Detroit News business columnist Daniel Howes says in a feature piece on page one of the business section, that Wayne State University is an example of what it takes to get people back in Detroit . He attributes much of the university's success to President Irvin D. Reid and his "voice of educational entrepreneurialism." Reid is meeting with hotel development companies to discuss his vision of a hotel and conference center that would draw from the university community and visitors to Detroit's two large medical complexes nearby - Detroit Medical Center and Henry Ford Hospital. "What do we bring to the partnership? We bring the land and a substantial number of customers," Reid says. "Emphatically, yes, people are coming here." Howes writes that when Reid arrived in 1997, Wayne State had 1,200 occupied beds in residence halls. Today it has 3,200. Within 15 years, according to its long-range plan, it wants to have as many as 8,000 students living on campus. Howes concludes that " Wayne State is offering tuition-paying customers what the next mayor must provide if he hopes to rebuild Detroit 's weak tax base and stem the exodus to the suburbs - safe streets, a good education and solid services and amenities at lower tax rates.