Content area
Full Text
A FEW BRIEF MONTHS after St. John's University opened a Manhattan campus, everything came to a halt. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced the college to vacate 101 Murray St. when city officials declared the building a recovery center.
It took six months for St. John's, which had merged with The College of Insurance, to get back into the building. Nevertheless, buying and operating a Manhattan campus is paying off, college administrators say.
"We were at a complete standstill, but we were able to recover," says the Rev. Donald J. Harrington, president of the Jamaica, Queensbased university. "The new campus has been a financial asset and has allowed us to broaden our offerings to students who are studying insurance and risk management."
Despite daunting real estate prices and the high cost of doing business in Manhattan, many private colleges and universities are choosing to site a campus in the borough because it is a nexus for older students and for businesses. Schools say that having a...