Welcome to Undergrad. Meet Your 81-Year-Old Classmate

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2:28Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. When Courtney Tello was a sophomore at LaSalle University in Massachusetts, she made a new friend who lived across campus. When they talk about how they got to know each other, they both laugh. We would kind of joke, oh, have you picked your courses yet? I'm like, have you picked yours yet? You know what I mean? And you go back and forth. She's like, oh, well, I'm taking this class. And what did you just learn about? Some queens. Oh, four medieval queens. The friend Courtney made, that second voice you heard, is Tony. Courtney was an undergraduate student.

3:05Tony was not. He started college 72 years ago. Oh my gosh, 72 years ago. Toni was assigned as Courtney's mentor through a cross-generational program on campus. We probably talked for an hour, and I felt like it had gone by like that, and we scheduled, what, the next week, and never since then, it's my history. Courtney was studying elementary education, and Toni, when she was still in the workforce, was an elementary school teacher. The two hit it off right away. I can share some things with her, just being a sounding board. And I mean, what better person to turn to than somebody who's, you know, slept, eaten, breathing, you know?

3:48Yeah. I've been so blessed. Like, everybody's jealous of me up there. I'm going for dinner tonight at the village. That village Courtney's talking about is LaSalle Village. It's the senior living community where Tony lives. And it's actually right on LaSalle University's campus. LaSalle Village and LaSalle University used to host, like, a senior prom. Like a senior senior prom? Like senior and senior, like college students and senior as in like seniors from the community. Elizabeth Rembert covers higher education on Bloomberg's municipal finance team. And she says at a time of dwindling student enrollment, tight school finances and a rapidly aging population, universities have been opening their campuses to an unusual source of revenue, retirement communities.

4:37Then as I dug into the topic more, these instances of senior living facilities being on active college campuses kept popping up. And I noticed, oh, this seems like it's more of a trend. A trend that's led to some money in campus coffers and to friendships like Courtney and Tony's. Yeah, we've done breakfast, lunch, dinner. Hearing about her projects. My feeling is that she's going to be really awesome.

5:10I'm Sarah Holder, and this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, we explore the trend of colleges opening up senior living residences. Next to, or even right on, campus. What's in it for the schools? What's in it for the senior citizens? And what happens when baby boomers and Gen Z students coexist?

5:34exist. Bloomberg's Elizabeth Rembert met Courtney and Tony a few months ago on a visit to LaSalle University in Massachusetts. Courtney, when you decided to go to school here, were you surprised that there was this element on campus? You know, I had kind of heard of it, but I didn't really know what it truly was because I was like, I was just a bunch of houses down the bottom of the street, bottom of the hill. That was as much as I knew. Those houses sit on LaSalle's 54-acre campus near Boston. So really prime real estate. And that's part of what makes LaSalle an appealing place for retirees like Tony to move in.

6:07So this setup started with the vision of the president of the school at that point, President Tom DeWitt. And he saw this unused parcel of land on LaSalle University's campus. He wanted to use it to bring more money onto the school's balance sheets. At that point, they were a community college. They were kind of struggling. And President DeWitt saw it as an opportunity to bring on some more income, but also as a way to kind of further its education mission and bring on these seniors who really had this interest in lifelong learning, wanted to be a part of this vibrant campus life, and kind of live out their golden years on a college campus.

6:49So they can live in this community and take classes at the college? Yes, exactly. I've signed up to take a juggling course. And the other one is a history of hip-hop. LaSalle Village opened back in 2000. In addition to juggling and hip-hop history courses, the university offers mentorship programs, pairing villagers like Toni with students like Courtney. When Elizabeth met her in the spring, Courtney was a college senior. Just as soon as you see Toni and Courtney, you can tell that they have a very close relationship. She's like a grandchild. She's my second grandmother, and I feel like she's been in my life this whole time.

7:30That's so heartwarming. How common is this? Retirees or seniors living in communities on college campuses. I talked to an expert who kind of tracks these communities. He calls them university retirement communities, and he estimates that there's about 85 across the country. the different ways that they play out in these places can vary. And so there's places like LaSalle Village at LaSalle University, which is very educational. It's on campus. The residents have to sign up for 450 hours of annual learning. And then there's other places, the University of Alabama. I think they have one on campus, but there's not the same like educational requirements.

8:13And then there's other places like in Florida at the universities there where there will be a retirement community just off of campus. Well, Elizabeth, I'm wondering if you could give us a little backstory here. When did this movement of seniors and college students cohabitating start in the U.S.? It started in the 1980s, according to the experts that I talk to, and it really started at Iowa State University and Indiana University, where basically retired alumni, faculty, college presidents were saying, we loved this place. We gave our careers to this place. What am I going to do now that I'm retiring?

