"College Finds Its Angel" - Boston Globe article
December 01, 2007
By Peter Schworm
GLOBE STAFF
Eight years ago, Emmanuel College's future looked bleak. Cash-strapped, with fewer than 500 students, the small school in Boston's Fenway neighborhood stood at a precarious crossroad.
But Emmanuel held a trump card, a coveted acre of its campus near the burgeoning Longwood Medical Area. College officials had long held the land in reserve, like a valuable family heirloom to be sold only as a last resort. With its prospects in doubt, New England's first Catholic women's college began searching for a savior.
The school's longtime president, Sister Janet Eisner, found an unlikely source: the pharmaceutical giant Merck Co., which agreed in 2000 to lease the land for 75 years for approximately $50 million, with no strings attached.