New University Hill Commission seeks to revive Hill
Commission offers students a voice in Hill development
CampusPress - 8 Mar 2008
... BOULDER, CO - Students living and working on the Hill may start to notice some new changes.

Consisting of five members appointed by City Council, the University Hill Commercial Area Management Commission is working alongside the New Hill Company in hopes of bringing flourishing business to the area and addressing issues such as health, safety, maintenance, aesthetics, economic vitality and sustainability ...

“New York to State College”
By Victoria H. - Age 13, State College
Centre Daily Times - 8 Mar 2008
... STATE COLLEGE, PA - My dad went to college here so he said it was a really good place to live. There seemed to be plenty of good places to go so it seemed that it would never get boring ...

There are so many different things that I love about State College. I love how everything is really close by. My family and I can walk to downtown or a few restaurants that we are close to. I also love how friendly the people are around here. In New York they weren’t so friendly. So it was nice to come to a place that the people were so friendly. I love how I have so many friends. In New York I never had as many friends like I do now. I would never have guessed that I would have so many. So over all I can’t really find something that I don’t love about State College ...

REM reborn
Telegraph - 8 Mar 2008
...Athens, GA - Stipe, like the other future members of REM, moved to Athens to attend college; he became an art student at the University of Georgia. Buck first encountered him when he was working in the Wuxtry record store and Stipe was a regular customer. 'Michael was kinda quiet but pretty intense ...

Continuing the R-1 zoning debate
Pipe Dream - 7 Mar 2008
... BINGHAMTON, NY - The eviction order of six Binghamton University students last month from their home on 8 Lincoln Ave. has sparked renewed concern from landlords and City council members over the City’s zoning laws.

The City’s Zoning Board of Appeals ruled that the students were in violation of Binghamton’s R-1 zoning ordinance, which stipulates that only people who are considered to be a “factual and functional” family may live in certain areas of the West Side ...

Housing ordinances bring ‘unintended consequences’
Gay couples impacted by boarding restrictions
Southern Voice - 7 Mar 2008
... KENNESAW, GA - Worried about students living in de facto dorms in their neighborhoods, homeowners worked with the Cobb County Commission to craft an ordinance to prohibit boarding houses in residential neighborhoods. The ordinance, passed last year, decrees only two unrelated adults can live in a home. Gay and lesbian couples are not recognized as related under Georgia law, so Cobb’s ordinance means they can not take in friends or let out rooms.

The policy goes into effect May 8, three days after KSU’s end of term. At a Feb. 19 commission meeting, Colleen Anzalone was one of 13 residents who supported turning down exemptions to the ordinance for two houses yards from KSU’s northern border ...

Cobb County commission Chairman Sam Olens said the county had not considered that an ordinance aimed at college students could also limit options for gay couples ...

Neighbors want John Carroll University to explain its growth plans
Plain Dealer - 7 Mar 2008
... SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH - "We want the city to develop its own vision for what this area would look like that would benefit the residential neighborhoods, not just John Carroll University," association President Barbara Barlow said. "John Carroll University has to sit down at the table."

Riley wants to calm residents' fears, stressing that the university plans only to house faculty and administrators in the homes it owns ...

University to add more student, faculty housing
West Village project to begin construction this summer
California Aggie - 7 Mar 2008
... DAVIS, CA - The university is currently in final negotiations with the developers of the West Village project.

The backbone infrastructure of the project will begin this summer with the goal of having units available by 2010, said Mary Hayakawa, executive director of UC Davis Real Estate Services.

The project, which was approved for construction in November 2006, will be located west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard. The first phase of the development calls for 120 acres of construction, with accommodation for 1,980 student beds, 343 faculty homes and 45,000 square feet for commercial space ...

Daley launches jobs program with U of C
Maroon - 7 Mar 2008
... CHICAGO, IL - As part of a continuing effort to bolster town–gown relations between the University and the larger South Side community, Mayor Richard M. Daley and University President Robert Zimmer met with South Side residents, business leaders, and members of the University community at a press conference Tuesday to announce the Career Pathways Initiative, a new entry-level employment initiative for residents of the mid–South Side.

The initiative, a joint effort by the University’s Medical Center and the Mayor’s Office of Workforcåe Development, aims to provide community residents with campus job opportunities and career training and guidance ...

Red Nose Day to raise money for Oxford food pantry
Miami Student - 7 Mar 2008
... OXFORD, OH - The idea was inspired by the event Comic Relief, which takes place every two years in the United Kingdom to fight poverty.

