Feminism - 12th-century style; Once a refuge for women, Leuven beguinage now a World Heritage site
Whig-Standard - 22 Mar 2008
... LEUVEN, BELGIUM - This place, these buildings, are different from the clapboard student houses of most American university towns. It looks like a place where people live a peaceful, simple life.

Once upon a time, it was.

It now houses students and professors. But centuries ago, this hamlet in Leuven - a university town, 32 kilometres east of Brussels - was a beguinage, a sort of commune for unmarried, religiously-inclined women known as beguines (pronounced Bay-Gueens).

Beguines - most likely derived from the Flemish word beghen, which means to pray - were women in the Low Countries who, beginning in the 12th century, chose to live neither under the care of a man nor the vows of the church.

Theirs was, in essence, a feminist movement and its remarkable architectural legacy is still evident in cities across the Netherlands and Belgium but nowhere in greater splendour than in this old university town ...

Glassboro will get new downtown
Courier-Post - 21 Mar 2008
... GLASSBORO, NJ — After years of planning a complete overhaul of the borough's downtown, officials on Thursday announced the final details and overall proposal for Rowan Boulevard, an ambitious $100 million-plus plan to connect Rowan University with its hometown.
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"This is an exciting day for Glassboro," Mayor Leo McCabe said from the podium, describing the many partners, loans, grants and planners it has taken to get the project off the ground.

Construction is expected to begin this summer.

The project -- which would eventually convert downtown Glassboro into a "quintessential college town," McCabe said -- hinges on Rowan Boulevard, a new street that would connect the college campus at Route 322 near Ellis Street to the heart of the downtown at Main and High streets ...

Forbes ranks Iowa City No. 2
Press-Citizen - 21 Mar 2008
... IOWA CITY, IA - Forbes magazine has rated the Iowa City area the No. 2 "Best Small Place for Business and Careers."

Forbes ranked both large metro and smaller communities in terms of business costs, living costs, educational attainment, crime rates, job growth and income growth ...

College towns were popular on the list. Rounding out the top 10 smaller areas were Bloomington, Ind., Columbia, Mo., Bismarck, N.D., Morgantown, W.Va., Rapid City S.D., Greenville, N.C., Charlottesville, Va., and Blacksburg, Va. ...

Norman complexes fetch almost $25M
Jopurnal-Record - 21 Mar 2008
... NORMAN, OK - Hatfield said Norman’s growth over the last four decades, from about 25,000 to more than 100,000 now, is also an indicator that Norman is a desirable address, and prime for commercial investment.

“People love to live in university towns and many people have moved here or come back,” ...

Planners over-ruled as bid for student flats thrown out
Edinburgh Evening News - 21 Mar 2008
... EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - CONTROVERSIAL plans for a £22 million student flats development which attracted scores of objections have been thrown out by councillors.

Developers had wanted to build four new buildings with 295 student bedrooms on the site of a former furniture showroom on McDonald Road.

Council planning officers had recommended approval for the project, but more than 120 residents complained amid concerns that an influx of students would lead to an increase in late-night noise.

Despite the recommendations that the scheme be approved, the council's planning committee voted against the proposals during a meeting on Wednesday ...

College housing crunch
WE SAY: Limiting numbers of students per house won’t stop partying
Daily Student - 21 Mar 2008
... BLOOMINGTON, IN - Last week, the Boston Zoning Commission decided to limit the number of students legally able to occupy off-campus housing to a maximum of four students per residence. Officials say this will benefit communities by swaying rowdy college students from off-campus houses. We say this imposes serious limitations to the quality of life the city’s students are able to enjoy.

Though it is inevitable that en masse collegiate habitation of residential neighborhoods will add a certain bohemian touch to the block, city officials’ recent proposal misidentifies the true cause of the “out of control” behavior deemed so distasteful by the Boston Zoning Commission Chairman, Robert Fondren. While four people living in an apartment might well create more noise than a single inhabitant, they are certainly not the cause of all-night college revelry. As anyone steeped in the tradition of the house party knows, the disturbance non-student residents report is caused by the music and noise of the hosts summed with the noise and booze of their guests. Because it is the number of parties rather than simply the number of residents creating the party’s decibel level, officials’ justifications for the new legislation simply do not conform to reason ...

