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4th Annual Best Practices in Building University/City Relations Conference
Teaming Across Campus and Community
June 1-4th, 2009
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GENERAL MEMBERS
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 The Newsstand is being sent to you as an introduction to the International Town & Gown Association. Members of the ITGA receive this twice-weekly publication and a monthly news letter highlighting college town news from around the world. Explore membership opportunities at www.town-gown.net to help keep these communication channels open to all. |
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Town & Gown Leadership
University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth student running for selectman of PembrokePEMBROKE, MA - Enterprise News of Gatehouse News Service reports that a recent high school graduate and current UM-Dartmouth student has filed to run for the office of selectman of Pembroke, MA. The 19 year old student candidate commutes from his Pembroke home to the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and is working to complete a double major in public policy and political science. Campaign issues relevant to the student include maintaining quality services in town without raising fees or taxes, streamlining department budgets by bringing in an outside expert to make sure services are offered in the most cost-effective way. Other campaign issues are working to implement an e-billing system to save paper and mailing costs and to see more sidewalks in town.
Flint, Michigan Could Be A College Town
FLINT, MI - A Flint Journal blog calls for Flint to become a true college town, another Ann Arbor. Options of the town-gown partnershipcould include the University of Michigan taking over one of the hospitals attracting doctors and patients as well as students. UM-Flint's new chancellor discussed the Flint dream at a recent Rotary club meeting: "We are in the process of turning Flint from a town with colleges into a college town." Kettering, MCC, UM-Flint and Baker College, enroll more than 25,000 college students in the Flint area. UM-Flint's new residence hall, the former Character Inn will house 550 students, along with other apartments - 1,000 college students could be living downtown by 2010.
The Flint Mlive blog invites Residents are invited to attend a community debate called "College Town Flint -- You Make It Happen." A five-person panel will lead the forum at the University of Michigan-Flint. Debate sponsors are UM-Flint, Kettering University, Baker College of Flint, Mott Community College, The Flint Journal, The Flint Club, the Flint School District and the Genesee Intermediate School District.
Editorial Asks Bowling Green State University to Give Supporters One Year to Save Hockey Program
BOWLING GREEN, KY - The Sentinel-Tribune editorial board writes that BGSU is rumored to be eliminating its hockey program. In the 40 years since the first varsity Falcon hockey game was played, the program has become a source of tremendous pride not only for the university and its alumni, but also for the community. During those four decades, thousands of community residents have participated in figure skating, curling and youth hockey at the Ice Arena, which gave birth to the figure skating careers of Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton and recently-crowned U.S. Figure Skating Champion Alissa Czisny. No other campus facility comes close to matching the arena for usage by the community. The editor offers that "now is the time for the university trustees to demonstrate that hockey and the Ice Arena remain priorities at BGSU. President, Dr. Carol Cartwright has been very active in community outreach with very impressive town/gown leadership. Dr. Cartwright appreciates the fact that BGSU cannot function as an island surrounded by a community. She now has the opportunity to establish her BGSU legacy as the president who gave that community along with Falcon alumni the chance to save the hockey program and Ice Arena." |
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Economic Development
Pennsylvania Borough and University to benefit from Town-Gown Development
GLASSBORO, PA - The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on a $300 million plan to create a "quintessential college town" of Glassboro , PA. Officials will hold a ground-breaking ceremony signaling the start of construction of a boulevard connecting Rowan University and Glassboro. Borough and university officials say the project will improve town-gown relations in this mostly rural area and offer new economic activities for students, faculty, and community residents.
Among the celebrations there are nodes of discontent. Audiotapes have been made public of a borough official attempting to persuade a resident to sell his home to the developer of the project. The audiotapes reveal a borough employee telling a resident that the town would use eminent domain and "take every single thing that you own" if he failed to finalize a sale. The resident released the audiotapes of the conversation and now has himself, announced plans to run for borough council to "attack the lack of transparency in the town". The developers are moving ahead with plans for the 26 acres to build off-campus housing for more than 800 students, a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a Starbucks, a Holiday Inn, and as many as 125 retail shops and a few hundred apartments. Townhouses for about 500 students, which will be leased by Rowan, are scheduled to be finished by the fall semester.
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Planning and Housing in College Towns
Cleveland State University Looks to Expand Housing and Parking Through Public-Private Partnership CLEVELAND, OH - Cleveland State University is initiating discussions with prospective developers for a public-private venture to create more residential on-campus apartments surrounding a new baseball complex open to the CSU as well as local high school games. According to The Plain Dealer blog site news, the new housing could accommodate up to 2500 new residents. The new housing and four new parking decks would be built and owned by private developers, who would lease the facilities to the university. CSU would collect the housing and parking fees to repay the developer. CSU joins the University of Akron in utilizing public-private ventures to meet the demands of the schools. The University of Akron has completed a $300 million building program that included a student center and dorms, is starting work on a parking garage, another dorm and an academic building, all through the partnering with private developers.