Reynolds said he thought there could be a way to bring Red Nose day from the United Kingdom to Oxford, so he brought it up to Clawson's Hall Council, and the idea took off.

Money from the sales will go toward the Oxford Community Choice pantry, which provides foods for families in need, according to sophomore Supal Desai, president of Clawson's Hall Council ...

Town gets assist from Boston College
Post & Courier - 7 Mar 2008
... LINCOLNVILLE, SC - The group, which has been sleeping on Town Hall floors and dining with local residents, will return to Boston today. Lincolnville Mayor Tyrone Aiken said the students' efforts 'have huge benefits to the community.' Not only did they improve the town's appearance, they aided residents who are unable to perform home and outdoor chores for themselves ...

Colour Revolt finds inspiration in quiet college town
Times - 7 Mar 2008
... OXFORD, MS - With Colour Revolt's first full-length album set for release, the five Oxford students have captured the old spirit of their small Mississippi town and paired it with catchy college rock.

Calling them a product of their environment is a lofty compliment. Oxford has served as the breeding ground of inspiration for literary greats, including William Faulkner.

"The arts and the literature have definitely influenced us. You've got Barry Hannah teaching classes and all the William Faulkner stuff. The blues music here is also amazing. You can go into a juke joint on a Sunday night and see the real deal guys ...

DIY filmmakers thrive with true tales, fiction
Post-Dispatch - 7 Mar 2008
... ST. LOUIS, MO - "Leap, and the net will appear."

That quote from naturalist John Burroughs introduced a series of shorts that screened before the features at the fifth annual True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo., last weekend.

In the shorts, young men practiced the gymnastic pastime called parkour atop the landmarks of the college town. As their leaps got riskier, the audience cheered.

Those films could be a metaphor for the festival itself. True/False started small in 2004, when Paul Sturtze and David Wilson of Columbia's storefront Ragtag Cinema dedicated a fest to examining the blurry line between documentary truth and artful fabrication ...

Oxford is the 15th Ohio town to pass an LGBT rights measure
Chronicle - 7 Mar 2008
... OXFORD, OH - The city that is home to Miami University is now the 15th in Ohio to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and the fourth to cover gender identity.

City council voted unanimously on March 4 to expand the city’s non-discrimination ordinance, less than two months after the idea was first floated in a meeting between Miami students, staff, community members and city manager ...

Council passes new noise ordinance
Lawmakers table plan to change definition of functional family
Press-Republican - 7 Mar 2008
... PLATTSBURGH, NY - City councilors approved a tougher noise ordinance, but held off on changing the definition of a functional family.

The council had been considering changing the number of non-blood-related people allowed to live in a unit from four to three as a way of reducing the number of college students and college housing units in the Center City.

The suggestion sprang from a commission made up of college representatives, neighbors and city officials ...

Goals from '00 plan crop up in new strategy
Diamondback - 7 Mar 2008
... COLLEGE PARK, MD - The university met one benchmark set in the 2000 plan - adding 2,000 beds to student housing. But enrollment also increased, so the addition turned out to be insufficient, said Vic Korenman, a former associate provost who is coordinating the new plan.

The current plan also sought to offer freshmen more personalized learning with classes comprising fewer than 25 students. But the proportion of undergraduate courses with fewer than 20 students, not counting discussion sections for large lectures actually fell from 38 percent to 34 percent in the last eight years,

Fighting for family
Spectator - 6 Mar 2008
... EAU CLAIRE, WI - A baking pie, a chore responsibility chart and a variety of photos hanging on the walls. Not the typical student housing one might expect. But it is the home for non-traditional student Missy Collins and her partner, Diane Schermann.

Collins is a social work major planning on graduating in May, 2009. And that's only the beginning of what she does.

Besides school, she and Schermann are state certified foster parents, and Collins is pregnant with the couple's first child, a boy, due April 13. They are also one of six couples involved in the Helgeland v. Wisconsin, in which they are suing the state for not allowing individuals to put their domestic partner on their health insurance ...

UT gets $27 million to help shape Saudi university
Partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology calls for UT to help create science curriculum.
Amerixan-Statesman - 6 Mar 2008
... AUSTIN, TX - The University of Texas will receive $27 million during the next five years to help a fledgling university in Saudi Arabia establish a program in computational earth sciences and engineering.

The research and educational partnership with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, abbreviated as KAUST, calls for UT to help select faculty members, organize the curriculum and collaborate in research, conferences and other matters ...

Market turmoil hits N.H. student loan agency
Business Review - 6 Mar 2008
... NEW HAMPSHIRE - Citing the volatility of capital markets, the New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corp. – by far the largest New Hampshire provider of student loan financing -- has announced it will suspend its alternative student lending efforts effective Tuesday, March 11.

