A dangerous rite of passage
Star-Tribune - 17 Nov 2007
... MINNEAPOLIS, MN - "Twenty-one-year-olds think they're invincible and they can do crazy things and get away with it," said Ed Ehlinger, director of the University of Minnesota's Boynton Health Service. "The 21st birthday is probably the riskiest time. More kids get in trouble on that day than any other day of their 21st year."They are now legal and there is a lot of pressure to celebrate this big event. They intellectually know that alcohol can kill you, but they don't internalize it and they do respond to the peer pressure." ...

Strange sensation
Robert Plant gets ready for The Led Zeppelin reunion with a hit album with the bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss.
Statesman (India) - 17 Nov 2007
... USA - Plant is one of the few survivors of rock’s golden age who has managed to sustain a restless interest in a wide range of music. And one certainly wouldn’t expect a cornerstone of country music ~ traditionally the most conservative of genres ~ to have that kind of eclectic spirit, but Krauss, it turns out, isn’t your run-of-the-mill country star.

“My parents introduced me and my brother to every kind of music,” she explains. “We had Little Stevie Wonder records, Peter Paul and Mary, Flatt and Scruggs; and we went to every concert in the park.

“I grew up in Champaign, Illinois, a college town where there was a great music school, so I heard everything. My mother would take me to rehearsals at the Performing Arts Centre, of everything from kabuki to opera, and symphonies to chamber music, dance performances, everything. So I had a wide range of interests, and an open mind.” ...

UW-L braces for housing crunch: $49 million proposal would replace beds
Tribune - 17 Nov 2007
... LA CROSSE, WI - Chancellor Joe Gow said the previous administration planned the new academic building without “fully exploring what that meant for campus” housing.

UW-L officials now are trying to find solutions by forming a planning committee of faculty, staff and students ...

Busybody brew-haha
Morning News - 17 Nov 2007
... STATESBORO, GA - It's good that people in Bulloch County have seen the light - and more importantly, the law.

The group's basic argument was that even though GSU students live, work, go to school, buy groceries and gas, and pay rent and sales taxes in Statesboro, they aren't "real" residents ...

Commentary: The Biggest Game in Town
Daily Planet - 16 Nov 2007
.... BERKELEY, CA - The Biggest Game in Town is Mayor Tom Bates’ favorite—Deals for Developers ...

Our city was wisely designed as a walkable, sustainable university town but our mayor wants to transform it with high density. How high? The Bates/UC Hotel project was up to 225 feet last week and now has a sister incubating ...

Uneasy bedfellows
‘Queen’s can’t sneeze without the city at least catching a chill’
Journal - 16 Nov 2007
... KINGSTON, ON - Kingston Mayor Harvey Rosen said he thinks Queen’s should focus on “diffusing” or spreading out rather than growing.

“Certainly, relative to the size of the city it calls home, it has a very large presence.”

As a larger university in a smaller city, Queen’s plays a bigger role in Kingston than the University of Toronto does in its city, Rosen said.

“Because of that I think we have to work a lot harder on our relationship to ensure a healthy relationship between the University and the city.” ...

Use Classes Order
News - 16 Nov 2007
... LOUGHBOROUGH, UK - Nicky Morgan, prospective Conservative MP for Loughborough, has welcomed news that the Government is preparing to review planning regulations known as the Use Classes Order.

A change to the Order, if it meant that any change in the use of a property from a family home to be rented to up to six unrelated parties would need to be scrutinised as part of the planning process, could be of enormous benefit in helping to deal with the problems relating to the conversion of family homes to properties rented to students in Loughborough ...

Brunswick housing conflict triggers lawsuit
Times-Record - 16 Nov 2007
... BRUNSWICK, ME — Neighbors of a historic house at 17 Cleaveland St. are suing the town and house owners, arguing that the 11 students scheduled to live in the house violate town restrictions against boarding houses and jeopardize residential neighborhoods across town ...

Text message saves students from home robbers
MSNBC - 16 Nov 2007
... KALAMAZOO, MI - Not wanting to tip off the suspect that she was calling police, one of the victims began text-messaging friends. Her boyfriend got the text message and called police.

Police were able to get all six girls out through windows in the building, and neighbors in adjoining apartments were also evacuated ...

