Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Best Practices Conference of International Town & Gown Associations (ITGA)
Plesae scroll down to your SCUP Link, below this notice about SCUP–45.
Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time. Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.
SCUP Link
The ITGA has graciously published the presentations of its 2009 speakers. The sessions are available on the ITGA website here. A sampling of the sessions includes: "Campus Community Relations Committee," University of Arizona, Tucson; "Joint City University Advisory Board," Clemson University and Clemson, SC; "Transfer of Wealth - RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship"; and, of course, "Noise in Neighborhoods," Texas State University and San Marcos, TX.
The ITGA's Fifth Annual Best Practices Conference is June 1-3 at Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
SCUP's Planning Institute: Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers while you engage in one of the three SCUP Planning Institute Steps. In addition to being offered on demand, on campuses to teams of campus leaders, the institute steps are also offered to all professionals at varying times and venues. Currently scheduled are: - May 22–23, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
- July 10, Minneapolis, MN - Step I (in conjunction with SCUP–45)
- October 2, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
- January 21–22, Tempe, AZ - Step II and Step III
Labels: community relations, town and gown
Marymount College (CA) Taking a Town-Gown Dispute to the Voters
Please scroll down to your SCUP Link, below this notice about SCUP–45.
Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time. Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.
SCUP Link It was about 10 years ago that Marymount College asked Rancho Palos Verdes to approve a campus remodel, a makeover that would include a new library and gym and bring student housing to the ocean-view campus for the first time.
Now, angry at what it says is the agonizingly slow pace of gaining approval for the more than $50-million project, the small Catholic college has decided to take the issue directly to the city's voters with an initiative on the November ballot.
SCUP's Planning Institute: Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers while you engage in one of the three SCUP Planning Institute Steps. In addition to being offered on demand, on campuses to teams of campus leaders, the institute steps are also offered to all professionals at varying times and venues. Currently scheduled are: - May 22–23, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
- July 10, Minneapolis, MN - Step I (in conjunction with SCUP–45)
- October 2, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
- January 21–22, Tuscon, AZ - Step II and Step III
Labels: campus planning, development, facilities planning, PAregion, town and gown
New Book, Reinventing Brantford: A University Comes Downtown
 Reinventing Brantford: A University Comes Downtown, is the story of a small North American town decaying and dying in the post-industrial revolution age, and how that downtown was reinvigorated by the creation of a downtown Brantford campus of Wilfred Leurier University. The introduction begins: On June 7, 2008, the City of Brantford celebrated the death of its downtown. The funeral featured brightly coloured carriages, bicycles, and costumes . . . [R]epresentatives of the city, a new university campus, the arts community, and downtown churches blessed, eulogized, and toasted the old downtown. In a daring move the health authorities had approved the toast featuring untreated water taken from the Grand River two blocks away . . . The funeral celebrated the death, but also the rebirth of downtown Brantford. If you purchase this book by following any link on this page, SCUP will receive a small percentage of your purchase price, which is not increased by doing so.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: book, Brantford, campus heritage, Canada, N-C, new book, new urbanism, town and gown, Wilfrid Laurier University
Yale School of Management Project Wends Its Way Through New Haven Governance
Last week New Haven's Board of Alderman's Legislation Committee approved the proposed plan for the new Yale School of Management building. The plan had been previously approved by the City Plan Commission. Its next step is the full Board of Alderman. This article is illuminating about the procedural steps a private institution may need to take when looking for permission for large capital projects. Dickson, who is a Yale School of Architecture graduate, voiced a common theme of opponents: That the 237,000 square-foot building is “one giant box” and “out of scale” with the neighborhood. There were spirited calls for downsizing, for opening the courtyard to the public on the Whitney side, for shifting delivery and driveways to the north side; and queries as to whether Yale had truly considered adaptive reuse of the buildings at 155 and 175 Whitney, which it plans to demolish to build the new home. Presenting a Power Point and bird’s eye views of the site showing a structure lording it over the area, Farwell also questioned the accuracy of Yale’s submitted drawings and whether Yale’s outreach to the community for its input was “limited to the abutting area [only], not the impact area.”