NHHELCO, one of the NHHEAF Network Organizations, said the decision to get out of the market for alternative lending came after analysis of administrative costs of the program and examination “of the quality and affordability of its current loan offerings against various offerings and programs available in the student loan market today.”

Alternative loans are non-federal loans made to students themselves who need resources beyond that of the assistance they receive from the college itself and through the federal Stafford Loan program ...

Web site offers alternative to buying textbooks
Golden Gate [X]press - 6 Mar 2008
... SANTA CLARA, CA - Santa Clara based Chegg was started in 2003 in an attempt to solve the growing demand for affordable textbooks. “Chegg was started as a student-to-student exchange, like Craigslist for students,” Phumbhra said.

The Web site realized that students wanted more than just a place to sell their textbooks, and Chegg began renting out textbooks. Today it has two million titles.

New proposal could allow 18-year olds to drink in bars
KARE11 - 6 Mar 2008
... MINNESOTA - The bill would allow anyone over 18 to drink alcohol at any place that carries a liquor license, but it would not allow them to buy alcohol at a liquor store.

The bill is only in committee, and DeLaForest says he knows passing it will take what he calls an "education effort" and could take years.

But he says there's already support for it, including from college professors and health experts, who DeLaForest says would testify that a lower drinking age would be good public policy ...

[Also seeChoose Responsibility for a national perspective on this issue.]

Quit talking about colleges
Mlive - 6 Mar 2008
... USA - Quit talking about colleges, nobody cares."

This may be the oddest thing anybody ever said to me after a speech. But someone did. And it got me thinking, "How come that guy doesn't get it? How can he not understand that our local colleges benefit him?"

Well, allow me to educate him and others who may share that same thought ...

New housing out of reach for students
Alligator - 6 Mar 2008
... GAINESVILLE, FL - my main concern is this: Why are all these new living facilities charging such ridiculous prices? Where are the new, average-style apartments with affordable rent rates?

I don't know about you, but I don't have the guts to ask my parents to float me a loan so I can live in a place with a complimentary tanning bed. It would be nice, but it's just not practical.

The new buildings going up around town are charging anywhere from $1,200 to $2,000 a month for just a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit. One-bedroom prices are even more outrageous ...

Residents split over University Village project
Ann Arbor News - 6 Mar 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - Backers of the proposed University Village project say it will provide quality student housing while injecting a shot in the arm to Ann Arbor's struggling South University Avenue business district.

Detractors say the two connected 15- and 20-story buildings proposed for the project are part of a bad trend that one man described as the "Manhattanism" of the city's skyline ...

Borough: Zoning proposal too dense
Design guideline papers suggest limits, mandates
Centre Daily Times - 6 Mar 2008
... STATE COLLEGE, PA — The proposed zoning ordinance for the West End is thick, weighing in at 45 pages.

Proposed design guidelines for the area are more heavy: Eighty-seven pages of suggestions — including some would-be mandates — for how buildings in the West College Avenue neighborhood should look.

Now, more than six months after the borough agreed to pay an outside contractor $196,000 to develop the documents, some municipal leaders said the proposals are too complicated, too dense and too limiting to drive needed redevelopment ...

Council has issues with new housing
Diamondback - 6 Mar 2008
... COLLEGE PARK, MD - The exterior design of a new Route 1 housing complex slated to go up next to the College Park Car Wash has sparked the latest debate over the long-embattled project.

Tuesday, developer Mukesh Majmudar and two of his architects showed renderings of the proposed StarView Plaza, an angular glass-covered five-story building set close to the road and equipped with a three-level underground parking garage.

Majmudar said the unique design is intended to be environmentally friendly, but his plans are clashing with some tastes on the College Park City Council and a city ordinance that mandates extensive use of brick in Route 1 facades ...

"There's a mandate for 75 percent brick. But that mandate was to create a colonial, Georgian-style building that would mesh with the university's architecture," architect Jon Grant said. "But this building has to be somewhat iconic, and brick isn't exactly a green material." ...

Upper-class students continue to get kicked off campus
Johns Hopkins News-Letter - 6 Mar 2008
... BALTIMORE, MD - Ah, the messiah itself was coming: a dorm disguised as a hotel, equipped with a cafeteria, mini-gym, and even a Starbucks. Essentially, Charles Commons would serve as a city within a city, making braving the oh-so-dangerous streets of Charles Village that much more unnecessary. The Commons, our guide promised us, was the answer to all concerned parents' questions, providing us with the near-guaranteed housing that exists at many of our so-called "peer institutions."

