TPD's Party Patrol works to bring peace to noisy neighborhoods
Democrat - 6 Oct 2007
... TALLAHASSEE, FL - Enrollment at Florida State and Florida A&M universities has increased significantly in the past few decades. At FSU, enrollment doubled between 1977 and 2007, from just over 20,000 students to more than 40,000 students. FAMU's enrollment increased from close to 5,000 to about 11,500.

The schools' ability to house students on campus has not kept pace with their enrollment growth, and as a result, more students are moving out into residential neighborhoods - and taking their parties with them.

Since problems with partying and noise tend to increase when more people live together, the city passed an ordinance in 2000 prohibiting more than three unrelated people from living together, with exceptions made for a few registered houses ...

Committee embarks upon comprehensive plan renewal
Oxford Press - 5 Oct 2007
... Oxford, OH - "Eleven years ago this month we began work on the previous comprehensive plan, which wound up being a very rewarding experience for me," Greene said. "A comprehensive plan is the broadest policy document a community can have, and it doesn't happen very often that you get to do this sort of work. It is truly a unique opportunity."

Greene said ACP has worked with other university towns in the past, including Dayton; Champaign, Ill.; and Knoxville, Tenn. He said university towns are special places as they "have really passionate people who are willing and capable of articulating their exact feelings about the particular place." ...

University's housing plan upsets neighbours
News - 5 Oct 2007
... WINCHESTER, UK - SHOCK has been expressed at plans to house 375 students close to a residential street in Winchester.

Residents in Milnthorpe Lane say the five-storey halls of residence, for University of Winchester students, will overlook their houses and cause them significant noise and light pollution. One resident said the proposed building would be four times as big as what is currently on the site, which is sandwiched between Queens Road and Milnthorpe Lane.

But the University of Winchester defended the application, saying it would relieve pressure on the private rental sector in Stanmore and meet a key need for the city ...

College town scene hard to define
Students agree that a good surrounding community is important to their overall academic experience
Daily Bruin - 5 Oct 2007
... LOS ANGELES, CA - To some, it’s about the number of bars and independent coffee shops and record stores. To others, it’s about a student-centered sense of community.

Either way, “college town” is a term applied to communities from Boston to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Westwood.

The area surrounding a university campus can be as effective in attracting prospective students and fostering a sense of academic camaraderie as the school itself ...

Commission defers judgment on high-rise
Proposed building would occupy former St. Pat's site
Press-Citizen - 5 Oct 2007
... IOWA CITY, IA - The future of a proposed 12-story high-rise [student housing] building that is to be built on the former site of St. Patrick's church will not be decided for at least two more weeks ...

At the heart of the issue are city staff and the commission's concerns with the proposed number of bedrooms per unit in the building and the amount of parking developers have proposed for the site ...

Room for all
Diamondback - 4 Oct 2007
... COLLEGE PARK, MD - As The Diamondback's Brady Holt reported yesterday, East Campus developer Foulger-Pratt Argo has recently heard complaints and worries from downtown business owners who think the developer's pending East Campus project will endanger their own small businesses and destroy College Park's unique character.

Our message to those business owners: Suck it up and get a new plan. Development is necessary.

Don't get us wrong. We love the non-chain stores that dot downtown. They are indeed part of College Park's unique character, and their existence gives our college town a distinct air. The memory most alumni have of Ratsie's Pizza bonds us all together. The ability to give visiting friends a real feel for our town by taking them to dives like Bentley's or Santa Fe shouldn't be taken for granted. Vertigo Books and its perpetual discount book rack is a great alternative for progressive professors and poor intellectual college students who shun the University Book Center and the Maryland Book Exchange. We appreciate our small businesses, and we hope they stick around ...

Action on Annville’s rental ordinance delayed
Daily News - 4 Oct 2007
... ANNVILLE, PA - It would also indirectly put the burden of enforcing noise and behavior of tenants and other code violations on the landlords, rather than on the police department or the township’s code-enforcement officer, opponents said.

The ordinance is based on similar ordinances in other small college towns, including Elizabethtown ...

Size Matters
metromode - 4 Oct 2007
... ANN ARBOR, MI - New Ann Arbor, on the other hand, is sprouting up around the fringes of the Old Fourth Ward in the form of new mid- and high-rise buildings. Adjacent to downtown, these high-density dwellings tower over the neighborhood, allowing more new residents and workers to take advantage of the city's thriving core. None is bigger than the university's 10-story North Quad development, which will loom over the Old Fourth Ward just outside its boundary at State Street and Huron. It will house 500 students in a university that is rapidly growing ...

Ann Arbor Mayor Hieftje points out that it makes no sense chasing out the people who choose to live near downtown and helped make it viable in the first place. It's a hard balancing act to accomplish but one Hieftje and other Southeast Michigan officials hope to accomplish as their downtowns grow.

"We do want to maintain, above all else, the special character of downtown ...

