raised $30,384,200. More than 50 percent of funds raised for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund comes from the Pan-Mass Challenge. A total of 568 children, participating in the Kids Ride at Babson in June 2010, have thus far raised $112,519. Participating riders and volunteers included Wellesley and Needham residents, as well as Babson students, faculty, and staff.

The Sorenson Center is a performing arts facility that presents a wide variety of programming in theater, dance, music, film and video, and the literary arts. Most events are open to the public, and parking is free.

The Babson Players performed the comedy The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 in the fall of 2009 and the musical The Wedding Singer in the spring of 2010. The Franklin W. Olin Players from Olin College of Engineering uses the Carling-Sorenson Theater as its stage venue for most performances, and performed Blood Brothers in the spring of 2010. The Babson Dance Ensemble performs high-energy, colorful dance shows every semester.

Other Babson-sponsored events open to the public:

• AMAN (South Asian culture, dance, and music show) every semester
• BAPSA (Asian Pacific culture, dance, and music show) spring semester
• Malcolm Stearns Memorial Film Society/ Class Movie Nights all year
• BSU Apollo Night (Black Student Union’s talent show) spring semester
• Thompson Poet (visiting poet reading and discussion) every February

A number of area community arts and cultural organizations regularly present programs in the Carling-Sorenson Theater.

Theatreworks@Babson, a community theater group, presents a play every fall semester in support of the liberal arts division’s foundation curriculum. The plays are professionally directed, and casting is open to students, staff, faculty, and area residents. In the fall of 2009, a multicultural cast performed William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Babson regularly hosts business and world leaders speaking on business, as well as cultural and current events, and the arts. These events are often open to the public (many are free). Among the speakers were:

• Roslyn Daum, lawyer, board member, The Center for Women and Enterprise
• Winona Duke, founder of White Earth Land Recovery Project and Native Harvest
• Vicente Fox, Former President of Mexico
• Nicholas Kristof, author, Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
• Jamil Mahuad, former president of Ecuador
• Pam Reeve, chair, The Commonwealth Institute
• David Oliver Relin, author, Three Cups of Tea
• Henri Termeer, chairman and CEO, Genzyme Corporation, inducted into Babson’s Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs

The Thompson Poet Series, held annually in February, welcomed prize-winning poet Claudia Rankine, author of Don’t Let Me Be Lonely.

Speaking to the graduating classes in May was William E. Strickland Jr., president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation. Strickland received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, and John J. Fernandes, 1975 alumnus and president and CEO of AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, received an Honorary Doctor of Laws.

Babson celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Day in February featuring author Patricia J. Williams. East Meets West, organized by Babson’s Asian Pacific Student Organization, takes place in April during Asian Heritage month.

The Glavin Family Chapel is designed to meet the spiritual needs of all in an interfaith facility where members of the College community may practice their faith, seek inspiration and guidance, and find peace in the quiet of a sacred space. The goal is to make Babson and Olin a welcoming community for people of all faiths. Several traditions hold regular worship services at the chapel, including: weekly Catholic Mass; weekly Protestant worship (in conjunction with the Redeemer Church); monthly Shabbat; and regular Buddhist meditation sittings. There also is a private prayer room on the ground floor of the chapel regularly used by Muslim students.

Exhibits of artistic, cultural, and historical interest abound on campus on a rotating schedule. Exhibit hours include weekends, evenings, and by appointment to make the shows community-accessible. In addition to exhibits of student work, offerings this year included:

• “Delirium II,” by sculptor, painter, photographer, installation artist, and human rights activist Elshafei Dafalla Mohamed
• “Inner Garden,” a collaborative installation by Mary Begin, Denise Driscoll, and Mirela Sahleanu
• “Stitch,” a site specific installation by artist August Ventimiglia

While on campus for “Delirium II,” Mohamed presented a one-time tribute to the African diaspora. “Unshackled Memory” was a display of 3,400 brightly painted paper boats made by Mohamed and placed in the shape of a peace symbol on the floor of Knight Auditorium.

The Horn Library has a generous community access policy for Wellesley and Needham residents. In addition to using materials on open shelves, Wellesley and Needham users may check out books for four weeks.

Babson College and Wellesley College help support a day-care center for children of the community and the colleges’ employees. During 2009–2010, the center served 44 children from Wellesley and 12 from Needham. Twenty-one are children with a parent who works or studies at Babson.

Community members have the opportunity to participate in recreational sports and participate in athletic competitions through the Boston Sports Club, the Babson Skating Center, and other on-campus athletic facilities.

The Babson Summer Camps office includes Internal Summer Camps, managing between 15 and 17 camps from June through August; and External Summer Programs. They account for approximately 30 sessions occurring during a seven-week period for local children ages 5–15. Children and adult participants in the External Programs stay on campus for between two and 10 days for overnight conferences or multiday retreats.

