THE EDGE: Dreaming of an enhanced college feel to our ‘higher learning corridor’

From the Sarasota Herald Tribune, com    January 12, 2020

We have four amazing local institutions of higher learning; is it possible to knit the ones who share geography into more of a college community?

When most people think of Sarasota — and more broadly the Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice region — they don’t think “college town.”  But as many of us know — some of you because of the rich and informative column “Higher Learning” in the Herald-Tribune every week — that is far from the case.
We are home to an amazing cluster of institutions of higher learning led by locally focused administrations that greatly enhance our community, not only with instruction and research but with a magnet-like pull that keeps some of our young people in the area. For any of you with a history in the region, you already know there has been a longstanding concern about brain-drain, tempered somewhat in recent years by the growth in depth of our colleges and in some of our technology and creative-class business sectors.
Our local higher learning offerings run the gamut. There is often little reason for students to leave the region to begin their collegiate journey.
Read how New College of Florida, SCF, USFSM and Ringling College of Art and Design comprise the higher education learning corridor.