But Hopkins, as I now know as an experienced sophomore, is not like its peer institutions. It is its own animal - as much a business as a university - and does what makes business sense. Three years ago, it appealed to me with promises of all-but-guaranteed housing but, as I found out in an e-mail on Feb. 21, leaves me on my own to find an apartment:

"Unfortunately, we are unable to invite you to attend?the upper-class room selection process ... Thank you again for your interest in University housing and best wishes." ...

Frommer's list of hot places to visit
Ethiopia, Virgin Gorda and Canada's Okanagan make Top 12 destinations in the world
Citizen - 6 Mar 2008
...OTTAWA, ON - ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

"In the Smoky Mountains, Asheville is a small college town with a thriving arts, culture and gay-and-lesbian scene. It is home to the Biltmore Estate, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and Carl Sandburg's birthplace in nearby Flat Rock. Recently, Asheville has been drawing literati and celebrities who had gravitated to New Orleans as a hub of culture. With the Blue Ridge Parkway nearby, the area is also great for driving tours and shopping trips." ...

PORTLAND, MAINE

"A university town and burgeoning retirement location, Portland has a fantastic mix of culture and education.

It also has an impressive amount of first-rate restaurants, with several perennial entries on Gourmet magazine's 'America's Top 50 Restaurants' list -- including the excellent Fore Street, which builds its menu around local ingredients.

The weather can be extreme, but Portland is an eminently walkable city, with the downtown area is compact enough to explore thoroughly ...

PSU alumni set on serving authentic Thai food
Collegian - 6 Mar 2008
... STATE COLLEGE, PA - With a little bit of a New York City vibe and a whole lot of Thailand taste, Cozy Thai Bistro, 454 E. College Ave., is serving up Thai food as authentic as it comes.

Executive chef and owner Suksan Ruangpattana and co-owner Peeranee Musigchai are both Penn State alumni who majored in hotel, restaurant and institutional management (HRIM) ...

Limiting number students living together has ups, downs
Wicked Local - 6 Mar 2008
... ALLSTON-BRIGHTON, MA - Jacqui Gilbert, who lives in a dorm, is part of a group of six full-time undergraduate students hoping to live together off-campus in an apartment in the Allston-Brighton area.

Soon, however, a living arrangement like that may no longer be possible. No more than four full-time undergraduates will be permitted to share a house or apartment, if a proposal put forth by District 8 City Councilor Michael Ross becomes law ...

STAFF EDIT: Second-class residents
Limiting off-campus students makes housing scarce
Daily Free Press - 6 Mar 2008
... BOSTON, MA - When he ran for City Council in 1999, Mike Ross promised students he would balance local residents' interests with the needs of Boston's college population. At age 27, Ross was himself a graduate student at Boston University as he ran for the seat representing District 8, which covers Back Bay, Fenway and much of BU's campus. He enjoyed strong support from student volunteers and the endorsement of the BU College Democrats. After beating his well-connected opponent, Ross repeated his support for students at Student Union meetings and in a letter to The Daily Free Press criticizing former Chancellor John Silber. That was then.

Now, more than eight years later, Ross has traded promises of fairness for the pandering polemics of his colleagues, demonizing college students in a cheap effort to appease some of his constituents. In September 2004, Ross co-sponsored an ordinance requiring colleges provide personal information on all students who live off-campus as a way for police to keep tabs on students. His latest proposal calls for landlords to effectively restrict the number of tenants in rented housing to no more than four, explicitly naming undergraduates in a clear attack on the thousands of college students who live off campus. The amendment has already sailed through City Council and the Boston Redevelopment Authority with little debate. When the Zoning Commission considers the amendment, it must squarely reject the proposal, unless the city wants a housing crunch on his hands ...

North Carolina Student Body President Fatally Shot
Associated Press - 6 Mar 2008
... CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Thousands of stunned students gathered silently Thursday night at the University of North Carolina to mourn their student body president, just hours after police said she was the young woman found shot to death on a city street the day before.

Eve Marie Carson, a 22-year-old senior from Athens, Georgia, had been shot several times, including at least once in the head, police said. Officials said there are no suspects and no arrests have been made ...

Days of wine and film in S. Africa
Winelands Film Fest combines both industries
Variety - 5 Mar 2008
... STELLENBOXCH, SA - The first Cape Winelands Film Festival will take place in Stellenbosch, a historic university town in the heart of the wine-farm region 30 miles north of Cape Town, from April 18-26.

