The Attack on Student Voting Rights
Inside Higher Ed - 31 Dec 2007
... USA - Rock the Vote cites many examples of attempts to attack student voting rights. In 2004 near Prairie View A&M (a historically black university located in a majority white county in Texas), District Attorney Oliver Kitzman publicly declared, “it’s not right for any college student to vote where they do not have permanent residency,” and threatened to prosecute students who tried to register to vote. In 2004, after several students at the College of William & Mary ran for city council in Williamsburg, Virginia, the local register declared four students did not live in town and could not run for office or vote there. In February 2007, a state representative in Maine even proposed a bill to ban students from voting where they go to college ...

Student volunteers descend on Iowa
Politico - 31 Dec 2007
... IOWA - Young people enthusiastic about their candidate, or in some cases just the democratic process generally, are descending on Iowa in droves to volunteer and observe.

Some, obviously, are directly volunteering for candidates. Others are students at Iowa colleges who grew up out of state and are coming back just to caucus. And a few are there to learn about the process ...

Madison, Wis.
Tribune - 30 Dec 2007
... MADISON, WI - Wisconsin's capital city has been on so many American best-of lists--best towns, most livable cities, best walking cities, best public schools, best farmers' markets, etc.--we're almost wondering why we haven't moved there yet. Yup, it's got pretty much everything: Picturesque college campus? Check. Progressive politics? Check. Ginormous arboretum, impressive contemporary art museum, critically acclaimed restaurants? Check, check, check. Not to mention, it's home to a 10-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright building (yes, it's possible), and that quintessentially quaint Midwestern town feature, the town square--this one flanking the handsome Capitol building. We usually visit during the summer when festivals abound, but because it's a college town, Madison is buzzing year-round ...

192 apartments slated for Parkhill
Historic building will become garage
Courier-Journal - 30 Dec 2007
... louisville, ky - A Georgia developer plans to convert the old American Standard plant west of the University of Louisville's Belknap Campus into a 750-space garage and build four large apartment buildings primarily for U of L students.

Phenix Investment Associates of suburban Atlanta has proposed spending $32 million to build 192 apartments with a total of 640 beds. They would be in four, three-story buildings adjacent to the old plant at Shipp Avenue and Seventh Street in the Parkhill neighborhood ...

Aspen Ridge re-envisioned as student housing
Northwest Arkansas Times - 30 Dec 2007
... FAYETTEVILLE, AR - The most recent plan for Aspen Ridge, an unfinished development along Sixth Street and Hill Avenue, is to make it student housing ...

Hank Broyles, the developer who reacquired the large scale subdivision earlier this year, said Friday he has the property under contract with Place Properties of Atlanta, to build and manage student housing at the site ...

Developer sees Waco's future mirrored in booming Houston-area city
Tribune-Herald - 30 dec 2007
... WACO, TX - Wallace and his development partners aim to create that same environment with their $75 million project around Waco’s Heritage Square. They will start this month on the first 66 loft apartments across from City Hall. Retail and office space will also be part of the mix.

In March, they are to break ground on a 370-unit upscale student housing complex next to the Courtyard by Marriott. In coming years they plan to add more retail, office space and parking garages.

“Think of this in downtown Waco,” Wallace says, sipping his coffee near the plate glass window. “You hear the mind-set of people who say, ‘You don’t seriously think it’s going to be the same in downtown Waco.’ And I say, ‘Yes, it is.’ ” ...

Ohio campus recalls impact of poll lines
MLive - 29 Dec 2007
... GAMBIER, OH — Kenyon College student Ann Shikany couldn't wait to vote for the first time. When she finally got the chance, she waited. And waited.

Shikany stood, sat, ate and napped in line for more than 10 hours in 2004 in this college town, home to the longest voting lines in the country ...

Well insulated
Energy-efficient house being built in student housing area
Messenger - 29 Dec 2007
... ATHENS, OH - Smack dab in the middle of a student housing area on North Lancaster Street in Athens, an energy-efficient house is taking root.

Builder Sean Jones bought the property, and then razed the house sitting on it due to foundation and structure problems. In its place, he is building a new house with insulated walls made from concrete, foam and recycled plastic, complete with a solar grid that will cut down on the electric bill on sunny days and a solar water-heating system that will also cut heating costs ...

