Colleges Snap Up Unused Office Space in a Slumping Market

When Jack Welch, the longtime chief executive of General Electric, opened a global headquarters on a sylvan expanse in Fairfield, Conn., in 1974, he probably did not envision college students streaming into its two pristine office buildings. But on a recent morning, students at Sacred Heart University headed to classrooms on floors once filled with file cabinets and cubicles. Not that all the students at the Catholic university were aware that their classes were in the former home of a multinational conglomerate or were even familiar with the name General Electric.