8:54I still want to be attached to this community. And so they started nearby senior living facilities that grew into more established places when the schools would partner with senior living operators. And so it kind of just started as this informal place where people can stay close to these places they care about so much. But now I think it's kind of gaining steam more as a business model as schools contend with a really challenging landscape in higher education right now. One of the biggest challenges for colleges right now is a drop in enrollment numbers. Researchers are predicting that high school graduating class sizes peaked in 2025, that from now on graduating class sizes are just going to fall.

9:39That's in part because birth rates dropped around the 2008 financial crisis. And 18 years later, that drop is hitting college enrollment. Fewer students means less tuition and less revenue for these schools. In the next decade, that could force as many as 370 private colleges in the U.S. to close or to merge, according to a major higher education consulting firm called Huron Consulting Group. That would impact some 600 ,000 students. And so the drop that we've already seen, at least 40 colleges have closed or announced plans to close since 2020. So we've already seen the effects playing out among small colleges.

10:19And some research suggests that under a worst case drop in enrollment, assuming a 15 % drop in prospective students, we could see as many as 80 additional colleges closing. People are saying that schools really need to be thinking about bold ideas to remain afloat in these challenging times. And we know that as the high school graduates go down, you know, America is getting older. The amount of retirees is going up. And that wave of aging Americans, the so-called silver tsunami, needs retirement-friendly housing. The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care, a nonprofit, estimates that the U.S.

10:57will need over 806 ,000 new retirement units by 2030. Elizabeth says her sources have told her that more and more universities are seeing that as an opportunity and asking questions about how they can get their own senior living community started. So this is kind of a natural demographic play if you're trying to think about where can we find new customers. Here's how these deals tend to work. A college will generally lease its land or share its branding or services with a retirement community, an independently run private residence that opens up on or near its campus. In many cases, like LaSalle's, the university offers retirees access to the school's courses and amenities.

11:41In rarer cases, the schools have full or partial ownership of the retirement communities. In exchange for sharing their land, branding, or services, the schools collect payments. Higher ed really needs to start thinking outside the box. That's Mike Kopis, the vice president for administration at Purchase College, a state university in Westchester County, New York. In 2023, a senior living community called Broadview opened up on campus. It's pretty much a land lease agreement. So they run 40 acres, at least 40 acres from the college or from the state of New York. The state of New York, through a legislative process, agreed to the terms as long as that money came back in the form of scholarship money and faculty support.

12:25And part of how it supports education at Purchase is that the senior living facility pays$2 million a year to the college, and 75 % of that is for student scholarships, and then 25 % of that is towards supporting faculty. So it gives us additional scholarship money in times where state support's been fantastic, but there's a little uncertainty within administrations. Could be a change of administration. and this is real dollars coming to the campus that you can count on on a yearly basis. Broadview has 220 independent living apartments and villas, plus additional assisted living and memory care facilities.

13:03According to Broadview's website, residents pay a one-time entrance fee, plus a monthly fee. The entrance fee can range from$270 ,000 to about$2.5 million, depending on the unit, and is partially repaid to residents or their estates after they move out or pass away. Elizabeth says for retirees who opt into these programs, the sell is about more than just a roof over their heads. The people that I talk to say that today's retirees, they don't want just a pretty place to live. They want to continue their hobbies. They want to be lifelong learners. They're really in search of these vibrant places and activities, and colleges can provide those natural programs for them that really fill their days.

13:47And the residents that I talked to said that they did like being, you know, around young people, keeping them vibrant. And then the students really do cherish those relationships, like Courtney and Tony, those friendship relationships, but also the mentoring that can come and the networking that can come. Elizabeth says things have been going well since seniors first moved on to Purchase College's campus two years ago. Their residents seem really excited by the programs that they get to do as a part of members of the college campus community. Purchase has a really big performing arts scene. I talked to a dance professor and she said that that's been really helpful for her students because it's been kind of a built-in audience for these performers.

14:32They can get used to dancing in front of an audience. Bigger audiences for student performances. Strong intergenerational friendships. this all sounds really great. But at some schools, the setup has come with growing pains. Tonight, a big ruling in a battle over noise. That's after the break. Today's show is brought to you by Vanguard. To all the financial advisors listening, let's talk bonds for a minute. Capturing value and fixed income is not easy. Bond markets are massive, murky, and let's be real, lots of firms throw a couple flashy funds your way and call it a day. But not Vanguard. At Vanguard, institutional quality isn't a tagline.

