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College Town Life | Featured College Towns | College Town Issues | |
7-13 Final
vote on Urbana's rental registration set for Tuesday But Urbana aldermen say they think a final vote will happen Tuesday night on a much-debated rental registration and inspection ordinance ... Students
search for real South Taylor, 11 other students and two professors from a small private college in South Carolina are journeying through the Southeast, meeting with small-town writers and witnessing how the South has lost its drawl and found the mall. The Wofford College travelers, who hail from South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, are basing their 11-day road trip on a premise created by Virginia novelist Lee Smith: In any small Southern town today, you are just as likely to spot a sushi restaurant as you are a place that serves cornbread, the emblem of traditional Southern culture ... The students are enrolled in “Cornbread and Sushi on the Road,” a course offered at Wofford and financed by the Watson-Brown Foundation of Georgia. The class is taken in correlation with one in the fall semester, “Cornbread and Sushi: Exploring the Real and Imagined Rural South,” in which visiting writers and historians speak to the students ... Deep
Roots With a Global Reach In August, Rosa L. Parks Elementary School opened on Ager Road. The school, which is within walking distance of Green Meadows, has 700 students, 65 percent of them Hispanic, 30 percent African American and the remainder white. "We are a hut in a global village," said Tracey Adesegun, the principal ... Glouco
paints a rosy economic future "We're really excited about what's happening. We're really happy with all our partners making this the great college town that it can be," Brigandi said ... Urbanization
forces ag co-op to change Butch McConnell manages the Southern States store in Morgantown, a fast-growing college town. Within two weeks, he will begin selling frozen, locally raised beef to support farmers whose jerky is already on the shelves. By spring, he hopes to sell locally grown eggs, and he’s working with 4-H and Future Farmers of America clubs on a deal to market the chickens that schoolchildren raise. “It’s my theory of full-circle marketing: We sell the farmer the feed, we let him sell his product back here,” McConnell says. “It starts here. It should finish here.” ... For
cryin’ out loud: The Onion’s coming Council
endorses ASU dorms At its meeting on Wednesday, the council agreed to lease to Arizona State University several parcels of vacant or underutilized downtown real estate for student housing at the new downtown Phoenix campus. The city will retain ownership of the land and will earn money from the lease only after the project generates a profit ... Get
ready for Za's Italian Café Za's is the latest in a line of fast casual eateries that have sprouted along State over this decade. Unlike the viral national chains like Cosi or Chipotle, which each have outlets on the street, Za's can only be found in a couple of other college towns, namely Champaign, Ill., and Ann Arbor, Mich ... Independent
film to be shot in Schenectady Vorhies said, "We were looking for a college town in a snowy environment close to New York City. One of our advisors, Murray Schwartz, went to Union College and said, check out the college. I called the Chamber and they were really helpful." ... Safety
Buckles on Campus The cause for concern is an incident which took place during a party last October, when the romping of raucous partygoers in one Alumni Square apartment room resulted in the buckling of that residence’s floor. Surely the students at the party did not damage their apartment and place their friends’ safety at risk on purpose. Students have every reason to suspect that their housing could indeed withstand the sound and fury of a Georgetown party, because they are never told otherwise. Any comprehensive solution by the university must include a means of better informing students in university housing about the structural details and occupancy requirements of their residences ... Miami
partners with Edun Apparel Ltd. This puts Miami students at the heart of first collegiate program to work with Edun LIVE, a subsidiary of Edun Apparel Ltd., which employs workers in sub-Saharan Africa to produce blank T-shirts that can then be ordered by any business or organization for custom screen-printing ... New
dance club offers variety of entertainment The Stillwater Vibe, an 18-and-older dance club, opened its doors Thursday night. Along with a dance floor that measures about 30 feet by 40 feet, The Vibe visitors can play pool on one of the five pool tables, mingle in the spacious area with tables, or play shuffle board or darts. With a capacity of 660, The Vibe owner and manager John Berry said his establishment will bring something new to Stillwater ... “We’re planning on opening multiple locations throughout the existence of the rest of the company,” Berry said. “Every place that we open will be in different college towns until we start moving into bigger cities.” ... Old
