Axios Boston

October 23, 2024
It's Wednesday. We're halfway through the week.
- 🎶 Sounds like: "Lazy Like A Cat."
Today's weather: Sunny with temps in the mid-70s.
Today's newsletter is 934 words — a 3.5-minute read.
1 big thing: Enrollment gains and retention challenges
Massachusetts community colleges are seeing an increase in early enrollment after the state made the two-year colleges free.
- Now comes the hard part: Making sure students can get that degree.
Why it matters: Black and Latino students have far lower completion rates than their white counterparts in public colleges, including those in the UMass system.
Driving the news: Community college enrollment increased 14% between 2023 and 2024, per state estimates.
- The state's public higher education system as a whole saw its second annual increase in fall undergraduate enrollment after nine straight years of declines.
- Much of the growth is coming from community colleges.
The big picture: Overall public enrollment remains nearly 10,000 students shy of pre-pandemic levels, but some higher education experts believe public colleges will continue to see increases with free community college.
Yes, but: Students are struggling to complete their education, based on a review of outcomes for students who enrolled in public colleges in the past six years.
- The state highlighted stark racial and ethnic gaps, raising concerns about inequities that are creating education barriers.

Zoom in: The state set the completion rate goal for community colleges at 40% by 2033.
- The rate rebounded slightly for Black students to 27.3% and fell for Latino students to 25.5% in the 2022-23 academic year, the most recent year available.
- The rate for white students already exceeded the target, reaching 40.1%.
Completion rates for four-year public universities, including the UMass system, showed similar disparities.
What's next: Massachusetts leaders are exploring how to address barriers to education, from child care and transportation costs to confusion around what classes cover prerequisites when students transfer to a four-year public college.
- A recently released report on how to boost diversity and equity gave several recommendations for retaining students, including helping address cost-related barriers.
2. 💻 Workers are lonely, no matter the workplace
Here's a puzzle: Working from home appears to make people feel more alone, but forcing them back to the office full-time won't necessarily make them feel better, according to new research published in the Harvard Business Review.
Why it matters: Loneliness is a huge societal issue with often devastating health and cultural fallout, as the U.S. Surgeon General has warned — and in the workplace it can be particularly damaging.
- Lonely workers are less productive, rack up higher health care costs and are more likely to quit their jobs, says Constance Noonan Hadley, a professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, who co-authored the study.
Zoom in: Lonely workers want to feel closer or more connected to colleagues.
- The researchers defined work loneliness as "the distressful experience of having a higher desire for social connection than what is subjectively experienced while working."
- They surveyed 1,000 full-time office workers, aged 22-50, working in "knowledge" fields like finance, software engineering and consulting.
What they found: The loneliest workers are getting a lot of face-to-face contact, but it doesn't seem to help: 47% of the most lonely respondents said they conducted nearly half of their prior month's work in person.
- There was no difference in loneliness between those in-office full-time and those who are hybrid. Fully remote workers, on average, were slightly lonelier.
What matters the most, per their research, is the number of social opportunities workers have.
3. 🔙 BTMU: Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck
🗳 The latest UMass Amherst poll shows a tight presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris getting 48% of the vote and former President Trump getting 46%. (WCVB)
Federal authorities arrested a man yesterday for allegedly masturbating and exposing himself to passengers on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Boston. (NBC Boston)
🍽 The Lenox Hotel in the Back Bay is replacing its three restaurants. (TimeOut)
- Sweeney's on Boylston opens Nov. 1, replacing Sólás Irish Pub.
- The Irving is replacing City Bar in the lobby lounge.
- Another restaurant is replacing City Table next year.
4. 🧅 Cheapskate's guide: Pickling at home
Steph here. I've always been afraid of canning and even pickling — who wants to risk botulism? — but a free class taught me the basics.
Why it matters: The Boston Public Library's Nutrition Lab is offering no-cost guidance that not only inspires healthy eating, but also zero-waste cooking.
BPL's chef-in-residence, Glorya Fernandez, brought in chef Michelle Carter for two pickling classes recently.
Price: However much your groceries and vinegar cost (you could get a $5 veggie box from the Flashfood app). Plus any jar in your kitchen.
What we did: Chopped some herbs, onions, tomatoes and peppers, and poured some vinegar over it.
- Carter suggested pickling with different types of vinegar, whether it's rice vinegar or malt or balsamic. I hadn't considered that before.
- Same goes for the herbs. Some recipes, like pickles, might call for dill and parsley. Others, like onions or peppers, could use rosemary, thyme and basil.
- Adding seasoning is key, whether it's garlic powder, adobo or other spices.
- We cut a square of parchment paper to place on top of the jar, and sealed it.
If nothing else, the class taught me how to properly chop vegetables.
- I've heard of the claw technique, but I've been bad at practicing it. Thanks, Ms. Glorya.
5. 🏀 1 championship banner to go
Last night was a celebration for the ages. Now the Celtics prepare to win the championship all over again.
- They're off to a good start with last night's 132-109 victory against the New York Knicks.
The Celtics scored 29 3-pointers by the fourth quarter, tying the NBA record for most triples in a game, per the Bleacher Report.
Deehan needs to get back on the $1 oyster circuit.
Steph needs suggestions for getting over Zoom fatigue.
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