PROGRAM AGENDA IS RELEASED !
4th Annual Best Practices in Building University/City Relations Conference
Teaming Across Campus and Community
June 1-4th, 2009
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Joint City University Advisory Board of Clemson
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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
Students Volunteer Services to the CommunityNORMAL, IL - The Pantagraph reports on about 50 students from Illinois State University volunteering their services to the town in the second annual "Bringing it Back to Normal" project. The Student Volunteer Center, a division of the Leadership and Service Unit of ISU's Dean of Students office, organized the event and gives a nod to the town-gown relationship. The students volunteered at about 20 sites, double the number of sites from last year. All but one of the sites was a residence. Applicants for services and to volunteer applied to participate online or through neighborhood associations or ISU mailings.
Georgia State Hoping Football Builds Community in a Football TownATLANTA, GA - The New York Times reports on Georgia State University, with an enrollment of 28,238 is hoping to use its first ever football team to build a community following in the metropolitan college town of Atlanta. Coach Bill Curry will open the season at Atlanta's Georgia Dome on Sept. 2, 2010. GSU joins 28 other new teams approved for play since 2000, including South Alabama, in Mobile, and Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia. A number of the new programs are located in urban areas with a small pulse on campus and an indifferent alumni base in town. Texas-San Antonio aims for a 2011 kick-off and Charlotte plans to field its first team in 2013.The common thread among these teams is an attempt to fuse the disparate segments of a university - students, graduates, faculty and staff - through an activity appealing to eggheads, blockheads and all those in between. Spice up campus life. Perhaps even lure more applicants, especially men to those campuses with predominantly female enrollments. |
BUDGET & ECONOMY
NBC News special correspondent and author, Tom Brokaw writes op-ed piece "Small-Town Big Spending"
NEW YORK, NY - The New York Times published an op-ed article by news correspondent Tom Brokaw providing his opinion of the national economy and how changes to local government and local higher education structure, combined with innovative partnerships can help in the "reset" of the national economy.
Brokaw provides ideas from the State of New York with 10,500 separate local government entities could save $1 Billion through consolidations and in his own home state of South Dakota, savings could be created by partnering with North Dakota in higher education consolidating their 17 colleges serving a combined population of 1.5 million people.
College Towns Included in The Best U.S. Cities For JobsNEW YORK, NY - ABC News published an article by Joel Kotkin writing for Forbes about an academic look at the best places in the US to do business. The analysis looked at job growth in the last year and how employment figures have changed since 1996. The top of the complete ranking was broken down into two smaller lists, the best big and small cities for jobs. Texas is home to the No.1-ranked big city, Austin, and the No. 1-ranked small city, Odessa, home to Odessa College and branches of both the University of Texas and Texas Tech. The complete ranking for 336 metropolitan areas can be found at: http://www.newgeography.com/content/00741-all-cities-rankings-2009-new-geography-best-cities-job-growth.
150 College Jobs Effected Leaving College Town in UncertaintyHANOVER, NH - The Chronicle of Higher Education (may require subscription to read) writes that Dartmouth College announced it was laying off 60 workers, all in non-faculty positions, and eliminating another 90 jobs through early retirements and attrition. This is quite a blow for Hanover, a town of 11,000 and where Dartmouth is the region's second largest employer. Dartmouth will eliminate $72-million from its budget through 2011. |
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ENFORCEMENT & POLICING
Fort Collins and Colorado State Launch Pilot 'Party Warning Program' FORT COLLINS, CO - Today @ Colorado State announces an innovative program that hopefully will lessen the number of community noise complaints this spring. The Party Warning Program will encourage CSU students who live off campus to register their party and possibly avoid fines. The pilot program was developed by CSU/City Community Liaison and officers from Fort Collins Police Services who began working together to design the party registration project. CSU students will be able to register their Friday or Saturday night parties at CSU's Off-Campus Student Services. Should a noise complaint be received by Fort Collins Police Services, the registered party host will be contacted by phone and will be given a "verbal" warning to breakup their party in a 20-minute time frame. If a second noise complaint is received after the 20-minute period, the police will send an officer to the residence to deal with the noise. If an officer is required to make personal contact with a registered party home, then fines may likely be higher since the situation was not corrected with the warning.
Excessive noise remains the second largest citizen complaint in Fort Collins, next to traffic. Potential benefits if the program is successful include: Reducing the time in which a party is broken up, saving money in Fort Collins and CSU Police Departments for officer overtime during the Party Patrol calls, decreased congestion in the municipal courts, educational materials and advice for students on partying safely and responsibly; lessening the number of officers responding to noise complaints, resulting in less wear and tear on police vehicles driving across town, savings in fuel, and reduction in pollution and saving party hosts money, a criminal record and possibly avoiding administrative sanctions held by CSU. |
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HOUSING & PLANNING
Rochester Campus Approved for Move to Town of Brighton
BRIGHTON, NY - According to Medaille College News, the college has received approval from the Town of Brighton Planning Board , allowing construction to begin on a new Rochester Campus, with a move to a South Winton Road location as early as mid-June 2009. "Medaille's relocation to the Town of Brighton is a reinvestment in the campus and an investment that will contribute to economic growth in the Rochester region," says Medaille College President Richard T. Jurasek, Ph.D. "We're developing new degrees with the needs of adult students in mind, and this larger facility will support those expanded programs and larger student base." |
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ALCOHOL & OTHER
University of Iowa Addresses Binge Drinking
IOWA CITY, IOWA - The Chicago Tribune reports on University of Iowa officials working to cut down on the city's binge-drinking culture while local police are considering ways to limit late-night fights outside bars. To address these issues, Iowa officials say they will focus on binge drinking instead of underage consumption because they binge drinking poses a greater public health risk. Iowa officials, community leaders and bar owners proposed ideas such as nonalcoholic events at bars and curbing tailgating at Hawkeye football games.
The Incorrigible Dicta blog of a UI alumni responds to this effort with his opinion as to why this just will not work.
Playboy Re-introduces Party School RankingsLOS ANGELES, CA- MSNBC.com announces Playboy magazine's newest rankings of "Party Schools" including new criteria of "brainpower". Other ranking criteria included campus life, sports, sex and academics, weather, guy-to-girl ratio and cheerleaders. Missing from this year's criteria were college bars and parties that exist on the fringe of campus life. The University of Miami takes the top spot for 2009, with the University of Texas at Austin, San Diego State University, University of Florida, University of Arizona, University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, University of Iowa, and West Virginia University rounding out the top ten. |
HEALTH & SAFETY
College and Community Work Together to Improve Student Safety
WILKES-BARRE , PA - The Times Leader writes about King's College and the City of Wilkes-Barre taking new and additional measures to improve safety on and off-campus campus. The announcement of the improved services came just weeks after two students were attacked near the campus. Increased on-campus security presence is in place through the contracting of an outside private security firm and with off-duty city police officers patrolling campus. Lighting on Main Street has been improved through the college's participation in the Wilkes-Barre Street Light initiative. Lights also will be installed on other nearby streets. Campus security also is making changes by establishing a direct connection with city police. Students who witness a crime off campus can report the incident to campus security. Additionally, areas surrounding the college will be part of the city's $2 million digital camera surveillance system. Installation of the 150-camera system, which will provide video feeds of targeted areas, will begin within a few months. | |
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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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