Educating The Workforce | Timothy Flanagan President, Framingham State
Photo/Ron Bouley
Timothy Flanagan, president of Framingham State College, keeps the college close to its roots while branching out into the new economy.
Ask any Massachusetts business person what makes the state a good place to run a company, and it's a good bet they won't talk about the taxes or the price of electricity. Almost everyone agrees that the big assets that make up for all kinds of expenses in the Bay State are a highly educated work force and a cluster of technology-focused industry.
Timothy Flanagan, president of Framingham State College, is one of the people working to make sure the state keeps those advantages. Since taking his job in 2006, he's been helping the college increase its focus on preparing students for jobs in growing fields, particularly in science and technology.
Flanagan says his entire career has been at state universities that began as teachers' colleges, starting with the State University of New York system. Framingham State began in Lexington in 1839 as the country's first "normal school" dedicated to training teachers, and Flanagan says he found that history "really appealing" when he decided to take the president's job there. And he also sees the mission-driven vision of training teachers as a model for the college's current goals of preparing students to help the state grow economically.
Cost Control
Flanagan says the college is in the process of creating a professional science master's program to get graduate students ready to work in the life sciences. It's also adding a master's in STEM education to prepare elementary and high school teachers to teach children the skills they'll need for technology-focused jobs.
As an active member of the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce and the Framingham Rotary Club, Flanagan keeps his finger on the pulse of the area's labor needs. But if the college tries to contribute to the success of the MetroWest region, it also benefits from the area's resources. Flanagan says students are drawn to FSC partly because of the good housing and transportation, local cultural events and proximity to Boston.
"The quality of life is really very high," he says.
Flanagan takes pride in the fact that FSC is the most selective of Massachusetts' state colleges and at the same time the most affordable of them. Controlling costs is crucial, he says, because there's no sense in providing a fantastic education that few people can take advantage of.
Flanagan is personally connected with some of the area's growth industries. His daughter is a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and his son is a software engineer in Boxborough.
He and his wife, Nancy, also now have two grandchildren, both born in the past year. Besides doting on the "incredible, delightful little boys," they spend time outdoors and doing their own home renovations.
"That's sort of a nice antidote to being a college president," he says, "Getting your hands dirty and doing some physical work on the weekends."
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