The first vineyards were set up in the late 1600s by French Huguenots when they settled in South Africa after fleeing persecution in France.

Organizer Films for Africa said, with this heritage in mind, French cinema would be the focus of the first Winelands fest, including screenings of Francois Ozon's "Time to Leave," Bertrand Tavernier's "Safe Conduct," Bruno Dumont's "Humanity" and "Flanders," Olivier Assayas' "Sentimental Destinies" and Andre Techine's "The Witnesses." ...

Turned away at poll? Click here
Some are told to wait - or come back later
Enquirer - 5 Mar 2008
... CINCINNATI, OH - In that heavily Republican county, officials weren't prepared for the high number of Democratic ballots requested. Some voters waited for more than an hour for new ballots to be delivered; others were asked to come back later or asked to go to the county Board of Elections to vote.

The reason: a wave of "crossover" voting, in which normally Republican voters asked for Democratic ballots. In Clermont County, turnout surged to 43 percent Tuesday - compared with just 31 percent in the 2004 presidential primary ...

For some voters, the lack of ballots meant that they were cheated out of a vote.

Rhonda Ward, 44, of Amelia, waited with her teenage children for an hour and 20 minutes at the First Baptist Church in Amelia. She finally voted an issues-only ballot - which didn't include candidates - because she couldn't wait any longer.

"I feel like they're taking my right away to vote," she said. When she left, she said there were 55 people waiting in line ...

Clermont overwhelmed by Dem voters
[Turns out three-quarters of them may be sleazy Republican crossovers]
Enquirer - 5 Mar 2008
... CINCINNATI, OH - The county has 128,396 registered voters, and Democrats had accounted for about 11 percent of those, or 14,496.

On Tuesday, 26,279 Democratic ballots were cast – nearly 47 percent of the 56,136 total votes.

Ballots are specific to precincts, taking into account things such as school levies, and can’t be shuffled between polls, Miller said.

“I know there’s speculation right now that there was a massive crossover from Republican to Democrat, (but ) what I believe happened here is that we had more nonpartisans come vote in the primary,” said Rudd, who is also chairman of the county’s Republican Party. “I’m not saying there weren’t any crossovers, but … I don’t think it was statistically significant.” ...

Carrboro’s Creative Coworking in the works
Citizen - 5 Mar 2008
... CARRBORO, NC - The place will be called Carrboro Creative Coworking and will consist of workstations, conference rooms and, of course, a coffee bar. Russell said he is close to nailing down a location but wouldn’t say where.

“I can tell you it’s in the heart of downtown Carrboro and it has a good parking situation,” he said.

Russell said the large number of freelancers in the area and the walkable environment made Carrboro a good area for the venture ...

Our view: The updated redevelopment plan still has major flaws
Online - 5 Mar 2008
... CLARKSVILLE, TN - Mayor Piper at the PCA forumWe took an in-depth look at the proposed modifications to the blight ordinance and redevelopment plan, and discovered the new plan has the exact same issues which made the old plan so objectionable. We have included it in full below, and have highlighted in red items that we feel should be of concern to the average citizen, and especially to the property owners in the affected areas. We feel that you will agree it is a lot of red ...

Oak Street Cinema's most likely fate: Demolition
The theater is likely to be sold after the Minneapolis-St. Paul film fest, according to a board member.
Star Tribune - 5 Mar 2008
... MINNEAPOLis, MN - "It's questionable whether [Oak Street] will remain a theater," he said. More likely, it will make way for a mix of high-density student housing and retail space. Theater staff recently spotted a surveying crew outside the theater ...

Multifamily home conversion banned in Princess Anne
Daily Times - 5 Mar 2008
... PRINCESS ANNE, MD - Attention to the housing ratio comes as elected officials in the town of about 4,000 residents take steps to create incentives to increase homeownership. They are seeking state funding that would support a partnership counseling and resources service to aid prospective homebuyers.

The moratorium also blocks any immediate notions by property owners to convert large, century-old structures in the downtown historic district into apartment units that could result in an influx of transient dwellers or college students at the nearby University of Maryland Eastern Shore ...

CDS Unveils Eight-Building Student Housing Project
Multihousing News - 5 Mar 2008
... RUSTON, LA - Collegiate Development Services LP (CDS), an Irving, Texas-based real estate developer specializing in student housing, has unveiled plans for its newest student apartment housing project, at Collegiate Station in Ruston, adjacent to the Louisiana Tech University ...

Joint venture to buy South Loop dorm
Crain’s - 5 Mar 2008
... CHICAGO, IL -A joint venture including student housing operator Scion Group LLC has agreed to pay $75 million for a 694-bed dormitory under construction in the South Loop.

