Cornell University, by Gary Stewart

Town-gown economic development is an increasingly complex topic in our college towns. In that mix, it's helpful to hear about shared challenges and strategizing between campuses and communities elsewhere. Cornell University's Office of Community Relations plans to hold a one-day regional conference on town-gown economic development in Ithaca, New York, on Thursday, March 31, 10am-4pm. Cornell and Ithaca are ITGA members, and the ITGA Board members and staff support and encourage the concept of regional ITGA member conferences to address challenges and opportunities of shared interest. Ithaca is a steady presence on top 10 lists of bests college towns, and a great place to visit. This event, hosted by Cornell University, at no charge to ITGA members, will be capped at 120 attendees, and is beginning to fill up. For more information or to register, contact Gary Stewart.   

Inside Higher Ed, by Jake New

The state of Virginia is exploring the creation of a re-gional center that could take sexual assault investi-gations out of the hands of colleges and universities. Last month, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic governor of Virginia, proposed a $240 million higher education spending plan. Included in the initiative is funding for a study that would determine how to "design a pilot program to create a regional center for the investigation of incidents of sexual and gender-based violence similar to the multidisciplinary approach used in child advocacy centers." The center, staffed with trauma-informed investigators, would coordinate with colleges and law enforcement officials to investigate cases of sexual violence occurring on college campuses. "This is a study so we can decide if this is something of value," said Peter Blake, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Ottawa Community News, by Alex Robinson

The Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization has launched a website in partnership with the Sandy Hill Town and Gown Committee. It hopes it will serve as a link be-tween residents and landlords. When noise complaints are filed with the city via 311 calls, they are not currently forwarded to landlords due to provincial privacy laws, unless residents find a way to contact the landlord directly. The new registry looks to bridge the gap by forwarding noise complaints to the landlords. Bob Forbes, a board member of community group Action Sandy Hill and the town and gown committee, said residents should first call 311 to report their noise complaints, as they will get a tracking number they can then log on the website. As the home of the University of Ottawa, Sandy Hill has grappled with noise issues, but the problem has been somewhat alleviated due to better bylaw enforcement.  

Autonews.com ,  by John Irwin

General Motors' new Maven service puts the automaker in the middle of a battle being waged by Nissan, Ford and others on college campuses to get a leg up in the emerging car-sharing economy. Maven, which GM un-veiled last week, bundles and expands each of GM's car-sharing services, including a residential program in New York City and Chicago and peer-to-peer car sharing in Germany. It also includes a new city-based car-rental service, similar to Zipcar, that allows residents to request the use of Chevrolet vehicles on a Maven smartphone app for $6 to $12 per hour. The program will begin with vehicles available at 21 parking areas in Ann Arbor, Mich., home of the University of Michigan's sprawling campus and the tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff who live, study and work on it. GM said it expects about 25 million customers to use car-sharing services by 2020. 

Vanderbilthustler.com, by Staff Writers

In 20 years, Greek Row could be non-residential. In just a few years, Vanderbilt Greek houses could have their own Area Coordinator and programming from Faculty Fellows for each house. That's if the administration a-dopts the recommendations put forth by the Greek Life Task Force report, released last week. For the first time since 1998, members of the Faculty Senate, who serve as an advisory body to Vanderbilt's administration, met over a two-year period to review the status of Greek life on campus, charged with studying all aspects of the Greek system from a "holistic perspective" and making recommendations to ensure the Greek system supports the university's mission. According to David Weintraub, Greek Life Task Force chair, the recommendations are usually seriously considered by the administration. He said the task force included recommendations that were data driven, and likely to be well-received by the faculty Senate and Greek community.  

The Daily Californian, by Philip Cerles

In anticipation of a substantial enrollment boost of 6,500 undergraduate students in the 2016-17 academic year, UC President Janet Napolitano unveiled a plan at the UC Board of Regents meeting Wednesday morning to add 14,000 beds to UC campuses by 2020. Several UC campuses are located in some of the most expensive real estate markets in California, and UC Berkeley ranks among the priciest colleges for housing in the US. Citing these concerns, Napolitano began the meeting by announcing a new goal, dubbed the Presi-dent's Student Housing Initiative, to provide at least 14,000 additional beds for both graduate and undergraduate students on UC campuses by 2020. An internal team will visit each of the 10 campuses and work to accelerate the campus' own planned expansions. UC Provosts Aimee Dorr praised the numbers as a welcome "first step" for the planned enrollment boost. 

A growing and impressive group of professionals from campus communities across the globe continue to network and share strategies for improving town and gown relations. Join us on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

The ITGA strengthens town and gown partnerships by providing a network of professionals and resources, identifying and sharing leading practices, innovative solutions and professional development opportunities for municipal and university communities.