Yale’s chief planner for the project, Laura Cruickshank, said Farwell’s bird’s eye views were misleading. They were for birds, she said. There were no people in them. First and foremost, she said, a building must work, not only look elegant, and the SOM as presented does. SOM professors and a dean described a crying need for a single, consolidating structure for its far-flung educational units and expansion by 100 students.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: architecture, business schools, campus planning, facilities planning, N-A, New Haven, town and gown, Yale University
The College President as Urban Planner
Subtitled "Franklin & Marshall's John A. Fry helps reclaim industrial site," this Chronicle of Higher Education article by Scott Carlson dives deep into the details of a major effort by Franklin & Marshall College to work with other Lancaster, PA entities in developing a large piece of industrial property (200 buildings on 47 acres + another railway yard of 30 acres). The Northwest Gateway Project and the rail yard project will end up costing $75M. An attorney working for a group of rail yard neighbors calls President Fry's planning efforts on this project "a marvelous example of how to manipulate the public-funding system." The article includes nice photography. Mr. Fry—a charismatic fast talker whose business background has rubbed some in academe wrong—seems to have a thing for sweeping urban-redevelopment programs. A decade ago, as executive vice president at Penn, he oversaw the multimillion-dollar revitalization of its West Philadelphia neighborhood. He says that endeavor, which marshaled money from the university, local businesses, and the city, was "child's play" compared with the Armstrong project.
"Small institutions don't have to act in small ways," he says in his office one morning, as he shuffles through boards of architectural renderings. "With the right kinds of partnerships and the right kind of thinking, you can really attract big players."
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:
Labels: campus planning, collaboration, economic development, facilities planning, town and gown, urban planning
The President's Role in Positive Town and Gown Relations
How to Get $15M From Students in Your City
Now SCUPers can connect on Facebook and on LinkedIn.
You don't have to work, study, or live in Pittsburgh to be aware of that city's mayor's proposal to institute a 1 percent fee on college and university tuition paid to institutions with campuses in Pittsburgh. T his link should take you to the latest related news stories. "There isn't an institution in this city in the last five years that hasn't raised tuition, and in each and every case, the tuition hike has been far greater than 1 percent," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said. The city's proposed addition to the school bill "falls right in line with orientation fees, with transportation and security fees, with lab fees" and more nebulous charges that colleges could reconsider.". Labels: community relations, cost, fees, Pittsburgh, tax, town and gown, tuition
Free Audiocast (for SCUP members): "The President’s Role in Cultivating Positive Town-Gown Relations"
Join a great (virtual) conversation on Wednesday, November 11 at 1 pm Eastern. It's free for SCUP members and only $49 for others. President Lawrence V. Weill of Gordon College will discuss his recent Planning for Higher Education article, The President's Role in Cultivating Positive Town-Gown Relations, with several senior SCUP leaders, including Planning for Higher Education executive editor Tom Longin, former SCUP presidents L. Carole Wharton, consultant, and Sal D. Rinella, STRATUS/Heering International, as well as 2010-11 SCUP president Joan Racki, Iowa State Board of Regents. Enjoy listening it at a late or early lunch with colleagues. You can ask questions via a Live Chat. Find out more: http://www.scupconversations.org/. (You can download the article at that link to read in preparation.) Register now to ensure availability. P.S. If you haven't enjoyed a SCUP Virtual Conversation yet, you're missing a lot. Typical audience reactions: "A terrific way to be informed by the experts and network with a family of educators sharing common concerns and questions." - Stan Plewe, Vice President, Dixie State College of Utah "Winning combination of critical topics, industry experts and audience Q&A—all from the ease of my office!" - Kristie Hester, Marketing Services Manager, Charter Builders, LTD Labels: conversation, president, town and gown, virtual conversation
Book: Out In Front: The College President as the Face of the Institution
 Active SCUP member Laurence V. Weill, president of Gordon College (GA), has recently edited a book of chapters written by himself and others about the many somewhat personal issues that arise for a college president involving the wider campus-area community. What does it mean to be the face that most of the community associates with the college or university? It's a must-read for checklists and advice on the pitfalls and promises of being such a public face - whether president or not. Labels: community, leadership, president, town and gown
Community College Innovation: Fall Festivals
It seems amazing that with budget cuts and enrollment growth happening simultaneously, that community college staff have any "extra" time for this new trend: Fall festivals are an opportunity for community colleges to generate much-needed funds for groups that could use the boost, especially in these difficult financial times and tight budgets. Many colleges sustain local artists, industries, and causes with the funds raised, enhancing the visibility of the college and the community. Others use the festivals to fund scholarships and other student programs. Labels: community college, fall festival, town and gown
Doing the Twist at Penn
 Nice pics in this article, too: The University of Pennsylvania has landed a piece of trophy architecture with a definite twist: the new Weave Bridge . . . Now open to the public, the bridge will become part of a second phase of design work this fall with its integration into the surrounding campus masterplan, itself a hefty undertaking to remake the Philadelphia campus. The unusually ambitious design was commissioned by the university in 2007, in reaction to a city announcement that it would temporarily close an essential campus connection: the century-old South Street Bridge, which had long served as the sole passage over an Amtrak line that runs between Penn’s athletic fields and its Hollenback building, home to athletic and ROTC facilities.
