Rick Mills recently “unveiled proposals to expand graduate housing to Lebanon, with a potential project near Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in the works” (Valley News).

Last fall, the college announced that the trustees

authorized a two-step process to identify and select a development firm to work on a planned graduate-housing project. The project aims to provide 250 or more additional beds for students in multi-unit housing in proximity to campus.

Making a real town out of the medical center would be a great idea. But housing stock is an investment that the college has used to produce income for 120 years; it is not clear how much of a hand the college will retain in this project.

The hospital itself is also expanding, adding a new parking garage and a wing containing 60 beds (DHMC News, Valley News).