Story Highlights

• Franklin Cummings Tech opened its $75 million Roxbury campus Jan. 22.
• Enrollment doubled over four years with the school financially stable.
• The 68,000-square-foot building accommodates 1,500 students seeking LEED gold status.

Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology is finally open in Roxbury.

After more than five years of planning and more than 100 years since the initial idea to put a new college in Roxbury, Franklin Cummings Tech’s new campus officially opened on Jan. 22.

With a sustainable and modern design in the heart of Nubian Square, the new building is in many ways what its predecessor near Boston’s South End was not: Accessible, transparent and bright.

“Nubian Square helps us be closer to a larger portion of our constituents,” Aisha Francis, the school's president, said. “This is a cultural hub and there is so much new development happening here that it allows us to become an anchor institution.”

Around a quarter of students are from the Roxbury area, where the school now sits. And those that are not nearby can more easily access the campus with multiple bus lines and the orange line steps away, said Francis.

A homecoming to Roxbury

Franklin Cummings Tech got its start with Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin put money in a trust, to be used after he died for the purpose of advancing knowledge, especially in the trades. Over 100 years after his death, that trust had evolved into a foundation that started the college in the early 1900s. Fast forward to the present day. The $75 million new campus project, dedicated to sustainability and workforce development, is opening in the heart of Roxbury's Nubian Square. The 68,000-square-foot building is suited to fit 1,500 students and is aiming for LEED gold status, according to the president.

“I’m happy we can leverage this time of growth and renewal in Nubian Square. Finding a site in 2019 that would help us catalyze its development was a long time coming,” Francis said.

Success story for President Aisha Francis

For Francis, the new campus project felt like her “third child,” she said — needing attention at every turn.

Francis came to Franklin Cummings Tech as chief of staff, just before the new campus plans launched in 2019. She said she is now proudly looking forward to more expansion, and sees the school as a new anchor institution for Nubian Square.

Francis turned the school in financial trouble into a successful one. Before she joined, the school was “grossly in debt.” Now, Francis has led the institution to be in the black every year since 2020.

Enrollment is up, doubling over the past four years and maintaining multiple waitlists for in-demand training programs. There are also new majors focused in biotechnology and business that are drawing attention.

A new partnership was also just signed with its campus neighbor, Roxbury Community College. In the last six months, Franklin Cummings Tech and RCC have established a two-plus-two program to make a combined pathway for people interested in attending both schools.

The combined vision is for students to combine practical skills with entrepreneurship and give back to the community. Marvin Loiseau, chief academic officer and dean of academic and student affairs, sees this as taking a student interested in childhood education trained at RCC who wants to start their own childcare center with a degree in business from Franklin Cummings Tech.

To Francis, a stellar graduate will give back to their community by showing up with refined skills and contributing to the local ecosystem. She is excited to look out from the new windows of the campus and watch her students further develop the neighborhood.

“We want to draw from the intellectual capital of this community in Roxbury," said Francis. "It is our mission now to bloom in this area."