No discrimination against students
Berkeley Beacon -21 Mar 2008
... BERKELEY, CA - As if dealing with real estate agents, landlords and sky-high rents weren't enough, students hoping to live off campus next year can add the Boston Zoning Commission to the list of obstacles standing in their way.

The commission has recently passed a measure stating that no more than four college students can live together outside of college dormitories. While the commission cites an increase in noise complaints and the general rowdiness of off-campus students, a punishment for violating the new policy has not been established, though many officials are leaning towards some kind of fine.

According to a March 13 article in The Boston Globe, a hearing at City Hall on the subject drew a crowd of over 150 students, college and town officials and ordinary citizens.

After the hearing the commission passed the measure unanimously, which had already been approved by the City Council. Should the mayor sign it into law, the restrictions could take effect within days ...

Editorial: Davis schools pinched by no-growth dilemma
Bee - 21 Mar 2008
... DAVIS, CA - Don't be surprised if you see a revival in Davis of the old bumper sticker that reads: "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

Like many other districts statewide, the Davis Joint Unified School District faces a funding shortfall because of declining enrollment and the state's budget crisis. The district's budget gap is estimated to be $4 million in the next fiscal year. To close it, district leaders are weighing plans to shutter a middle school, close libraries and music programs and possibly lay off some teachers and staff.

But Davis isn't taking these cuts lightly. School supporters have launched a campaign for each city resident to donate a dollar a day to the schools. As The Bee's Hudson Sangree reported Thursday, the Davis Schools Foundation has collected more than $140,000 and has a goal of raising between $3 million and $4 million to prevent layoffs and keep programs intact ...

Davis schools meeting hears budget, closure options
Bee - 21 Mar 2008
... DAVIS, CA - Davis residents packed a school board meeting Thursday to protest a proposal to close one of the city's three junior high schools in the face of a deepening budget crisis.

With the fate of Emerson Junior High School at stake, and a variety of educational programs and teaching jobs potentially on the chopping block, the situation threatens to undermine Davis Joint Unified School District, one of the region's premier school systems.

"If you kill the schools with all these changes, you're not going to be able to attract people," said Davis resident and teacher Ron Glick.

They Find Charm In The South
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY - 20 Mar 2008
... OXFORD, MS - While waiting in a California emergency room a few years ago as his wife was being treated for an angina attack, Alan Barber, 62, read a magazine article about retiring to Mississippi.

The article featured several cities in the Magnolia State certified as retirement havens, including charming Oxford, home to the University of Mississippi.

Within two months, the couple had sold their condo in Anaheim and moved into a four-bedroom home on an acre lot a couple of miles from Oxford's town square. They hired someone to care for the lawn, leaving Nancy, 68, free to tend to her peonies and camellias ...

Dollar a day goal in Davis
Bee - 20 Mar 2008
... DAVIS, CA - Even in Davis, it might be asking too much.

Residents in the progressive enclave are being urged to donate a dollar a day, or $365, for each child enrolled in the Davis Joint Unified School District, to help close a $4 million funding gap caused by declining enrollment and the state's multibillion-dollar budget crisis.

Some advocates have suggested residents donate all or part of the amount they expect to receive in their federal tax rebates.

"If the community is going to save teachers and programs, we are going to have to pull together and do it ourselves," said Janet Berry, president of the Davis Schools Foundation, a nonprofit group that is leading the fund-raising campaign ...

Red Road Commons set to offer affordable options for UM students
Off-campus housing to be built near University Village
Hurricane - 20 Mar 2008
... CORAL GABLES, FL - University of Miami students can look forward to an affordable off-campus housing option for the start of the 2009-10 school year.

The Red Road Commons will be located on 6600 SW 57th Avenue and will offer 405 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, as well as 12,000 square feet of retail space.

The complex is also planned to have a pool, on-site parking, a state-of-the-art fitness facility and a cyber café.

"While the project will be open to the general market, it is expected that the University of Miami community will be the main market driver, given the project's proximity and easy access to the Coral Gables campus," said Patrick Burbank, the assistant vice president for Miami Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of the university that also worked on other housing projects such as Four Fillies Farm, a university housing community for full-time faculty ...

Students offered $20,000 to stay
But budget neglects housing crisis, leaders say
StarPheonix - 20 Mar 2008
... SASKATOON, SK - "These people in suits and ties and power vests, they don't see it like we do," he said, adding people will not stay in the province if there is nowhere affordable to live. "They just can't seem to tie this together."