Chicago-based Scion and ASB Capital Management LLC of Bethesda, Md., are buying the Dwight Lofts, a 16-story building at 626 S. Clark St. scheduled to open in time for the fall semester ...

Green Planning on a Grand Scale Podcast
Inside Higher Ed - 4 Mar 2008
... USA - It’s a warm and brilliantly sunny February afternoon, even by Southern California standards, and hundreds of cars are parked beneath canopies at East Los Angeles College. Several other spots on campus offer temporary shade, but this one has an added purpose.

Lining the roof are 6,000 solar panels that factor prominently in the college’s renewable energy plan. The idea is eventually to install enough panels there — and at eight other campuses that make up the Los Angeles Community College District — to produce enough energy on site to meet all daytime electricity needs ...

Taking responsibility
PROGRAM BRINGS YOUNG OFFENDERS FACE-TO-FACE WITH VICTIMS
Daily Local 4 Mar 2008
... WEST CHESTER, PA - It’s no secret that some college kids drink. It’s also no secret that when some college kids drink they don’t always make the best decisions. Whether loud, crowded parties rage all night or trashcans end up knocked over on a walk home or someone is caught urinating on a building, lots of factors can contribute to this behavior — peer pressure, lack of supervision, poor decision-making or just plain stupidity ...

Drive Starts to Preserve ‘Non-Stop Antioch’
Inside Higher Ed - 4 Mar 2008
... YELLOW SPRINGS, OH - Antioch University’s announcement last week that its board had “reconfirmed” plans to shutter Antioch College at the end of this academic year has prompted a flurry of activity to prevent that from happening.

Most notably, alumni and professors are working on plans for the faculty to continue to teach students — even if that takes place without the university’s endorsement. Plans being discussed would have classes held in various locations in Yellow Springs, Ohio, so that there would be no stoppage of Antioch instruction. Alumni announced that they have raised $1 million to support such efforts, called “Non-Stop Antioch.” ...

UW alum shows learning is the upside of being dumped
Capital Times - 4 Mar 2008
... MADISON, WI - In his contribution to "Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me," UW-Madison alum Ben Karlin writes about his old girlfriend, Jill, whom he fell hard and fast for "in the waning light of life in a college town after you're done with college." ...

Conquest leasing prices skyrocket
Conquest Student Housing remains secretive about its increasing contract prices.
Daily Trojan - 4 Mar 2008
... LOS ANGELES, CA - "For all the buildings, give or take, they were offering about $100 more per person per month than what they had advertised online," Friedman said. "At Tuscany, that number was higher."

Other students also said they either signed leases reluctantly or didn't sign at all because the rent for Conquest's complexes had increased dramatically and Conquest had refused to disclose prices for some complexes until signing ...

The City Of Gainesville, Florida Is On Fire
NuWire - 4 Mar 2008
... GAINESVILLE, FL - Before everyone starts to panic, I should say that the city of Gainesville, Florida is not literally on fire, so please don’t call the fire department. What I mean by saying Gainesville is on fire is that the city is gaining a lot of positive national publicity right now.

The most recent press was released yesterday by SmartMoney.com, who rated Gainesville, Florida as the top recession-proof place to retire (Apparently SmartMoney didn’t get President Bush’s memo). In addition, Gainesville was rated the number the number one place to live in 2007 by Sperling’s Best Places. Of course, we can’t forget that NuWire rated Gainesville, Florida as one of the top college towns for investment ...

Citi Downgrades American Campus Communities (ACC) to Sell
StreetInsider - 4 Mar 2008
... USA - Citi analyst says, "We are downgrading American Campus to Sell as the overhang from high leverage of ~60% debt to gross asset value pro forma the purchase of GMH should weigh on the stock until the debt overhang is addressed. Mgmt is targeting asset sales to reduce leverage, but we expect an equity issuance is likely. ACC's operating results have been strong and we expect it continue to be, but valuation is rich at a 6.5% implied cap rate."

American Campus Communities, Inc. is a fully integrated, self-managed and self-administered equity real estate investment trust with specialties in the acquisition, design, financing, development, construction management, leasing and management of student housing properties in the United States ...

London plans to avoid ghetto
City council hopes to foster great neighbourhoods, not target students
Gazette - 4 Mar 2008
... LONDON, ON - To quell fears of a potential “student ghetto” and improve town-and-gown relations, the City of London recently released an action plan for improving student-filled neighbourhoods.

Concerns have been raised in neighbourhoods around Western and Fanshawe College due to property neglect, unsightly new buildings and mutual disrespect between homeowners and students ...