King's College: A medieval heart of glass
Telegraph - 29 Dec 2007
... CAMBRIDGE, UK - Thomas Marks reviews The King's Glass: a Story of Tudor Power and Secret Art by Carola Hicks

Medieval Cambridge was a grubby slum in which scholars dodged pigs and puddles in cramped lanes, and town and gown contended with one another - and with the unsavoury miasma that simmered over the town's defensive ditch ...

Trammell Crow to develop upscale apartments
Targeted tenants include students
Business Journal - 31 Dec 2007
... MEMPHIS, TN - Trammell Crow Co. will turn National Cotton Council of America's building at 1918 North Parkway into a $15 million-$16 million upscale apartment building.

The Dallas developer has purchased the 2.8-acre site near Rhodes College and plans to demolish the existing building. The Cotton Council is building a new headquarters at Goodlett Farms near Interstate 40 and Appling Road.

Trammell Crow will build a 149-unit apartment complex called the Stratum at Overton Park at the site ...

Make financial planning your new year resolution
GulfNews - 29 Dec 2007
... USA - Reinvesting their profits in a US college town, where the cost of living is lower but there's plenty to do, paid off for the Brocks.

He believes 2008 is the year many retirees will return to college - or at least move near a college or university. "College towns - and lots of other places for that matter - are actively recruiting seniors," ...

Out with the new, in with the vintage
Sanctuary Vintage is located in the Old City.
Tennessee Journalist - 28 Dec 2007
... KNOXVILLE, TN - As downtown Knoxville experiences a surge in developmental projects, entrepreneur Reed Massengill of Sanctuary Vintage offers a charming montage of nostalgic mementoes of yonder years.

Massengill's cornucopia of funky clothing, bric-a-brac and jewelry provides hipsters with an outlet to incorporate vintage apparel into their modern wardrobes ...

Massengill attributes the success of his business to his prime location in the heart of downtown Knoxville's historic Old City that is close to the University Of Tennessee campus and the city's growing number of lofts and apartments.

"One of the things I've always loved about certain cities is their vibrant downtowns, particularly in college towns, where there's usually a bohemian district with funky shops, galleries and salons," ...

MTD seeking proposals on hourly car rental program
News-Gazette - 28 Dec 2007
... URBANA, IL – Life without a car means no gasoline bills, parking fees, insurance – and no convenience.

Life with someone else's car – in this case, a joint program of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, the two cities and the University of Illinois – means convenience without the headaches.
Advertisement

The MTD is circulating a request for proposals for private car-share programs (the biggest is Zipcar) or not-for-profits to bid for a fleet of cars that can be rented by the hour ...

Colleges urged to pay more to boost city
Mail - 28 Dec 2007
... OXFORD, UK - Oxford University colleges are being urged to put money into a scheme to transform the city centre.

Oxford city centre management company, OX1, wants colleges to make a bigger contribution to its campaign to turn Oxford into a Business Improvement District (Bid).

OX1's chief executive Oliver O'Dell has written to all college bursars asking for financial support. The colleges currently contribute on average about £200 a year towards the city centre management company ...

$12 fee targets Pittsburgh landlords
Tribune-Review - 28 Dec 2007
... PITTSBURGH, PA - Apartment owners in Pittsburgh next year must pay a $12 annual fee for each rental unit, under a registration program City Council adopted Thursday.

The ordinance requires apartment owners to pay to register their addresses, number and types of rentals -- all information the city will keep in a confidential database ...

... sponsored the legislation with the intent of holding landlords accountable for the upkeep of their properties. City inspectors bearing building code citations sometimes have difficulty tracking down owners of derelict properties, particularly student housing in Oakland ...

Homes Fit For Dukes
City's Housing Prepared To Match JMU Enrollment
Rocktown Weekly - 28 Dec 2007
... HARRISONBURG, VA - The city should have enough housing for projected enrollment increases for the next five years at James Madison University, officials say.

More than 3,700 residential-housing units are under construction or in various stages of approval, according to Stacy Turner, the city's director of planning and community development.

Of those, 2,985 are apartment or townhouse units.