Last September, Saskatoon's mayor pleaded with residents to open their doors to rent rooms and suites to students when the vacancy rate plummeted and rental rates spiked ...

Some smaller bike shops struggling against large chains
ASU Web Devil - 20 Mar 2008
... TEMPE, AZ - With five privately owned bicycle shops within walking distance of ASU's Tempe campus, it would be reasonable to assume that students would make up the majority of these businesses' customers.

But some shop owners actually blame the university for diverting the student population away ...

College Towns: A Smart Play in Real Estate
KREN - 19 Mar 2008
... USA - One year ago, Jeff Shea began buying up rental properties around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he had only recently graduated with a business major. Shea, 23, who lives in Chicago, owns three rental homes near campus, including a four-bedroom house he bought for $138,000 and rents to four students for $1,800 a month.

"It's the best time ever to buy houses," Shea said. "The rent is inflated because so many people go to school here." ...

Student housing tower plans tabled
Ann Arbor News - 19 Mar 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - A developer's plan to build 15-story and 22-story student housing towers at the southeast corner of South University and South Forest avenues was tabled by the Ann Arbor Planning Commission at its meeting Tuesday evening.

Commission chair Evan Pratt said University Village developers acknowledged they had work to do yet on their application and did not give a full presentation to the board ...

Plan for student high-rise tabled amid outcry from landlords, locals
Upscale apartment building would house 1,400 residents
Michigan Daily - 19 Mar 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor landlord William Copi said he feared the complex would weaken the market for surrounding student rental.

"The University is not adding 1,400 people to enrollment just so these people can fill up University Village," Copi said. "It will come from rental properties that constitute the neighborhoods stretching down State and Hill and other streets. When these houses become marginalized as rental properties in a down housing market you may end up with vacancies in droves."

Burns Park resident Andrea VanHouweling also questioned whether the amenities University Village advertises were necessary.

"I think we need affordable housing for students, not luxury housing," ...

$200M Campus Suites JV Begins With $75M Project
GlobeSt - 19 Mar 2008
... TEMPE, AZ - A $200-million joint venture between Campus Suites of Orlando and Chicago-based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital has begun with the groundbreaking of the 960-unit, $75-million Campus on the Rail. The plan is to build off-campus student housing at select universities in the US ...

UW will be spreading into the U District in a new way
Crosscut - 18 Mar 2008
... SEATTLE, WA - The University of Washington has announced plans to build a lot of new student housing on the west side of its main campus, filling in parking lots and easing the space crunch for the 5,100 students who now live in dorms. There will be eight new buildings, mostly six stories high. This is a good move, for several reasons, and an interesting opportunity for urbanism.

UR is linking with community to plan future of shared benefits
Democrat & Chronicle - 18 Mar 2008
... ROCHESTER, NY - The University of Rochester has been engaged in a comprehensive master planning process addressing all of its campuses, which include more than 600 acres, a building area greater than 11 million square feet, and 900,000 square feet of leased space in the community. This process, which accompanies the UR-wide strategic planning process for all of our programs, is meant to provide a road map for the development of UR's facilities to accommodate growth over a 20- to 30-year period ...

Faculty members make home at Campus Village Building A
Spartan Daily - 18 Mar 2008
... SAN JOSE, CA - Students living - or partying their lives away - in the Campus Village residences may not have noticed that just feet away from their buildings, faculty and staff are living in Building A.

"It's really quiet, I can say that much," said Neil Torrefiel, the university Web master who lives in Building A. "It's pretty cool. I like how quiet it is." ...

An Open Letter About Antioch’s Future
Inside Higher Ed. - 18 Mar 2008
... YELLOW SPRINGS, OH - In the months since, alumni have rallied dramatically, raising $18 million as a way to keep the college open while further solutions are sought. But many potential donors balked at supporting the six-campus university. They wanted the college freed from the university structure. To break the deadlock, and on the board’s recommendation, a group of nine distinguished alumni formed the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC) and offered to buy the college from the university ...

Police to patrol Oxford University
Telegraph - 18 Mar 2008
... OXFORD, UK - For the first time in Oxford University's 800-year history, police officers are to patrol the college quadrangles ...

The move is an admission by the university that the boorish behaviour of some of its students has created an "extra burden" on the city's hard pressed police force ...