Student housing: then and now
Crimson White - 3 Mar 2008
... TUSCALOOSA, AL - The University could house just 96 students when it opened in 1831. But when the 2008 fall semester begins, on-campus bed spaces will total more than 6,000 - with nearly 1,000 more on their way with the construction of Ridgecrest South. [UA has an on-campus enrollment of approximately 17,000]

Though campus housing has grown considerably over the University's 176-year history, demand for it has always managed to stay higher. What started as two buildings has grown into more than 20 residence halls, made up of dormitories, apartments and high-rises ...

From the 1960s, no new residence halls were built until 2000, when the Blount Undergraduate Initiative building was built. ...

Faculty at WFU are told to move
University to convert units for student use
Journal - 3 Mar 2008
... WINSTON-SALEM, NC - For more than 50 years, Faculty Apartments at Wake Forest University has provided homes and a sense of community for faculty, staff and others connected to the campus.

Earlier this month, Wake Forest told the residents of the 72 apartments that it plans to convert the complex to student housing, and that they have to move out ...

3 more housing projects planned near Notre Dame
-All to go before plan commission in March.
Tribune - 3 Mar 2008
... SOUTH BEND, IN - Despite the national downturn in the housing market, three new developments are being planned near the University of Notre Dame.

All are condominiums, townhouses or other planned-unit developments. They would add more than 100 new housing units to the mix near campus ...

After four years, Plan re-examined
Academic Enrichment plan gets new focuses
Brown Daily Herald - 3 Mar 2008
... PROVIDENCE, RI - The review sets a goal of having 90 percent of undergraduates live on campus, an increase from the 80 percent who currently do so. It calls for building rooms more attractive to upperclassmen, such as apartment-style housing. An increase of 10 percent in housing would mean making room for 600 new beds, according to the review of the Plan. But that plan will depend heavily on when financing becomes available, since plans for a new dorm have been sidelined by other building priorities, such as new athletic facilities and a student center. Still, administrators know that Brown will have a new dorm, Spies said - they just don't know when ...

The Preiss Company Announces Formation of Private Investor Division
NewsWire - 3 Mar 2008
... USA - The Preiss Company ("TPCO"), the largest off-campus student housing provider for North Carolina State University, Clemson University, UNC Charlotte, and the University of Texas in Austin, has announced the formation of their Private Investor Division. Led by Jim Morton and Bo Winn, this new division specializes in working with small to medium investors, which includes investors owning a few rental homes to those holding several hundred apartments ...

‘University town’ plan
Star - 3 Mar 2008
... TELFORD, UK - Telford could become a university town under plans by the Government to expand the number of higher education colleges and “unlock the talent” of local people

The idea was welcomed by MPs for the borough.

Universities secretary John Denham announced today that up to 20 new universities could be created over the next six years ...

UCU response to new university towns plan
Politics - 3 Mar 2008
... UK - Responding to an announcement today by John Denham, secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, inviting towns and cities to bid for new university campuses and centres of higher education, the University and College Union (UCU) said it welcomed ideas to open up higher education to more of the population but warned that contradictory government funding policy and the high price of studying could severely limit many people’s choice of degree ...

Kent party law pits students against police Frustration from clashes apparent on both sides
Record-Courier - 2 Mar 2008
... KENT, OH - One year ago, Kent City Council passed a new ordinance pitting police officers and, as is most often the case, students against each other.

The result was a level of frustration on both sides ...

Plans for 20 new university towns
Campuses are to be set up over the next six years at a cost of £150m, with many located in areas suffering high levels of unemployment
Observer - 2 Mar 2008
... UK - Up to 20 new university towns will be created across Britain under plans for a huge expansion of further education. Towns will be invited to enter a 'university challenge', bidding for the right to have a new campus or college in their area, Universities Secretary John Denham will announce tomorrow. The new campuses could be linked to existing universities or could be entirely new bodies.

The move is as much about regenerating towns with high areas of unemployment as it is about giving more adults the chance of gaining a degree. Denham said last night: 'I want to give communities the chance to show they can make the most of the power of higher education, help unlock the talent of their local people and help make them better off.' ...

Quaint Illinois town in a quandary over proposed skyscraper
Some see a downtown high-rise as a modern way to boost revenue and the next evolutionary step for Evanston. Others say they moved here to avoid such big-city blight.
LA Times - 2 Mar 2008
... EVANSTON, IL - Johanna Nyden, an urban planner who is also a member of the city's Planning Commission, has long adored her hometown's elegant landscape of stately brick homes and faded turn-of-the-century storefronts that house locally owned shops and corner cafes.