Council Bans Indoor Furniture from Outdoors PITTSBURGH, PA -According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review Pittsburgh City Council today approved a ban on outdoor sofas, mattresses and other upholstered furniture, but the law won't create the "couch police."Council voted unanimously in favor of the legislation, which sets fines of $200 to $500 for each day the furniture remains outside.
Milledgeville, Georgia Council Considers Group Housing Petition
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA - The Milledgeville City Council approved the first step in the group housing application for the new Delta Zeta house of the Georgia College & State University. The Colonnade reported that the Council passed back-to-back ordinance first readings restricting the number of unrelated people living in a "single-family" historic home to a maximum of three and a second ordinance allowing people to apply for group housing with more than three residents. In order to gain permission to have more than three unrelated residents, applying groups must prove that they have enough parking for all house residents and undergo a detailed fire inspection. The GCSU Student Government Association voiced opposition to the occupancy limits for rental housing, but then supported the Group Housing allowances.
City of Santa Cruz and UC Santa Cruz Address Water Needs
SANTA CRUZ, CA - According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, a group of citizens is pushing city leaders to examine future water availability and asking if nearly half of that should support planned UC Santa Cruz growth. City leaders have acknowledged the importance of planning, but water rights are first-come, first-served and just because plans to expand are approved doesn't mean the university automatically gets the water. There are two conflicting agreements between the City and University between one agreed upon last summer limiting University use upon certain circumstances and one signed in 1962 granting the campus all the water it needs up to 30,000 students, without exceptions. |
| Alcohol & Enforcement in College Towns
ADOPTION OF AMNESTY POLICY NECESSARY AT BCBOSTON, MA - An editorial in The Heights Student Newspaper of Boston College writes about the adoption of an alcohol amnesty policy for BC students. The editors believe lack of policy instills fear and hinders student safety, and the benefits of a policy outweigh perceived costs.
Members of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) and University administrators have formed the Alcohol Task Force Committee in order to discuss the possibility of BC's implementation of an alcohol amnesty program. The Heights believes that the creation of such an amnesty policy is essential in order to protect student health and safety. The lives of students who need medical attention due to excessive consumption of alcohol but are afraid to seek it for fear of retribution are in danger, even when the students are underage and in the legal wrong. The editors believe that the student's lives, health, and safety must be protected at all costs. Over 90 universities have adopted some sort of medical amnesty policy because they feel that the benefits to student health greatly outweigh the potential "get out of jail free" mentality that could accompany such an application. The Heights editors ask the UGBC and the administration to put the issue at the top of their to-do lists because student safety is something that shouldn't, and can't, be put on hold.
Minnesota colleges mark year without a drinking death
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Minnesota Public Radio reports that Minnesota colleges and universities mark one year without having a recorded death related to binge drinking among college students. Four deaths related to binge drinking occurred during the 2007-2008 school year alone.The deaths prompted Minnesota colleges to step up their efforts to curtail binge drinking. It's too soon to say whether those efforts are paying off, because students, college officials and others say binge drinking is still a fact of life on campus. |
Health and The Environment
Cornell Joins Others in Discussions of Smoke-Free Campus
Ithaca, NY - The Cornell Daily Sun writes that Cornell University's smoking policy has mirrored New York state legislation restricting the venues where smoking is acceptable. Discussions have begun about making Cornell a smoke free campus as proposed to the University Assembly by the employee elected trustee and director of the Cornell Wellness Program. The American Cancer Society has officially supported this recommendation with offers to assist them in crafting a policy, setting up a timeline, and providing adequate training for supervisory staff that will have to enforce the policy. This recommendation would follow a nationwide trend of colleges considering and some implementing smoke-free campuses.
According to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation's website, as of Jan. 4 there were at least 260 colleges and universities around the country that have gone smoke free. Some universities that currently have smoke-free policies were forced to adopt them as a result of state legislation, such as Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. The state of Iowa passed the Smoke Free Air Act in April 2008 which regulates smoking in public places, places of employment and outdoor areas.
A related article in Tobacco Analysis Blogspot posted by a Boston physician provides concerns and obstacles for enforcing such a regulation on the Cornell campus and whether this tobacco ban is truly a health promotion, or whether it is actually intolerance for a particular lifestyle decision.
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Clemson, SC
The International Town & Gown Association is a non-profit organization that brings together leaders from college and university campuses and communities. Member representatives include Mayors, Elected Officials, City Administrators, Police Chiefs, Planners, University/College Presidents, Business Officers, Student Affairs Officers, Campus Planners, Student Housing Staff, Off-campus student staff, Parking & Transportation Officials, Students, Neighborhood Officials, Private Housing Developers, and many others sharing a unified town-gown vision. The ITGA acts as a communication, education, consulting and training resource for decision makers of colleges and college communities in areas of shared resources, programs, planning and project opportunities while addressing existing and potential conflicts.
Sincerely,
Chip Boyles
Executive Director |
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