Each program on campus, from mid-May through mid-August, is managed by the Summer Programs Office. A portion of the external summer programs is managed directly through organizations on campus. Some examples include the Glavin Office of International Programs, and the Blank Center.

Babson offers a variety of summer sports and traditional day camps for children. Sports camps include soccer, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, tennis, lacrosse, and flag football; and Camp on the Hill is a traditional program for children ages 5–10. Also, Babson contracts for professional conferences and academic camps during the summer.

In summer 2010, 15 in-house sports camps were designed, promoted, and implemented with approximately 2,400 participants. Externally, 19 programs were run with more than 2,500 participants.

In addition to camp directors, the Summer Programs Office employs as many as 150 camp counselors. Many of them currently play on teams, or are coaches and teachers in neighboring towns.

Babson was the halfway point start site for the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk in September. Babson volunteers included firstyear and returning students, faculty, administration, and staff, giving them the opportunity to honor friends, family, co-workers, and patients facing all forms of cancer.

The Babson Skating Center, owned and managed by Babson College, serves the community in many ways. Needham High School’s hockey team uses the rink for its home games. Wellesley High School uses Babson’s skating rink for its home games, and the girls and boys hockey teams each have their own locker rooms.

Local residents take advantage of public skating on weekday mornings and Sunday afternoons. The skating school enrolled more than 500 students from Wellesley and Needham in 2009–2010.

Many Needham and Wellesley adults are members of groups who rent ice time during evening hours for hockey games. The skating rink serves as the site for parties for a number of schools. In Wellesley, they include: Hardy, Hunnewell, and Sprague schools. Needham schools are Broadmeadow, Elliot, Hillside, and Newman.

The skating rink also donates public skating passes to local schools for their fundraising efforts. Tenacre Country Day School in Wellesley holds a skating program there each winter. The annual August Hockey Clinic enrolled skaters from both Wellesley and Needham. Members of the Wellesley Youth Hockey Association are recognized each winter at a Babson varsity hockey game.

Although primary use of the Webster Center facility and Babson athletic fields is for Babson community members, several area groups use the facilities for team practice and play, including: the Wellesley High School swim, field hockey, lacrosse, and track teams; the Needham High School swim and track teams; the Wellesley Swim Association; and the Wellesley Recreation Department.

Babson also is a traditional host of games for the MIAA Division II Girls’ Lacrosse Tournament.

The Babson campus hosts more than 150 intercollegiate competitions throughout the year that are open to the public, either free or for a nominal charge.

The Boston Sports Club Wellesley is a premium health club located behind the Babson College campus. BSC offers cardio machines with personal entertainment screens, a 25-yard swimming pool, supervised express workouts, personal training, massage, indoor tennis, basketball courts, summer camp, laser tag, swim lessons, child care for ages 3 months to 10 years, Pilates, yoga, kickboxing, spin, and more, including a six-pool outdoor summer complex.

The BSC holds active membership in the Wellesley Chamber of Commerce, and hosts or sponsors a number of fundraising events, including road races and walk-a-thons for charities such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Babson purchases a significant amount of products and services from Wellesley and Needham businesses. Babson spent $4,419,438 in Wellesley and $1,825,814 in Needham, including credit card sales. The total spent in Wellesley includes a $75,000 payment in lieu of taxes to the town.

Babson employs 82 residents of Wellesley and 61 residents of Needham, which accounts for approximately 20 percent of employees and $11.8 million of the College’s annual payroll budget. Babson also employs 905 full- and part-time workers who are not residents of these towns, but who patronize local businesses.

The North Hill retirement community in Needham, located on land owned by Babson College, paid $566,000 in property taxes to the Town of Needham.

Babson Executive Conference Center (BECC) purchased $129,126 worth of services and products from Needham and Wellesley businesses. The BECC payroll budget for residents of Wellesley was $51,726. BECC also paid $57,566 to the Town of Wellesley in room occupancy taxes and for licenses and fees.

The average student spent approximately $1,750 on personal expenses. Half of that, $875 per student, is estimated to have been spent on campus or in the local community. In addition, for the 2009–2010 academic year, three undergraduate Babson students lived off campus providing rental income to townspeople.

Boston Sports Club (BSC), a recreation facility owned by Babson and leased by Town Sports International, regularly purchases products and services from vendors in Wellesley and Needham. BSC paid wages to more than 275 employees some of whom are residents of Needham and Wellesley.

Babson invested $7.6 million in building projects and another $13.1 million in plant maintenance. While it is not possible to detail how much of these funds directly benefited the towns of Wellesley and Needham, it is a major contribution to the economy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Most of the materials and services used for plant maintenance are from local vendors and contractors.