SGA dormstorms for voter registrations
Diamondback - 4 Oct 2007
... COLLEGE PARK, MD - And if you live in the dorms, you've probably heard about it this week as the Student Government Association's "dormstormers" make their way through dorms in a "last final push" toward their goal of registering 1,000 students for the upcoming College Park election ...

"The more students we can get to vote, the better a chance we have of influencing every member of the council on every issue," Friedson said. "Voter turnout increases student political capital." ...

Rethinking college rankings
Inquirer - 4 Oct 2007
... USA - And what do the rankings say about campus life? Very little. How many students live on campus, for example? What are the opportunities for community service, to be involved in student organizations, to study abroad? ...

Led by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), the University & College Accountability Network provides prospective students and their families concise, Web-based, consumer-friendly information. U-CAN is free to users and to the colleges and universities that choose to participate. The Web address is www.ucan-network.org ...

Letter: Moe's in Blacksburg is overrated
Collegiate Times - 4 Oct 2007
I think a more appropriate headline for your Sept. 28 issue, instead of "Moe's Opens for Business", would have been "Bland Chain: Only Business that can Afford Downtown Rents."

I'm not a city planner, but it seems like sometimes Tech and downtown realtors are going to have to work something out or downtown Blacksburg is going to end up looking like a Northern Virginia shopping mall instead of a charming and unique university town ...

City Is Pushing Colleges To Expand Into Poorer Areas
Sun - 4 Oct 2007
... NEW YORK, NY - In an effort to brand New York as the country's biggest, fastest-growing college town, the Bloomberg administration has created a higher education task force charged with developing these "university centers." While 23 of New York's largest universities so far have said they would consider developing communal real estate with the city's help, some in the academic community say they worry it could detract from the unique identities of their individual institutions ...

Locals fear city could lose character
Diamondback - 3 Oct 2007
... COLLEGE PARK, MD - Developers of the East Campus project are trying to reassure a skeptical community they are "sensitive and thoughtful about finding the character of College Park."

Some businesses worry that developer Foulger-Pratt Argo's plans will change the unique character of College Park. They cite the developers' recent Silver Spring revitalization as an example of a town that lost its unique feel as a result of re-development.

"We have to turn to admit that this isn't necessarily a very nice college town but turning it into Silver Spring isn't necessarily the way to go," ...

American Campus to sell 3.5 mln shares
ACC (American Campus Communities Inc )
Reuters - 3 Oct 2007
... USA - American Campus Communities Inc (ACC.N: Quote, Profile , Research) said it would sell 3.5 million shares of its common stock and use the proceeds to fund its development pipeline and for potential acquisitions of student housing properties.

The company would also grant underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 525,000 shares of common stock to cover overallotments, if any, the student-housing developer said in a statement ...

I graduated in four years for this?
Life in Lawrence
Kansan.com - 3 Oct 2007
... LAWRENCE, KS - Since stepping on campus my freshman year, my trips home have been limited almost exclusively to holidays. With my roots firmly planted in Lawrence, I hate leaving for fear of missing out on a moment of what can happen in this bustling college town. However, this year – my final one at KU – there is something going on in Lawrence I wish I wasn’t around to see ...

Drink-Special Ban Before Wis. High Court
AP - 3 Oct 2007
... MADISON, WI — The state Supreme Court is deciding whether an agreement among bar owners to abandon weekend drink specials was a legal effort to discourage binge drinking or a possible antitrust violation ...

‘Scholarship Reconsidered’ as Tenure Policy
Western Carolina University Takes a Bold Stand
Inside Higher Ed - 2 Oct 2007
... CULLOWHEE, NC - Scholarship Reconsidered may make sense, but the fear has been that too many colleges pay only lip service to its ideas, rather than formally embracing them — at least that’s the conventional wisdom. Indeed, a trend in recent years has been for colleges — even those not identified as research universities — to take advantage of the tight academic job market in some fields to ratchet up tenure expectations, asking for two books instead of one, more sponsored research and so forth ...

Landlords hope to avoid stricter student resident policy
KY KERNEL - 2 Oct 2007
... LEXINGTON, KY - Members of the University Area Housing Association met with Student Government officers last night to discuss living regulations that could significantly change the make-up of neighborhoods surrounding UK.

The regulations are currently in effect at Pennsylvania State University. Two UK employees, Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement Lisa Higgins-Hord and Vice President of Facilities Management Bob Wiseman, and Lexington Fayette Urban County Councilman David Stevens visited the university earlier this year to observe and discuss policies concerning off-campus student housing.

Implemented in 1997, Penn State's regulations state that only three non-related students can live in an off-campus house at a time and that no student residential unit can exist within approximately 150 to 200 square feet of another student home ...

Preliminary interest in active adult condominium
Northwestern - 2 Oct 2007
... OSHKOSH, WI - There is preliminary interest in an active adult learning community adjacent to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus at the Marion Road redevelopment site on the Fox River.

Seventy-eight of 283 respondents to a survey by the Newton, Mass.-based Campus Continuum are very interested or mildly interested in the potential for Riverfront Condominiums, managing director Gerard Badler said Monday night at a public forum on campus. The continuum is a national organization that specializes in developing active adult learning communities on or near college campuses ...