15:13It's a commitment to your clients. We're talking top-grade products across the board of over 80 bond funds, actively managed by a 200-person global squad of sector specialists, analysts, and traders. These folks live and breathe fixed income. So if you're looking to give your clients consistent results year in and year out, go see the record for yourself at Vanguard.com slash audio. That's Vanguard.com slash audio. All investing is subject to risk, Vanguard Marketing Corporation Distributor.

16:08Union right now. And from London, I'm looking at what all that means for markets, money and the wider economy. We've got reporters across Europe and around the globe feeding in as stories break. So whether it's geopolitics, energy, tech or markets, you're hearing it while it happens. It's smart, calm and to the point. And it fits into your morning. You can find new episodes of the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast by 7am in Dublin or 8am in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast.

16:47Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers, we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

17:15In early 2021, a group of senior citizens moved into Mirabella, a residential community on Arizona State University's main campus near Phoenix. Mirabella boasts aqua fitness exercise classes, access to the university's 5 million book library, and the opportunity to audit university courses on everything from woodworking to salsa dancing. It all sounded great, but... There was some tension between their senior living community on campus. It was right next to a music venue that was really loud. Mirabella and its residents sued the music venue for incessant and unrelenting noise. ABC 15, a local station, interviewed Mirabella residents, capturing their frustration at the time.

18:03They played music so loud, we live right here. And it kept us awake. But some students argued that the campus was meant to serve them, not the senior citizens who'd moved in next door. One student wrote an op-ed in the college newspaper, criticizing the school for investing in the wrong things, prioritizing Mirabella and the financial profits it brought over the needs of its students. And one local resident voiced similar concerns in another interview with ABC15. Why are we building a 55-plus community on ASU campus? Like, this place should be able to have concerts because it's on ASU campus. Eventually, Mirabella and the venue settled the lawsuit, and the venue promised to implement new sound mitigation measures.

18:53And other ASU students have praised Mirabella for the new programs and unexpected friendships it's brought to campus. Elizabeth says snags like that lawsuit aside, these programs can also be challenging to get off the ground to begin with, even when both parties are bought in. It is an unlikely pair in some ways. schools tend to be these very bureaucratic, slow-moving institutions where senior housing companies are often pretty shareholder-driven, so they want results fast. And thinking about the timeline specifically of like Broadview and Purchase College, Purchase College started floating the idea in the early 2000s and doors opened in December 2023.

19:35So the experts that I spoke to said that patience is a big part of it. And these arrangements aren't a good fit for every small college that's struggling to stay afloat. For one thing, the school needs to have enough land to lease out a chunk of it. And it helps if it's near a big population center like Boston, New York City, or Phoenix, Arizona. Unfortunately, it's not a silver bullet for the really challenging landscape of higher education right now. Are these programs enough to chip away at some of the financial and enrollment issues that universities across the country are facing and to address the shortage of retirement units.

20:12How would you assess this as an approach for solving both of these problems? On the college side, when I talked to the president of LaSalle and folks on the purchase college side of things, they said that the revenue that's coming in from the management contractor, from the land lease, from the senior living communities, it's not a huge part of their balance sheet, but it does free up other money for them. So it can be a tool. It's not going to save the day, I think, for these really large, just nationwide challenges. And then as far as the retirement housing side, it can be a partnership. This is a niche.

20:49It's a niche of people who would want to live on a college campus. It's a niche of it does tend to be a more expensive option as far as senior living housing. But there's got to be lots of options to solve the housing crisis and the gap in how much senior living communities we need versus we have right now. Toni Miller told Elizabeth that she's found a home on campus at LaSalle Village. Retirement community is a place to go to die. And here it's definitely people come and they're going to live it up to the end. Yeah. And that makes a big difference. Courtney Tello graduated from LaSalle University in the spring.

21:27But she's still on campus getting her master's degree and assistant coaching the field hockey team. And she and Toni have stayed close. I'm told Tony that I'm going to crash on a couch. I'm actually moving in. Just because I have a degree doesn't mean that I'm going anywhere. Okay, so you two will continue to see each other. Yes, 100%. Okay. When I was talking to the students and the residents, it would come back to realizing, you know, we're not so different. When you're in the same space, when you're both trying to learn Spanish or you're just trying to make a friend on a college campus, when those types of bonds can become stronger than just the assumptions that you might have looking at someone, it melts away and then you realize this is a friend or this is a fellow student and we're both trying to learn Spanish.

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