<p>Diversity attracts diversity. If a university does not have a certain amount of persons from a minority group, it will be hard to attract additional quality students from that minority group. I know of one mostly white selective private university that has to give full scholarships away to attract quality African-American students, because they feel so uncomfortable when they visit and don’t see any other African-American students.</p>
<p>Almost every college and university has placed a greater emphasis on need based aid in recent years out of necessity. If they didn’t, they would not only have lost high quality new students, but would have also lost much of their current student body because their families suffered reduced incomes.</p>
<p>Almost every urban university has placed an emphasis in recent years in investing in the surrounding urban neighborhood. Many families do not want to send their children to a city where the nearby downtown is dead, depressing and dangerous. The downtown serves as the “face” of the city and greatly affects the city and region’s reputation.</p>
<p>Also, downtown facilities are often useful to attract part-time grad students, who are profitable to a university.</p>
<p>In addition, downtown facilities often avoid fights with neighbors over expansion plans.</p>