Jon Marcus, The Boston Globe

Jon Marcus

The Boston Globe

Boston, MA, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • The Boston Globe
  • The Hechinger Report
  • NBC News
  • Education Next
  • PBS
  • Nieman Reports
  • The Atlantic
  • Washington Monthly
  • TIME.com
  • Thrillist

Past articles by Jon:

With tipping on the decline, hospitality providers are turning to tech and blunt invitations

Think the gratitude expressed through lavish tipping at the start of the pandemic has persisted? Think again. → Read More

Once last resorts, hotel restaurants are making a comeback

Luxury hotels in particular are adding high-concept, high-quality restaurants under noteworthy chefs in response to guest expectations, new competition, and the need to diversify their revenues beyond guest rooms. → Read More

At the edge of a cliff, some colleges are teaming up to survive

In a sort of Amazon Prime approach to higher education that lets majors in the humanities and other disciplines “stream” classes, often taught by star faculty from top universities, in fields such as coding — without leaving their home campuses. → Read More

What researchers learned about online higher education during the pandemic

The pandemic forced almost all of higher education online, creating a worldwide laboratory for researchers to study how effective it is. Early results suggest that online higher education may work better than pre-pandemic research showed. → Read More

Cities are reclaiming spaces and uniting communities with beautiful, funky parks

San Francisco's Presidio Tunnel Tops park, which opened in July, is the latest example of spaces being reclaimed from rusting infrastructure, industrial ruins, highway underpasses, dilapidated piers, and other urban blight — a trend that began with New York City’s wildly popular High Line converted elevated railway. → Read More

On both coasts, oyster tours are the new wine tours

And there’s still time to enjoy one in the temperate fall, before they generally wrap up for the season. → Read More

The unasked question about the student loan bailout: What’s colleges’ responsibility?

As taxpayers shoulder an estimated $300 billion of canceled student loans, colleges have largely escaped scrutiny over why students have so much debt from educations that often took longer and cost more than expected, led to jobs that didn’t pay enough to cover their loans or never finished a degree at all. → Read More

Pull up a chair: Outdoor dining isn’t going anywhere

When al fresco dining started during the pandemic, “customers got used to it." Then they realized they actually really liked it, so cities and restaurants are vastly expanding what's available. → Read More

How higher education lost its shine

It’s a culmination of costs that have exceeded many people’s willingness to pay and skepticism about the value of a degree. → Read More

Something new for travelers is popping up all over

Pop-up shops are surging in trendy destinations, filling empty storefronts left behind by the retail carnage of the pandemic and offering unique goods far more interesting than what’s available in kitschy tourist outlets. → Read More

More travelers getting in the spirit with distillery tours

The number of distilleries in the United States has grown in the last 15 years from about 50 to more than 2,300. And while they hit a bump in the pandemic, they’ve come roaring back. → Read More

As gas prices soar, destinations are inviting visitors to leave the car at home

Popular this season are islands where motor vehicles are not allowed, all-inclusive resorts where they’re not needed, big cities with reliable public transportation, small cities that are bike- or walkable, and ski and beach towns where everything is close by. → Read More

Colleges’ new solution to enrollment declines: Reducing the number of dropouts

There’s a new emphasis at colleges and universities on preventing dropouts, who end up with little to show for their time and tuition. → Read More

Why travel the old-fashioned way when you can go with a celebrity?

An expanding cast of celebrated chefs, authors, athletes, entertainers, adventurers, and other experts are launching, buying into, and leading travel excursions worldwide, taking advantage of their social media followings and diversifying their brands. → Read More

Tuition, fees continues to rise as pandemic inflation woes hit colleges

Inflation is pushing up college tuition and fees while staff shortages are forcing wages and benefits higher. The squeeze comes at the worst possible time for higher education. → Read More

Inflation is coming to college campuses. Prepare to pay more.

Higher commodity costs and pressure to raise wages mean that the next consumer product likely to cost Americans more will be college. → Read More

Facing an existential crisis, some colleges do something rare for them: adapt

As the enrollment crash becomes an existential crisis, a few colleges and universities are embarking on dramatic transformations, generally challenging a culture that resists change. → Read More

As winter travel season gets going, vacationers are in for labor pains

A new report has found a third of hospitality employees who lost their jobs at the start of COVID have no intention of returning, and a third of those still working are considering following them out the door. → Read More

A handful of colleges are finally providing training in a way consumers want it: fast

Bucking the ponderously slow tradition of conventional higher education, a handful of colleges and universities are letting students start training programs whenever they want and work toward their credentials more or less full time, finishing much more quickly and moving faster into new careers. → Read More

Local groups are shining a light on the past, and not just the pretty parts

“The layer we publicly remember and prominently memorialize is the Freedom Trail, the revolutionary history, the Puritans, and abolitionism,” says Andrew Robichaud, a Boston University historian. But there's so much more than that. → Read More