Ever thought of living in Philadelphia?
West Philadelphia: The Biggest Turnaround
Daily News 16 Nov 2007
... PHILADELPHIA, PA - Twenty years ago, West Philadelphia was an academic slum. University of Pennsylvania students (including myself) were robbed at gunpoint on an almost nightly basis. The university had practically shut itself off from the community.

Today, the University of Pennsylvania has embraced the surrounding area, bringing in private investment and public confidence - turning West Philadelphia into a shopping, dining and living extension of Philadelphia's Center City neighborhoods.

"We made an active decision not to do things to the neighborhood but to do things with the neighborhood," says Anthony Sorrentino, UPenn's executive director of public affairs. "We tore down fences to our fields, inviting the neighbor-hood to use our facilities." ...

College town, historic town
But Williamsburg's focus is more on tourists than it is on W&M students
Times-Dispatch - 16 Nov 2007
... WILLIAMSBURG, VA - At the College of William and Mary, about 7,000 students are part of a 12,000-person city where tourists are in constant need of direction, 18th-century attire still is in style, and a university doesn't always fit in.

Local laws discourage students from living off campus, and many businesses close before college students have even planned their nights ...

When the Gown Devours the Town
NY Times - 16 Nov 2007
... NEW YORK, NY - Are universities gobbling up New York City? Town-gown disputes have flared recently at such diverse schools as Columbia University (where hunger-striking students are protesting a campus expansion in Harlem), New York University (which is steadily developing more and more of Greenwich Village) and even Queens College (which is building its first dormitory) ...

Proposed student housing project explained
United Realty wants to take over former St. John's High School, has similar projects in other cities
Press-Republican - 16 Nov 2007
... PLATTSBURG, NY - The project has drawn great interest in the Center City as residents there continue their fight against unruly behavior by college students living off campus.

Some are concerned that adding more students to the Broad Street area will not help the situation.

Some also support a proposed law change in the city that would reduce the number of non-blood related people living in a unit from four to three ...

Hop on Over to College Town
UK News - 15 Nov 2007
LEXINGTON, KY - As Lexington's leaders continue to look at ways to reinvent downtown, University of Kentucky architecture students at the College of Design have accepted an offer to examine the revitalization effort that would envision a "college town" design for the community. Lexington's "college town" would encompass an area of downtown that runs from UK's Chandler Hospital to the Transylvania University campus ...

Branding Toledo as a "college town"
WTOL - 15 Nov 1007
... TILEDO, OH - This afternoon, city council held a committee meeting to discuss the economic benefits of branding Toledo as a "college town." University of Toledo President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs believes enhancing the culture of higher learning would have a long lasting impact. He said, "We have many strengths. Historical strengths, such as the tradition of glass in this city, but we have additional strengths in the academic arena. We are, in fact, a university town, and I think the more we emphasize that the better we'll be." ...

New owner sees charm in Cherry Street complex
Post - 15 Nov 2007
... VICKSBURG, MS - The Oak Lawn Apartments will soon be renamed, but their new owner says renovations will preserve architectural and decorative features that give the building on Cherry Street its charm.

Home to Vicksburg residents since the 1930s, the brick apartment building at 2240 Cherry was first owned by a grandfather of Realtor Ernest Thomas and later by the family of Ellis Bodron, who served in the Mississippi Senate through four decades, until 1984. Closed for the past two years, the apartments were sold by Bodron's daughter to Matthew Guinn, a former assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who plans to rename them Big Sky Court, after his company, Big Sky Developments ...

Trustees green-light SDSU expansion
Neighbors say CSU paid little attention to their concerns
Union-Tribune - 15 Nov 2007
... SAN DIEGO, CA - San Diego State University's expansion plan includes projects on both sides of Interstate 8, and some residents in neighborhoods surrounding the campus are concerned about worsening traffic congestion.

California State University trustees endorsed a plan that would catapult SDSU's enrollment to almost 45,000 by 2025 and push campus boundaries north across Interstate 8 to build staff and faculty housing ...

HOW TO BE GOOD NEIGHBOURS - STUDENTS RECEIVE ADVICE PACKS
Chronicle - 15 Nov 2007
... BATH, UK - Late-night drinking, sleeping in all day and collecting road cones make up the stereotypical view of students.