Homegrown produce, cultural opportunities motivate citizens to revitalize farmers' market
Dispatch - 17 Mar 2008
... STARKVILLE, MS - Revitalizing Starkville's farmers' market is about more than locally grown tomatoes, figs or homemade jams and jellies. It's also about growing Starkville's cultural opportunities and giving downtown a “street festival” every Saturday morning.

“The idea here is local,” said Jeremiah Dumas, one of the organizers of the Starkville Community Market, set to open April 26, on South Lafayette Street between Main and Lampkin streets. “And we really want to celebrate the local culture.” ...

College town center envisioned for Ewing
TCNJ considers long-term use for school property along Carlton Avenue
Times - 17 Mar 2008
... EWING, NJ - It's probably a stretch to imagine residential Carlton Avenue, with its single-family homes, becoming a baby version of Princeton's bustling Nassau Street.

Even so, officials at The College of New Jersey have set their sights on undeveloped land off Carlton as a potential spot for a campus town center ...

Heard through the grapevine: Washington State's making a good case as nation's other wine country
TradingMarkets- 17 Mar 2008
... WALLA WALLA, WA - This is the tour for couples in which one is wine-obsessed and the other indifferent _ one in which you can visit six wineries a day if you want, or spend an hour instead at a lavender farm straight out of Provence. Or visit art galleries, tasting rooms and white-tablecloth restaurants in a surprisingly sophisticated university town called Walla Walla. Yes, like the onion ...

Growing ‘greener’
Experts offer tips for conservation-minded cities
News - 17 Mar 2008
... TUSCALOOSA, AL - Kermit the Frog was right. It’s not easy being green, though it can be sometimes.

For cities, being “green” — that is, reducing pollution and energy use — encompasses everything from protecting ecosystems to instituting recycling programs to getting people out of cars into public transportation, and that takes time and effort.

“Many groups will say you’re not moving fast enough,” said Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox. “And they don’t understand the progress that has been made in a short amount of time. Each one of our departments are charged with looking with ways they can be more environmentally friendly and putting those ideas in budget form. There are many things that will take time because there are definitely cost issues … but there are also things we can do pretty easy.” ...

The Place/BV Student Housing Fund Announces Acquisition
EarthTimes - 17 Mar 2008
... USA - The Place/BV Student Housing Fund, LLC, a real estate investment fund focused on the acquisition and development of student housing properties nationwide, announced its most recent investment. Varsity Place serves the students of University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) and represents the Fund's seventh student housing acquisition. BVP Managers, LLC, a joint venture between Atlanta, Georgia-based Place Properties, LP and Chicago, Illinois-based Blue Vista Capital Management, LLC, serves as the Manager of the Fund.

The property, which was built in 1984, recently underwent $2 million in capital improvements including the addition of a highly amenitized clubhouse and resort-style swimming pool. The community consists of 27, two-story apartment buildings totaling 484 units and 675 beds and is situated on 17 acres. The property has a unit mix consisting of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments all with private bathrooms. The property is adjacent to much of the campus operated housing ...

Community Insight
Dorm building under construction in South Loop
Flame - 17 Mar 2008
... CHICAGO, IL - The Scion Group LLC, a student housing operator, announced on Thursday that they are going to pay $75 million for a 694-bed dormitory in the South Loop. The dorm building will be open to all college students, regardless of where they attend school. In recent years, independent dormitories have become a popular and lasting investment, according to the Scion Group. The rent is projected to be approximately $1,050 a bed per month ...

NU not ready for lease limit
Northeastern News - 17 Mar 2008
... BOSTON, MA - After the Boston Zoning Commission (BZC) passed the new housing ordinance that will limit all off-campus housing to four undergraduate students per lease, students who have already signed leases with more than four people are left wondering what will happen to them in the fall.

Northeastern administrators are not yet prepared to address that concern, they said ...

Borough, WCU panel to discuss mutual problems
DailyLocal - 16 Mar 2008
... WEST CHESTER, PA — One recommendation made by a task force formed to investigate friction between residents and university students is being implemented — the formation of a high-level, campus/community coalition ...

The university supported other recommendations of the task force, including revamping the Town/Gown Council to be more action-oriented. School officials said they would support three or four projects every year. The task force recommended projects such as Meet Your Neighbor, and expanding the Adopt-a-Block” program ...

Eugene blogger in national spotlight as a citizen journalist for MTV
Register-Guard - 16 Mar 2008
... EUGENE, OR - Joaquin Ramon Herrera says he didn’t take his MTV job application too seriously.