"In the long run, we should have sufficient housing for JMU's anticipated student increase," Turner said. "Year to year, whether the number of new units becoming available exactly matches the number of students, I'm not able to say."

This fall, JMU's enrollment was 17,918, according to the university's Office of Institutional Research. About 70 percent of those live off campus ...

Edwards Communities bidding to build apartments for U. of Louisville
Business First - 28 Dec 2007
... LOUISVILLE, KY - A Columbus developer is looking to help a Kentucky college expand its student housing.

Edwards Communities Management Company Inc. has applied with the city of Louisville to raze a former plumbing fixtures factory and redevelop the 43-acre site into a complex with 426 apartments.

The project is part of a University of Louisville plan to add 1,500 beds for its student by 2015, using a mix of school-owned dormitories and private apartments. Developers that build apartments as part of the plan would own and manage the complexes, while the university's student housing office will manage who lives in the units ...

Liberty U. Wants to Grow to 15,000 Students
Washington Post - 28 Dec 2007
... LYNCHBURG, VA - The late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University is seeking city approval to expand to 15,000 students.

The school's conditional use permit, issued five years ago, expired earlier this year when enrollment hit 10,500 ...

Middlebury and the Chocolate Bar
Independent - 27 Dec 2007
... MIDDLEBURY, VT — Middlebury College officials hope to reopen the former Eat Good Food space on Main Street by this coming February, using it for a “chocolate bar,” student night spot, small-scale retail venture and as a spot for town-gown activities.

Tim Spears, dean of students for the college, confirmed the news last week. It was back in August that the institution signed a short-term lease on the 2,700-square-foot space, seeing it as a good spot in which to open a venture that could boost student activity in downtown Middlebury while not competing with current businesses. The college has spent the past four months soliciting campus and public feedback on how to use the former restaurant space, along with sorting how the enterprise will be configured and managed ...

Winooski becoming a college town
Free Press - 27 Dec 2007
... WINOOSKI, VT - Now Winooski is on the verge of even more change just as we were getting used to maneuvering the roundabout. It will become the home in 2010 of the Community College of Vermont, a change called the most important decision in the history of Vermont colleges.

And that was obviously quite the decision that the state's board of college trustees made, to take the college out of college-rich Burlington ...

New homes plan will 'damage' St Andrews
Councillor claims 1000 houses would "cost town its identity"
FifeToday - 27 Dec 2007
... ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND - FIFE Council's approval of 1000 new houses for St Andrews over the next 20 years, as part of more than 30,000 seen as needed across Fife, will damage the town beyond recognition.

That's the view of one of St Andrews' four councillors, Conservative Dorothea Morrison, in the wake of the local authority's approval of the finalised Fife Structure Plan — a blueprint for development over the next two decades ...

Green Up Your Stereo
Pitch Weekly - 26 Dec 2007
... LAWRENCE, KS - Like Godzilla leaving green footprints, high-profile eco-journalist Simran Sethi has taken over the college town of Lawrence. Since moving to the trendy prairie hamlet from New York City, Sethi has spotlighted her favorite local businesses on Oprah and the Sundance Channel's Big Ideas for a Small Planet. As an environmental correspondent for NBC News, she talked to Al Gore about the massive tornado that devastated tiny Greensburg, Kansas. She has been on The Martha Stewart Show and is the host of Sundance's The Green Online. And before she was loco for eco, Sethi was a news anchor for MTV News in India and Singapore ...

Big year in Carbondale signals change ahead
The Southern - 26 Dec2007
... CARBONDALE, IL - A mayor re-elected. A sales tax increase. A $20 million, 20-year commitment to Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

A $35 inspection fee on rental properties.

It was a busy year at city hall and though substantial measures were adopted, many won't be felt until well into the future ...

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Chronicle - 25 Dec 2007
... BOZEMAN, MT - GLASS ROOTS -- In a college town, it's inevitable that, somewhere, someone will build something out of beer or liquor bottles.

A new company in Bozeman is doing just that, except on a larger scale. Glass Roots is busy turning post-consumer glass bottles -- beer, water, liquor, etc. -- into luminescent architectural tiles and light fixtures.

In an e-mail to the Chronicle, the company said the tiles are created using a solar-powered manufacturing process, adding to the recycling-sustainability theme ...

