Anyone entering one of the many restaurants in Providence, R.I., is likely to end up sitting next to out-of-town parents visiting their sons and daughters who attend nearby colleges. That’s because Rhode Island has one of the highest (the local chamber of commerce says the highest) concentration of colleges and universities in the United States.
Given that higher education commands a huge payroll in the city, you might assume that the local newspaper, The Providence Journal, fields a team of higher-education reporters. But the ProJo, as it’s dubbed in Providence, lacks even one full-time higher-education reporter. Staff cutbacks in the last two years have left the education reporter, Jennifer D. Jordan, covering statewide elementary- and secondary-school issues, adult education, preschool, and higher education.