“I was feeling pretty light about it,” he recalled. “I just sent in a little tongue-in-cheek application.”

Apparently the don’t-think-about-it-too-hard approach worked for the man known in the blogosphere as Nezua. MTV liked what it saw and officials with the pop culture juggernaut deputized him as one of 51 citizen journalists. Herrera, 39, has been posting video blogs on MTV’s Choose or Lose Web site since January ...

Bountiful feast of arts set at I.U.
Courier-Journal - 16 Mar 2008
... BLOOMINGTON, IN - There are few better ways to spend a weekend than heading up to sample the wares of Indiana University in Bloomington.

Yes, gas is nearing $4 a gallon and you could save a few bucks by staying in Louisville, where there's plenty of cultural diversion. Yet, as one of the quintessential college towns in America -- with its "Go Big Red!" the city always reminds me of Cornell University's relationship to the upstate New York town of Ithaca -- Bloomington is a singular melding of Midwestern charm and international sophistication ...

Minneapolis upgrades riverfront district
Times - 16 Mar 2008
... MINNEAPOLIS, MN - WITH THE Mississippi River as a glimmering backdrop, the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers were kicking up their toes and heels to the accompaniment of the Yard Buzzard String Band "" entertainment that would be considered niche if you were anywhere but in the upper Midwest.

At farmers market booths nearby, the folks at Edna's Caramels were dispensing superb artisanal candies that had been "handmade in small batches," according to the label, while the guys from Town Hall Brewery were dispensing samples of Petunia's Pumpkin Ale from little brown jugs.

College students bound for a football game streamed across the river on a vintage stone bridge, and merged with patrons arriving for concurrent matinees of "Jane Eyre" and "The Home Place" at the stunning Guthrie Theater ...

City of sisterly love
Durham, England, reveals its splendor to a visitor from Durham, N.C.
News & Observer - 16 Mar 2008
DURHAM, UK - Oxford. Cambridge. Durham. ... Durham?

Although this northeastern English city of 43,000 doesn't enjoy the international prestige or proximity to London of its rival university towns, don't let that keep you from visiting.

Durham, an official Sister City of Durham, N.C., is an underrated destination. In his ''Notes From a Small Island,'' Bill Bryson calls it ''a perfect little city. If you have never been to Durham, go there at once. Take my car. It's wonderful.'' ...

Gateway prospects promising
Clean-energy, retail projects slated for I-25 interchange
Coloradoan - 16 Mar 2008
... FORT COLLINS, CO - It's a land of opportunity where clean-energy research sprouts primary jobs and where new commercial and retail development sprinkle fresh sales-tax dollars into the city budget.

Maybe that's why Fort Collins city officials and Colorado State University researchers alike become wide-eyed, almost giddy, when they mention the interchange at Prospect Road and Interstate 25.

The development opportunity surrounding the city's centermost gateway is only beginning to be realized, and city planners and university officials are thinking big ...

Rise of the concrete campus
Unprecedented construction at UBC and SFU has galvanized critics around all the changes
Province -16 Mar 2008
... VANCOUVER, BC - One of the commercial areas, Westbrook Place, under construction near West 16th and Westbrook Avenues, will have 65,000 square feet of commercial space, half of which will be a Save-On supermarket. It will also contain 2,300 townhouses and condos. UBC is slated to grow from its current 12,500 residents to some 28,000 when University Town is completed in 2020.

"The reason for doing this is to be a sustainable university campus," says Nancy Knight, vice-president of UBC's Campus and Community Planning. "We're a very big working and study site with very little opportunity to live close by."

Not everyone associated with UBC is supportive of all this.

"We're seeing the mallification of the campus," says UBC history Prof. Paul Krause. "I don't know that real communities grow out of malls and Save-On Foods." ...

Report: OC College Town Plagued By Drunken Debauchery
Councilman Compares City To 'Wild, Wild West'
KNBC- 16 Mar 2008
... FULLERTON, CA - "We've definitely become a destination, sort of a smaller version of the Gaslamp district in San Diego," Fullerton police Sgt. Linda King told The Times. "There's so many places close to each other, people are doing pub crawls from place to place."

Fullerton officials said the cost of maintaining the peace downtown -- about $1.5 million annually --- has outstripped tax revenues from the businesses supporting the revelry, which totals about $560,000, The Times reported ...

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