It's a sweeping generalisation, with most of the city's thousands of students causing no problems at all for their neighbours.

But a new effort is being made to improve town and gown relationships. This year a comprehensive Good Neighbour pack has been sent out to all undergraduates living in Oldfield Park - the traditional student enclave of Bath ...

Voter challenges dropped
University tudent voters will be counted
Herald - 15 Nov 2007
... STATESBORO, GA - The Statesboro Citizens for Good Government decided Wednesday to withdraw its 909 voter challenges holding up the final results in two City Council races. A total of 297 challenged voters actually cast ballots during early voting and on Election Day – Nov. 6 ...

London has 14-storey student solution
Gazette - 15 Nov 2007
... LONDON, ON - To curb student-related violence around Fanshawe College, the planning committee of City of London has approved the development of a hefty student apartment complex.

On Monday, the planning committee approved the future apartment building, which is set to house 500 students under one 14-storey roof at the corner of First and Oxford streets across from Fanshawe College ...

Orono housing ordinance to restrict number of unrelated residents move forward
Maine Campus - 15 Nov 2007
... ORONO, ME - Changes may be in store for off-campus students after Wednesday's Orono Town Council meeting. Members discussed finalizing an ordinance restricting the number of non-family residents allowed in a rental unit. If approved, the decision could impact the availability and prices of apartments in Orono.

The council reduced the maximum occupancy of a rental unit from five unrelated people to three over the summer. However, if the owner of the property has been in possession of the rental unit previous to June 18, their right as a landlord is less clear ...

Spreading the words
Independent - 15 Nov 2007
... MISSOULA, MT - Rumors that the UM Bookstore would buy Missoula’s Fact & Fiction started circulating months ago, and were finally confirmed late last week with news that the venerable downtown independent bookseller would remain largely unchanged—and actually expand to additional locations on campus and on 39th St. What’s perhaps most telling about the sale is the personal way the word spread ...

Biodiesel conversion good for Gainesville
Alligator - 15 Nov 2007
... GAINESVILLE, FL - We've all heard of the french-fry automobiles that drive across the country, powered only by grease and oil from fast-food restaurants.

Well, Gainesville's Regional Transit System buses will soon do essentially the same thing, but on a much bigger scale ...

Bill would pay towns for tax-exempt property
Daily News - 14 Nov 2007
... HARRISBURG, PA — College towns and other municipalities with more than their share of tax-exempt properties would get state money to help pay their bills under legislation unveiled yesterday ...

Store chains bring subtle but steady change to Davis
As national chains move in, locals and students split on gentrification issue
Tufts Daily - 14 Nov 2007
... SOMERVILLE, MA - Speak to anyone familiar with the stretch of one-way streets known as Davis Square and you will receive an almost unanimous opinion: The area is nothing if not unique.

Locals like Dennis Armstrong, manager of the local record store CD Spins, love Davis for its diversity - the mix of college students and local Somerville residents who populate the square on a daily basis ...

Student Life In Istanbul
CafeBabel - 14 Nov 2007
... ISTANBUL, TK - Students in Istanbul are very lucky in terms of the cultural activities, concerts or night life. Taksim is an attractive area for the university students in this sense. Babylon for example, attracts the students and the music lovers with its artistic structure and the quality concerts. Students can find different options on Istiklal Street in Taksim. You can listen to jazz,blues or Turkish classical music, pop, or folk music in different clubs. There are student discounts for nearly every cultural activity in Istanbul ...

Numbers and plans looks good for Carbondale's future
The Southern - 14 Nov 2007
... CARBONDALE, IL - After reviewing highlights from the past year that included forming a partnership between the City of Carbondale and Southern Illinois University Carbondale to help develop and finance SIUC building projects, finding new ways to help people buy homes and resurfacing neighborhood streets, Mayor Brad Cole looked to the future with a simple rhetorical question - "Where are we going?" ...

Group to pursue referendum against party law
Opponents of Chico's new "disorderly events" ordinance will seek a referendum to stop the measure from becoming law.
Enterprise - 14 Nov 2007
... CHICO, CA - Members of a group calling themselves Chico Citizens for Civil Rights announced Tuesday morning they are circulating petitions against the ordinance. Jessica Allen said the group has already collected several hundred signatures and will aim to collect almost twice the number of signatures needed to force a referendum.