School Real Estate ... from a real estate finance perspective, properties located in college communities likely offer better cap rates than properties located in larger markets such as New York, Boston, Washington, and Atlanta. The mega real estate opportunity funds have generally limited their investments to primary markets, thus driving down cap rates and making properties more expensive in the larger cities. Colleges and universities are generally located in secondary and tertiary markets, markets often overlooked by institutional money. Nonetheless, REITS such as American Campus Communities, GMH Communities and Education Realty Trust are successfully tapping into the student-housing niche ... State
report critical of UC expansion methods According to the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, campus growth plans like the one approved in September for UC Santa Cruz lack public accountability, clarity and standardization. The claims echo long-running complaints from residents of Santa Cruz and other college towns ... University
Rules Against Keg Ban The DRC’s recommendation triggered a wave of opposition last fall. Students voted overwhelmingly against the DRC’s proposal in a non-binding referendum in October, and the local Area Neighborhood Commission passed a resolution early last month asking the university to allow kegs in university housing. During a town hall meeting in October on the proposed change, numerous students argued that a keg ban would force students to consume more hard liquor and drink alcohol off-campus. Olson said in an e-mail that those arguments had played a factor in his decision ... Reclusive
author Harper Lee attends Montgomery student performance of 'Mockingbird' The two public schools near Birmingham are only about 16 miles apart. But Mountain Brook is one of the state's wealthiest communities, with a median home price of about $300,000, while the same figure in Fairfield is about $68,000. Mountain Brook High draws from an overwhelmingly white suburb, while Fairfield students are from a mostly black district ... The Montgomery performance was in Troy University's Davis Theater, directly across the street from the bus stop where civil-rights icon Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man 51 years ago ... Conquest
takes sex out of signs Following an ongoing discussion with the Undergraduate Student Government, Conquest Student Housing - which brands itself as "the premier provider" of housing near campus - replaced its provocative billboard and bus stop ad campaign with a less-controversial marketing strategy. Plastered with scantily clad women and catchphrases such as "Get lucky every night" and "You know you want it," the ads quickly drew reactions from students, administrators and local residents when they debuted in early 2006. "Even though Conquest is a private business, by having these smutty ads it makes all USC students look bad. It (just) adds to the stereotype," said Max Slavkin, USG residential senator and speaker pro tempore ... Students
give Brewery, Lincoln districts revamps This fall, senior architecture students at the University of Idaho traveled to Tacoma to work on design projects as a component of a studio class. After touring Tacoma, the Lincoln District and Brewery District were selected for their historic characters and potentials for neighborhood visioning, urban design, urban infill, or adaptive reuse projects ... City
Council will lease land to ASU for dorms Web
will help growth, community leader says The high cost of living in metropolitan areas, coupled with the ability to work and make products at home is what he believes will lead young people to look at smaller communities such as those in central Pennsylvania ... The seven colleges in the SEDA region offer another potential besides education, Hormell said. Retirement facilities are being developed in an increasing number of college towns, including State College, he pointed out ... Oxford
townhouse plans shot down by commission The commission voted 6-1 to deny the application amid concerns about whether it satisfied requirements to be a Planned Unit Development and whether it violated the city charter's three-unit per building limit ... Several residents spoke to the commission in opposition, citing concerns about more student housing within Mile Square and calling the architecture "motel-like." ... Sprinkler
systems should be required in Greek housing So does Columbia, Mo. Both have tough laws requiring fraternity and sorority houses to install sprinkler systems. Lawrence was one of the nation’s first cities to issue the requirement, in the early 1990s. The Columbia City Council passed a law last week ... Invaded
by students? Badger Hill residents worried their estate is being taken over by students have petitioned York council to see if it can restrict the numbers of houses converted for student lets. Local concern about "studentification" is a twist on the age old town vs gown debate - with local families feeling they are losing their community to temporary incomers. But why can't locals and students live together? And what, anyway, can the council do about it? ... 10-story
apartment tower planned for E. University The structure would replace The Anberay, a 1920s-era building located at 619 E. University. In its place, the developers seek to build a 66-unit furnished apartment building with 248 beds, ground floor retail space and two levels of underground parking. The estimated cost is $20 million ... Mixed