TownGown World discusses Purpose Built Housing
TownGownWorld.com - Dec 2007
... CANADA, UK, USA - TownGown World has recently published a discussion of Purpose Built housing, examining the role of PBD in the housing of a growing student population. Articles discussing this issue from developers, student groups, academics and neighbourhood groups make this discussion a "must read" for communities hosting higher educational institutions.
www.towngownworld.com

University prepares for side effects of city's jackpot
Lehigh and its students will face special challenges when the next-door neighbor is a slots casino.
Morning Call - 23 Dec 2007
... BETHLEHEM, PA - Sometime in the spring of 2009, thousands of Lehigh University students suddenly will be within walking distance of 3,000 slot machines.

Yet, as scary as that may sound, Lehigh University President Alice Gast is more worried about south Bethlehem evolving without the university evolving with it ...

Room for all faiths in the Arbor District
The Southern - 23 Dec 2007
... CARBONDALE, IL - Our annual Christmas Party in the Arbor District was great fun, highlighted by opera students from Southern Illinois University Carbondale singing Christmas carols, Hanukkah songs and secular songs of the season. Wait a minute, carols and Hanukkah songs? That's right, and the committee that put together the Christmas party was made up of Catholics, Protestants, a Muslim and a Jew.

Gathered around the Christmas tree were people who were delighted to explain the pagan nature of the yule log and the winter solstice. Many brought something to share at the party, whether it was spirits or potluck dishes.

Our neighborhood embraces people of all religious backgrounds as well as those who are atheists or humanists. The Islamic Center of Carbondale and the Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life are but a couple of blocks apart. The First Christian Church, the Christian Scientists, First Methodist and the First Baptist churches are just down the street. Father Bob Flannery of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church hoisted some holiday cheer along with Hugh Muldoon, the director of the Interfaith Center at the University. Practicing Buddhists are part of our organization. We also have a vibrant and growing Sufi Muslim community that includes one of the party planners, Susan Fehrenbacher ...

Court rules Syracuse ordinances are valid
Empire State News - 23 Dec 2007
... SYRACUSE, NY - The City of Syracuse Friday was notified that the Appeals Court in Rochester declared that its Certificate of Sufficiency and Nuisance Party Ordinances are valid.

The decision reversed a July 2006 decision by the Supreme Court of Onondaga County, which had ruled that the ordinances were not valid because no environmental review had been conducted prior to the adoption of the ordinances.

“This means that the City has the necessary tools to better enforce existing laws that help ensure that properties and their tenants are not nuisances to their neighborhoods,” ...

Developer adding high-end housing to recruit executives
First influx of researchers expected early in 2008
Independent Tribune - 23 Dec 2007
... KANNAPOLIS, NC - Directly south of the research campus, where Cannon Mills’ Plant No. 4 once stood, Castle & Cooke is building a 300-unit townhome and condominium development called South Village.

“With the campus development, you needed kind of an urban environment living opportunity, which for us is going to be townhomes and condos,” Sparrow said.

The townhomes, which will likely see a groundbreaking in February, will sell for an estimated $250,000-$400,000, depending on different options. The “regency style” development will take an elliptical shape, and homes will include features, such as curved staircases. Renderings of South Village are expected in January.
“Those are for people who want to live and work on campus,” Sparrow said. “But we get a lot of calls from empty-nesters that would like to downsize, and would rather be in an urban environment where they can walk to the grocery store and restaurants.” ...

Students scramble as dorms locked up
Stan State's no home during winter break
Bee - 23 Dec 2007
... TURLOCK, CA - There's no place like a hotel for the holidays.

Some dormitory residents were scrambling for a temporary place to stay last week as California State University, Stanislaus, prepared to close the dorms for winter break.

Under a new policy, residents on Friday lost access to their rooms through Jan. 2 ...

City awaiting riverfront apartment plans
Daily Reflector - 23 Dec 2007
... GREENVILLE, NC - The City Council in October voted to lease to Place about four acres of city-owned property adjacent to the site for use as parking. The proposed apartments would be built just west of Pitt Street.

The student-housing developer plans to build a multistory facility. The developer will pay the city $15,920 a year to lease the parking-lot property.

Even though the apartments are on the riverbank, they are well above the river itself ...

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