Evanston, incorporated in 1863, has grown up alongside the campus and culture of Northwestern University and has a skyline that is distinctly low- and mid-rise.

Part of Evanston's appeal, said Nyden, is the absence of towering buildings that dominate the Chicago coastline. The proposed tower could reshape her hometown's identity, she said -- and not for the better ...

Public forums planned over student towers
News - 3 Mar 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - The biggest new proposed downtown Ann Arbor housing project is inching forward.

The next step for University Village developers Ron Hughes and Dan Ketelaar is a town hall meeting they'll hold this week to "present and discuss" all aspects of the
proposed 22-story and 15-story connected student housing towers they want to build on 1.6 acres of land at the southeast corner of South Forest and South University avenues.

University Village would be a roughly 420-unit complex, housing a solid 1,400 students ...

Off campus, council says, five's a crowd
Globe - 2 Mar 2008
... BOSTON, MA - The rules of the Boston student housing game may be about to change, big-time.

An amendment to the city's zoning code that was passed unanimously by the City Council in December aims to limit the number of college students who can live together in a residential area to four, regardless of the size of the unit ...

Visit schools in the heart of college country
Morning Call - 2 Mar 2008
... USA - Anyone who has ever toured colleges with a high school student -- and I'm on my third round -- knows that's no small feat.

I've driven four hours to have my son refuse to get out of the car because he didn't like the look of the campus; I've flown halfway across the country to have my daughter bail out before the tour because she didn't like the looks of the other prospective students (''too intense'') and because the campus was ''too flat.'' (What did she expect in Chicago anyway?) I've gotten the evil eye from a child when I've asked a question on a tour. (Parents are supposed to be seen and not heard in these situations, I quickly learned.) ...

New logo unnecessary
Coloradoan - 2 Mar 2008
... FORT COLLINS, CO - The city Web site has dedicated a page about why we designed a new logo and points out what award we have received in the past (before the new ocean beach style logo) ...

So, why did we need a new logo if we have all of these awards, especially when the budget is tight and job positions are frozen? Knowing that Colorado State University teaches art, why didn't we tap into their resource as a "UniverCity" project? With all of these recognitions, the old logo must have been doing a good job ...

UA officials get tour of Fayetteville High School
NWAnews - 2 Mar 2008
... FAYETTEVILLE, AR — Officials with the University of Arkansas System and its flagship campus got a look Saturday at its next-door neighbor’s 40 acres.

UA-Fayetteville Chancellor John White and Chancellorelect Dave Gearhart said the morning tour of Fayetteville High School’s academic, athletic and administrative facilities was one step in talks between the two sides about a possible deal for the property ...

Living-wage shift ahead?
City may hike Summer Fest donation - and exempt its workers
News - 2 Mar 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - But the festival is, by tradition, a town-gown partnership. And to avoid triggering the wage law, the nonprofit Summer Festival's city funding has been held to less than $10,000.

The city should match the U-M contribution, $30,000 last year, said Easthope.

"We helped create it,'' he said. "We ought to fund it as we have historically. We can find the money. We have a good surplus.''

The first step is taking a fresh look at the way the living-wage law is applied ...

Project fails to impress
Globe - 2 Mar 2008
... BOSTON, MA - Residents also object to the developers' grouping of all the federally subsidized rental units on the south side of Western Avenue and all the homeownership and market-rate condos on the north side, nearer the Charles River.

"With this project, we will have 500 low-income units just along Everett Street," said McNair, who has lived on nearby Bagnal Street for the last decade. "There will be two separate areas, low-income and Harvard." ...

Students open doors to inspectors; Queen's addresses housing concerns with free service
Whig-Standard - 1 Mar 2008
... KINGSTON, ON - Back in January, at one of the regular meetings between Kingston city staff, some of their counterparts with Queen's University's Student Affairs and representatives of the university's student government, the group was kicking around the idea of an inspection blitz on student housing.

Anecdotes about sub-standard and overpriced rentals are a perennial of Queen's lore: Everyone, it seems, knows someone who rented the house from hell or had to deal with the landlord from Mars.

Joan Jones, Queen's co-ordinator of Town Gown Relations, said she's heard a number of those complaints herself ...

Medford dispute casts light on status of Oregon rooming houses
Associated Press - 1 Mar 2008
... MEDFORD, OR - A state senator says a dispute between the city of Medford and a property owner over renting rooms in a single-family residence could have implications for affordable housing throughout Oregon, especially in college towns ...

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