zoning would redefine downtown area On Tuesday evening, representatives of the architectural firm Sasaki & Associates presented a tentative downtown renovation plan developed over the last four months. Sasaki representatives Fred Merrill and Steve Wilson, who have been working with MU, Stephens College and the city staff since August, presented a Land Use Urban Development plan for the downtown area south of Broadway between Providence Road and College Avenue at the fourth of four meetings on the subject. “These people don’t do the next step,” said Mayor Darwin Hindman. “It is now up to us, and we need to be productive. Things will start happening surprisingly fast.” ... Progress
made on Central Campus The agreed-to points include a deal on what until recently had been the major bone of contention, the amount of on-campus retail space the rezoning would permit Duke to have on the property ... Creation
of child-care center approved The East Campus Child Care Center would be a two-story, 8,300-square-foot building constructed on Olmsted Road, near the corner of Serra Street and El Camino Real. It would be the fourth full-time child-care center serving families of the university community. The three existing centers—Children's Center of the Stanford Community, the Stanford Arboretum Children's Center and Knowledge Beginnings—accommodate a total of 385 full-time children. About 600 families are currently on waiting lists ... Reader’s
Cove has high hopes for future By “cove,” store owners Charles and Karey Kaine mean a 6,600-square-foot store with 33,000 titles in stock. Once they add a second-floor mezzanine this spring, they’ll add 20,000 more titles ... “Ever since Jade Creek closed a while back, I’ve thought it was just a shame that Fort Collins didn’t have its own independent bookstore,” Knudsen said. “I just know it can support one, being a college town — even in the competitive retail market we have.” Tortilla
soup's light but satisfying From opening day, this cinema has been packed, and much of the town's social life seems to be revolving around it. Our friends are constantly calling when a new title appears on the marquis to see if we want to join them for dinner and a movie ... Delaying
the party... again: Club Euphoria awaits word on liquor license Matthew Dean, who is renting the space to run Club Euphoria, is still
waiting for word on whether the state liquor authority will grant him
a liquor license. A hearing was planned for today, but on Tuesday, Dean
found out it was moved to Jan. 24. “There's a whole list of national bands that are touring and visiting college towns that aren't coming here,” said Trevor McDonald, a local musician who is planning a benefit at Club Euphoria in early February ... New
halls approved, to net 1,800 beds According to the building plans, one of the new residence halls will be located on the corner of Tremont and Ruggles streets. The other will be located near Cullinane Hall on St. Botolph Street. Investigation
into housing estate quotas for scholars Council officers are set to be asked to explore a new approach for accommodating students, following complaints by city residents. People living in Badger Hill submitted a petition to City of York Council, voicing their anger over the number of local houses being converted to student lets ... U
of M's new student housing program called 'recipe for success The new housing options team students from the same academic programs with the hope that those who learn and live together will feel more connected to the college, perform better academically and graduate on time, said Danny Armitage, associate dean of students and head of residence life. "These communities allow full-time students to be more engaged and involved in their learning experience on campus," he said ... Crossing
Place at University of Texas-Austin marks third investment for The Preiss
Company and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital ANU
to open 500-room development for students The 500-room development will open near the university's campus in Acton in time for the annual influx of new students, who in the past have been forced to live in mothballed public housing due to the shortage ... Comments
to be heard on party ordinance The Social Host Ordinance, imposing fines on owners of the sites of disruptive parties, will be discussed at 5:30 p.m. in the McKinley Arts & Cultural Center ... The ordinance grew from a meeting in February of Join Together Northern Nevada, the Nevada Department of Human Services Juvenile Justice Programs and the University of Nevada, Reno, to address underage drinking and unruly parties, which are problems statewide, said Carole Millie, UNR coordinator of student judicial services ... Developers
scale back student apartment complex in Urbana The Pointe at the U of I, to be located on the site of the former Kmart store, will have nearly 200 two- and three-bedroom apartments and a clubhouse filled with amenities like hot tubs, a basketball court, a computer room and study labs. It will cost $25 million to build. The city council Monday night tentatively approved amending a development agreement with CTC Properties LLC for the apartment project at the southeast corner of Philo Road and Florida Avenue. The city had expected construction of the apartment complex to be well under way by now, but developer Chris Creek of Tolono said "changing market conditions" led him to scale back and revise the project ... Education