The City Council has already given final approval to the ordinance. The group has until Dec. 6 to collect signatures from 10 percent of the 43,213 registered voters or the ordinance becomes law ...

San Marcos mini-dorms to be regulated
NC Times - 14 Nov 2007
... SAN MARCOS, CA - Hoping to curb problems associated with groups of college students living so-called "mini-dorms," the City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a "rooming house" ordinance that would regulate multiple leases in what are traditionally single-family homes ...

Web course won't stop drinking
Daily Collegian - 14 Nov 2007
... STATE COLLEGE, PA - As early as summer session 2008, incoming Penn State students could have the opportunity to enrich themselves with knowledge about the drinking mentality of a college town, something that Penn State assumes students know nothing about ...

Sofas may have to go back indoors
Measure doesn't sit well in Murfreesboro
Tennessean - 14 Nov 2007
... MURFREESBOTO, TN - Hey, you, sitting in the duct-taped La-Z-Boy on the front porch. Take note: The Murfreesboro City Council means to end your lounging ways.

Pretty soon, if a new citywide measure is approved, the indoor furniture will have to be moved back inside — or you will be cited ...

Mankato council OKs social host ordinance
Eagle - 14 Nov 2007
... MANKATO, MN - The Mankato City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance aimed at cracking down on underage drinking ...

'TownGown World' Web site launches
New Web site for the exchange of information about town/gown planning around the world
13 Nov 2007
TownGown World will focus on collaborative community planning processes that improve the wellbeing of all residents living in communities that surround higher educational institutions. The site will have both an international and academic focus, examining the planning processes being used in different geographical areas around the world to address near campus neighbourhood well being.

Downside to being a university town
Tribune - 13 Nov 2007
... GUELPH, ON - The City of Guelph and the University of Guelph have a typical symbiotic relationship: each could survive without the other, but in the end, they simply wouldn't be the same entities. The tax revenue brought into the city's purse directly and indirectly because of the university has been a boon municipally, whereas city facilities and infrastructure has been absolutely essential for the success of the university. Mutual cooperation and understanding is necessary ...

Moscow proposes noise ordinance, UI students fight back
News Station - 13 Nov 2007
... MOSCOW, ID - University of Idaho students are challenging a proposed Moscow noise ordinance in which police officers could cite people for "loud, unnecessary or unusual noise."

Some in the community are pushing the measure because of what they call loud house parties - a common complaint in university towns like Moscow ...

Park Point housing complex at RIT progresses
Democrat & Chronicle - 13 Nov 2007
... ROCHESTER, NY - University of Rochester has talked tentatively about developing a college town-like project along Mt. Hope Avenue aimed at its students. On the other side of the Genesee River, construction crews are putting up an extended-stay hotel, to be followed by retail and office space for the $23 million Brooks Landing complex. UR will occupy most of the office space ...

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
Ann Arbor
Wall Street journal - 13 Nov 2007
... ANN ARBOR, MI - Travel reporter and Ann Arbor, Mich., native Darren Everson on what to do in this quintessential college town ...

Fires may raise concern about student housing
Wisconsin State Journal - 13 Nov 2007
... MADISON,WI - Two recent fires in student housing should give renters and their parents pause as they start looking for a place to live for the next school year.

The advice from experts: Do your homework ...

A Culture of Debt
Agree to Disagree
Cornell Daily Sun - 13 Nov 2007
... ITHACA, NY - We seniors find ourselves, to quote Churchill, at the “end of the beginning” — a transient junction in life most observable here at the Ithaca airport, where students in suits shuttle to New York each week to plan the “beginning of the end.” Though the worlds they’re leaving and entering are dauntingly different, they’re increasingly marked by a similar phenomenon: a culture of debt ...