KSU students integrate into neighborhoods
Some permanent Kent residents cope with noise
Record-Courier - 2 Oct 2007
... KENT, OH - The streets surrounding Kent State University are a mix of retirees, families, married couples, singles and student renters.

In 2006, the city of Kent's health department licensed about 350 boarding houses. A large majority of those houses are concentrated on streets near the campus. For students, they can be attractive, affordable alternatives to on-campus living ...

Iowa City bar battle brewing
QC Online - 1 Oct 2007
... IOWA CITY, IA - A measure that would raise the age to get into an Iowa City bar to 21 would curb underage drinking, supporters say.

Opponents say the measure, which is on the Nov. 6 ballot, would shift drinking to house parties, which they argue can be more dangerous ...

Quad camp-out addresses student housing issues
Gateway - 1 Oct 2007
... EDMONTON, AB -As affordable accommodations continue to be a prominent issue for many students at the University of Alberta, the Students’ Union set out to raise awareness of the problem and advocate to both the municipal and provincial governments by holding Student Housing Week from 24–28 September.

The demonstration was comprised of town hall meetings where students were able to speak about their concerns regarding the current Edmonton housing market, a student housing quiz show, and was capped off with around 150 students camping out in tents in Quad last Thursday night ...

West Lafayette City Council Approves Expansion Projects
WLFI - 1 Oct 2007
... WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - West Lafayette is paving the way for a local business and an apartment complex to expand. The city council approved two rezoning requests. At Chauncey Square, construction is underway on a building which will house 127 apartments, retail space, and a parking garage with more than 480 spaces. The council approved rezoning a portion of land to add a seven-story tower with 24 more apartment units. Paul Coates, of C & S Engineering, said the project will create an attractive streetscape and support the village economically.

"It's the appropriate place for student housing. We're just a few blocks from Purdue, it enables students to walk to class, it certainly helps on transportation and parking problem ...

Temple bets on home buyers
The university has a $500,000 program to help its workers become homeowners in surrounding neighborhoods.
Inquirer - 1 Oct 2007
... PHILADELPHIA, PA - With growth and development surging in North Philadelphia, Temple University president Ann Weaver Hart wants university employees to play a stronger role in the residential communities surrounding the university.

To achieve that, Hart will announce today a $500,000 program to encourage workers at the university to become homeowners in the neighborhoods around the main campus in North Philadelphia and the health sciences campus in the city's Tioga section.

Local Public Opinion of Mason is High
Locals Believe Mason to be a Good Influence
Broadside - 1 Oct 2007
... FAIRFAX, VA - “The university has a very positive affect on my family. I like living in a college town, this way the children who live in these towns have more motivation to go to college,” said Novakowski, who moved into her house on Roberts Road 14 years ago. Motivating students to continue higher learning is not the only positive aspect that Mason offers to these communities. The masses of students in the City of Fairfax jogging in the streets and indulging in other activities bring an entertaining element to the quiet residential areas. The crowd is appreciated by Novakowski. “Because of the college kids, there’s more life in town,” said Nowakowski, who plans to retire in a community he called peaceful ...

Life in a college town: The life of a musician
Gazette - 1 Oct 2007
... WILLIAMSPORT, MA - The music can’t get any better as freshmen musicians jam outside of Cedarcrest.

Armed with their guitars, bongos and whatever else they can get their hands on, a small group of freshmen keep the music alive for the everyday passersby ...

Business Booms for Dormitory Operator as Colleges Farm Out Housing
Sun - 1 Oct 2007
... NEW YORK, NY - As enrollments swell to record highs at New York City's colleges and universities, a private operator of dormitories is reeling in new business.

The nonprofit, New York-based Educational Housing Services has been experiencing a rapid growth in interest recently and is planning to more than double the number of beds it operates to about 7,000 over the next three years. Founded two decades ago, the organization's recent rise is an emblem of a broader trend among the city's colleges and universities, as the institutions feel pressure to expand at the very time the city's real estate prices are at a high point ...

Investors urged to consider student properties
London Stock Exchange - 1 Oct 2007
... UK - Buy-to-let investors ought to consider the strength of the student property market and the potential returns it can generate, according to one expert.

Research by Paragon found that landlords who let homes to students achieve yields that are 25 per cent higher than in the general market on average ...

As We See It
Sentinel - 1 Oct 2007
... SANTA CRUZ, CA - Thumbs down: To the questionable sensitivity by a UC Santa Cruz associate vice chancellor, for saying that the pressure for more students to live off-campus is "a good thing" True, UCSC houses more of its students on campus than any other UC branch, but a huge incoming class of freshmen this year has forced some students off campus. Ask residents of the Westside and they'll tell you that traffic and other concerns about crowding have had an impact on their lives. Yet the vice chancellor said, "This year it's a good thing for property owners to have this clientele available for their rental units. This is a year where UCSC students help our local housing market" We don't think that most residents of Santa Cruz would agree ...

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