Realty Trust Announces Quarterly Cash Dividend Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) is a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that owns, develops and manages high-quality student housing communities throughout the U.S. Led by a team with more than 170 years of shared industry experience, EDR is one of America's largest owners and operators of collegiate student housing. Its portfolio includes 36,786 beds at 60 properties in 21 states ... Town
and Gown tackles student housing woes Committee member and former chairman Jerry Conlin said the problem started small in the fall of 2003 when UOIT opened, attracting out-of-town students in a way that Durham College never had ... UW
chancellors tout teamwork, dual growth The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance last month found that Madison dramatically widened the gap in median family income over Milwaukee to nearly 80% in 2005 from less than 10% in 1990. The research labs at UW-Madison drove the capital city's industry during that time with a proliferation of biotech start-ups. Milwaukee, meanwhile, lacked the new industries to compensate for the steady erosion of its old industries. Milwaukee has emerged as the weak link in the I-94 "IQ corridor" that connects such university towns as Ann Arbor, Mich.; Chicago; Milwaukee; Madison; and Minneapolis, Santiago said. Milwaukee ranked 48th among the nation's 50 biggest cities in a University of Kansas index that rates each city's economic prospects according to its volume of research grants, venture capital and stock offerings in new companies, he said ... Official
envisions high-tech focus at WSUV Wired university towns such as Austin, Texas, and Boston are the models, Sills said ... College
opts for greener form of heat Joan Goodrich, the private college's vice president for planning and special projects, said the school had been looking for ways to conserve energy and reduce its output of carbon dioxide. Burning carbon-based fuels is considered a primary contributor to global warming. "This is something we've talked about for quite a while. Our head of facilities, Bill Tronsen, did a feasibility study last spring of all the different alternative fuel sources and this is the one that made the most sense for us," Goodrich said ... Easy
Chair Bookstore moving to mall Looking to join sister business, the Easy Chair Coffee Shop, the bookstore will occupy the retail space once home to the Sickle Moon. There, the passersby are more likely to be students on their way to the Math Emporium or gym-goers en route to Blacksburg Health and Fitness at the Weight Club. While business co-owner Russell Chisholm said he isn't crazy about the idea of moving out of downtown, the move offers the opportunity to combine both his businesses under one roof ... New
UH campus clears key hurdle The final EIS reveals some new details about the plan for UH-West O'ahu. Among them are the construction of at least one public elementary school to serve the planned residential area and the possible construction of a "lab school" similar to the one that serves UH-Manoa. Also included in the development is the construction of more than 4,000 residential units, including 761 student housing units. There are also plans for about 842,900 square feet of commercial space ... Making
intelligent choices This is a practical deal that would help NKU address a very real need in an economical way. The university needs more dormitory space. Last year it had to put 200 students onto a dorm waiting list and wound up temporarily housing some of them in motels. NKU administrators say it would cost far less to buy and renovate the four-story nursing home (which sits on about 8.5 acres) than to build a new one of the same size. And, while it's not contiguous to the 398-acre campus, it's an easy walk or a short commute via bicycle or shuttle bus... Hospital,
colleges buy themselves buffers Reasons prompting the purchase of more than a hundred lots are varied: A desire to buffer existing property from "problem" neighbors, provide room for expansion, relocation and investment. Among the groups buying lots are Augustana College, Sioux Valley Hospital and Health System, the University of Sioux Falls and North American Baptist Seminary ... South
Campus public meeting a history lesson Town-gown
cooperation goes way back SUNY
Brockport history depicted in photographs Wayne Dedman wrote the first history of SUNY Brockport, Cherishing This Heritage, in 1968, which provides a detailed account of the school from the events which led to its founding in 1835 up through its centennial in 1935. "Dedman's Cherishing This Heritage has been mentioned as a national model for a book that wove town and gown together," says Leslie. "But he felt that he couldn't write a good history of the college after he arrived, in 1945, and thus our research begins with the postwar college and the dramatic transformation then." ... Riverwest