Home Grown
Cornell Daily Sun - 12 Nov 2007
... ITHACA, NY - In an effort to continue my exploration of our strange perceptions of Ithaca, I asked several Ithacans to help me understand their relationship with Cornell and Ithaca. Are they townies or (please excuse the lame pun) gownies? My first important lesson was that Ithacans divide themselves between Cornell-affiliates and non-affiliates. Implicit in these labels is one’s socio-economic status. As far as I can tell, a Cornell-affiliate refers to a professor or a high-level administrator, not the maintenance or dining hall staff. Like many other universities, Cornell offers affiliates’ children amazing tuition benefits, anywhere from a free-ride to 50 percent off. Even though Kate, one of my interviewees, estimated between 10 percent to 15 percent of her classmates from Ithaca High (“Little Red”) attend Cornell, affiliates are the only Ithacans I know at the University. In fact, when discussing this column with Heather, another affiliate, she specifically asked me to make an effort to find Ithacan Cornellians from blue-collar, non-affiliate families. She was just as interested as I was to know if they exist and how they feel about Cornell ...

Development puts Dinkydome in danger
Converting the Dinkydome into student housing won't boost Dinkytown's future.
Minnesota Dailoy - 12 Nov 2007
... MINNEAPOLIS, MN - major development company has its radar set on the Dinkydome. The company is in the process of purchasing the building in the heart of campus to convert the space and surrounding area into a student housing unit, the Daily reported last week. Development would include the Dinkydome itself and the surrounding parking lot, stretching to Fourth Street. These plans are disconcerting to us, as we have seen Dinkytown lose its local flavor from years past, and this could be another major blow to small businesses and student hang-out spots in Dinkytown ...

Downtown retail is developing
BUSINESS OWNERS IN URBAN CORE ARE SMILING
Herald-Leader - 12 Nov 2007
... LEXINGTON, KY - While a lot of construction activity is going on downtown, one developer has downsized the amount of retail in his multi-use project, another is converting planned retail to residential units, and a third said his project couldn't get off the ground in part because of lack of retail interest ...

Some of the bigger construction projects downtown have struggled to attract big-name retailers, but business owners in pockets of the urban core -- the stores in Lexington Center, the Limestone area and the business district near the University of Kentucky, for example -- say the downtown retail climate is robust. As with all things in real estate, location is the key ...

Editorial: College-town plans are worth pursuing despite high cost
Kernel - 12 Nov 2007
... LEXINGTON, KY - One of the most promising aspects of this plan is the cooperation of UK and Transylvania.

Events on either campus could be made more accessible to the general student and academic population by means of increased advertisement, communication or even public transportation ...

NKU's Votruba pitches big ideas
Says legislature must offer funding for school's growth
Enquirer - 12 Nov 2007
... COVINGTON, KY - A partnership with a local developer to build student housing on or near campus. Currently, about 10 percent of NKU's 14,000 students live in university-owned housing.

"You need a critical mass to create the kind of campus life that high-ability students want," Votruba said ...

Kids booze, you lose
Mankato considers "social host" ordinance
Free Press - 12 Nov 2007
... MANKATO, MN - Mankato’s proposal is based on a law in Chaska, which recently became the first city in the state to institute such a law, referred to as “social host” ordinance.

And that has some college students asking what effects a social host ordinance would have in a college town ...

Fight over student ballots hold up college town election
Morning News - 12 Nov 2007
... STATESBORO, GA - Georgia Southern students, including Greene, account for nearly all the 297 voters whose ballots have been blocked, at least temporarily, in a town versus gown battle for control of the Statesboro City Council ...

Another sorry attempt to deny voting rights
AJC - 11 Nov 2007
... STATESBORO, GA - Prior to this week's election, a group in Statesboro, Ga., styling itself Statesboro Citizens for Good Government challenged 909 registered voters on the grounds that as students at Georgia Southern University, they were not residents entitled to vote in city elections. State law requires such challenges to "specify distinctly the grounds of the challenge." Far from being distinct, the 909 challenges used an identical form, with a blank space for filling in the names of individual voters, and identical language that "the elector has come to Statesboro, Georgia, only for the temporary purpose of attending Georgia Southern University." ...

Student Fire Traps Pt. II video
KSFY - 11 Nov 2007
... SAN DIEGO, CA - In just two weeks there have been three off-campus fires across the country resulting in ten deaths. Now as fire officials try to figure out what went wrong, the deputy chief in Brookings says he's trying stop it from happening again ...

SiteMeter