Labels: architecture, facilities planning, town and gown, transportation
Do Universities Generate Agglomeration Spillovers? Evidence from Endowment Value Shocks
This research is quite a different model than we usually see, but it's of interest: We find modest but statistically significant spillover effects of university activity. The estimates indicate that a 10% increase in higher education spending increases local non-education sector labor income by about 0.5%. As the implied elasticity is no larger than what previous work finds for agglomeration spillovers arising from local economic activity in general, university activity does not appear to make a place any more productive than other forms of economic activity. We do find, however, that the magnitude of the spillover is significantly larger for firms that are technologically closer to universities in terms of citing patents generated by universities in their own patents and sharing a labor market with higher education.
Labels: economic development, economic impact, town and gown
Density Talks: Should College Towns Listen?
This interesting article from Concentrate examines the city planning of Ann Arbor in the context of planning, related to density and other things, at other college towns, like Boulder, Charlottesville, and Detroit. Bottom line:
"But there may still be lessons to be gleaned. Could Ann Arbor find enough cooperation to commit to several thousand more residents in downtown? Both Mosey and Egner point to a groundswell of cooperation among Detroit nonprofits, business leaders, and institutions, all willing to roll up their sleeves and work towards a common vision: walkable urban density." Labels: campus planning, college town, master planning, town and gown
New Book, "Collegetown. The Place We Live and Work."
What used to be Greentree Gazette is now "Today's Campus" and we think you'll enjoy this brief review of the book, The American College Town, by Blake Gumprecht, which is available on Today's Campus' website (you can purchase the book here): For example, Harvard and Oxford both situated themselves far from city dwellers, all the better for faculty and students to concentrate on their academic pursuits. Of course, enterprising businessmen then set up taverns nearby to distract them from those pursuits.
Many colleges are located where they are because they were paid to do so. Perhaps it was a land grant, or a straightforward cash payment, but the city fathers wanted a college in their town, filling their shops and restaurants with a dependable stream of customers.
According to Dr. Gumprecht, college towns are quite stable economically. They have relatively lower unemployment and higher prices than other town of comparable size. Though higher prices might not sound attractive, they might now be a factor keeping local businesses afloat. By phone Dr. Gumprecht told me, “Most people living in college towns know what they’re in for.” Labels: campus edge, town and gown
Universities Reach Out to Potential Students Across Houston Area
A Good Neighbor
The new Dorrance H. Hamilton educational facility at Thomas Jefferson Medical College is downtown Philadelphia's largest infusion of green space in 50 years and the campus' first new building in 15. Town and gown considerations were important in its design. "Burt Hill was approached to design the new 135,000-sq.-ft. Dorrance H. Hamilton Building, an educational facility that would create an integrated classroom setting in order to foster a team environment among students. During initial discussions, the school strongly emphasized its need for campus identity. For years, the urban Philadelphia grounds had been scattered throughout several city blocks, which made it difficult to unite the campus. The lack of campus identity also made it hard to establish a relationship with the neighboring community. It was clear that the new space would need to be aesthetically pleasing, as well as functional." Read more here: http://www.peterli.com/cpm/resources/articles/archive.php?article_id=2228Labels: architecture, facilities planning, master planning, medical school, town and gown
Yale University & the Age of Diminishing Endowments
A Wall Street Journal interview with Richard Levin, president of Yale University. It's focused at first on the effect of diminished endowments on rich school's resource and budget planning. It also covers a lot of ground regarding the history of Yale's relationship with the city of New Haven. "We had a run that was historically unprecedented, and at the tail end of that it looked like we were getting too rich," Mr. Levin says, recalling that members of Congress were then starting to complain about rich private universities' "hoarding" money. "Well, that's quickly been amended," he deadpans." Read the article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124425383780391015.htmlLabels: community relations, economic development, endowments, financial crisis, resource and budget planning, Richard Levin, town and gown, Yale University
The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets (The City in the Twenty-First Century)
Montclair State University Economic Impact Report 2008-2009
Speeding Up Economic Recovery Through Collaboration
North Carolina State president James Oblinger describes how his institution, with the slogan, "Red Means Go," integrates learning with local, regional, and statewide collaboration for workforce development and economic growth: "To be good citizens, we understand we have to lead, especially in bad economic times. Equally important is our capacity to join with the state in anticipating shifts in the job market and in society."
"At NC State, we take seriously a responsibility to be “the People’s University.” To be good citizens, we understand we have to lead, especially in bad economic times. Equally important is our capacity to join with the state in anticipating shifts in the job market and in society." Read the full article here: http://universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1308Labels: collaboration, economic development, financial crisis, North Carolina, resource and budget planning, town and gown
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by Judith Rodin. Lessons learned at the University of Pennsylvania about its community: "The willingness of universities and their neighbors to participate in the conversations of democracy—something that is rarely smooth and rarely easy—is the only way to gain the long-term benefits of mutual trust and understanding" 