to vote on new leadership Vogel calls Riverwest "a poor man's Brewer's Hill" and bought a one-bedroom house in the 2500 block of Dousman St. nearly three years ago, after stints in West Allis, Brookfield and the east side. He was surprised last year when some neighbors' opposed a zoning change that eventually cleared the way for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to build a seven-story dorm just north of North Ave. between Humboldt Blvd. and the Milwaukee River ... Open
land, equally open residents Kathy Frizzelle and her husband Wayne just moved to Leaport Road from Maryland in November after he retired from Verizon. They like the fact that they’re close to two college towns with plenty to do, but are able to enjoy the open land. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful area,” she said. “(We) just had to get out of that rat race.” ... Students
revive Uptown shops Tulane’s lower enrollment numbers are evident in the bar, said bartender Brian McKenna. But overall business has bounced back almost to pre-Katrina levels, he said. “We’re still very much dependent on Tulane and Loyola,” McKenna said. “Business is about the same as it always was. Once the schools came back, it didn’t take long for us to come back to normal, with the exception of the Tulane crowd being a little smaller.” ... Estate
wants students kept out The letter with the petition adds: "Students do not appear to use the local shops – notice where the Tesco delivery vans go – neither do they have children to attend the local schools – only nine this year at the local primary school – so in time we could lose the shops and the school." According to the 2001 census 12,000 students live in York. In the same year the University of York had 9,000 students and 2,500 staff ... Just
where are all of those cars coming from Murfreesboro could have remained a kind of place with no growth, limited services and a dried up downtown square, but with the hard work of many individuals (Blake Tidwell immediately comes to mind) the powers that be addressed those problems. So I guess what I am saying is that we live in a wonderful place with friendly people and maybe heavy traffic but the traffic is heavier for a reason. It’s heavier because people want to live her and bring their families, friends and lots of others with them ... Flanagan
is receiving high marks at Framingham State Flanagan pointed out that some colleges offer subsidized faculty housing, an idea Ambacher said is worth a look ... ‘South
Campus' plan to include community participation The area is currently home to UM's golf course, soccer fields, running track and campus family housing. To date, there is no such master plan for the “South Campus”
area, and according to accreditation requirements, a plan is mandatory,
said Rosemary Keller, associate vice president for administration and
finance. The
university connection Living a short distance from her alma mater allows Schuiling to remain active with her sorority, Beta Lambda Mu, which she helped recharter, and where she is affectionately referred to as "Grandma Beta." At the Plymouth Village campus, she's able to attend the annual presidential State of the University address, where she learns about the latest accomplishments and capital improvements at Redlands. She is also able to participate ... Get
to know Memphis beyond Graceland, Beale Street In
Oxford, town and gown mingle happily Smart
To Invest In Storrs A new village, built mostly with private funds, will replace aged and ugly strip retail blocks. It will instead shape a college town with a variety of housing, from studio lofts to apartments to condos, retail stores, entertainment, common gathering places and offices in a pleasant setting across from the School of Fine Arts. The village will be compact and pedestrian-friendly, with more than half of the 40-acre parcel left as open space, a buffer between the new center and existing residential neighborhoods. Many residents will be able to walk or bike to work or take the bus. Students and townspeople will at last find what they need in a retail environment, many without having to get into a car ... Life
in a college town: Just figure it out for yourself When I graduated high school, I didn’t feel like I was ready to move away and go to a four-year college. Instead of doing so, I opted for easy street. Community college became my ticket to paradise ... Poor
students must rely on charity The Queensland University of Technology student guild has abandoned a special textbook subsidy and halved this year's $10,000 budget for food vouchers used by hundreds of students to buy stocks at supermarkets ... New
group advocates historic preservation The group also knows that heritage tourism and preservation makes economic sense. "We are very deliberate because we want to be an organization that is recognized in Rutherford County as the go-to organization for information about historic preservation," said Melinda Haines, a resident of downtown Murfreesboro and president of the Heritage Partnership ... An
investment opportunity worth studying Berkeley:
Quirky university town evolves into an oasis of trendy shops, eateries Picky, picky. That's how we ended up in Berkeley, perhaps an unlikely overnight destination at first look. But look again ...
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