The 14th Responsible Retailing Forum national confer-ence took place April 20-21 in Boston, MA. The ITGA-RRForum session focused upon the new RRForum strategic alliance with the ITGA to bring RRForum's Responsible Retailing model to ITGA member commu-nities. Scott Wexler, of the Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association, and Rana Altenburg of Marquette University described how the town & gown coalitions in Albany, NY, and Milwaukee, WI, have included alcohol industry stakeholders as key partners. Additional perspectives were offered by Bill Georges on sporting events, by Waltham, MA Police Captain Steve Champeon on the value of the program for law enforcement; by Prof. William DeJong, Ph.D on engaging the colleges themselves in best practices for reducing underage and abusive drinking; by American Beverage Licensees Exec. Director John Bodnovich on the potential leadership roles of trade associations; and by NABCA's Steve Schmidt on the principles that the ITGA initiative should embrace. 

In Massachusetts, local governments have been able to rely less on state money to pay their bills. That's one of the findings of a report out this month from the state auditor. For many communities, this means much of their funds for road repair, fire departments and police is coming from property taxes. This is a problem in college towns where a lot of valuable property is owned by nonprofits that are tax-exempt. Northampton, MA, is the latest commu-nity to try out one possible solution. I sat down with the city's mayor, David Narkewicz. Before our interview, he carefully ran over some numbers on the city's new "payment-in-lieu-of-taxes" program, which is a terribly boring name for something Narkewicz says is all about fairness. "We're using a cutoff of only those large, private, tax-empt institutions which own in excess of $1 million worth of valued property," says Narkewicz.  

The Daily Iowan, by Jake Markowitz

Possible unfair housing practices have caught the eye of several organizations on campus. University of Iowa Student Government President-elect Rachel Zuckerman said she believes there are some landlords who have been manipulating international students looking for off-campus housing. Zuckerman said she plans to address the issue by working with Student Legal Services, the College of Law, and International Students & Scholars Services to raise awareness and expand on resources these organizations already provide, as well as implementing new ones. "One of our initiatives is an undergraduate housing task force," she said. "Part of that is going to be looking at where there might be landlord corruption already in the area and looking at what we can do as a university and government representatives to work with the 

city and landlords to reduce the taking advantage of students." 

The Intelligencer, by John Sommerhof

Four years ago, two Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville students died in an apartment fire. Best friends and roommates, Lauren Petersen and Lacy Siddall were the victims of the tragedy. But the families of the victims are now honoring their memory by turn-ing their attention to preventing another tragedy. The families, and their attorneys, have produced and are now releasing a fire safety video that will be distributed to more than 200 universities nationwide. According to the Center Campus Fire Safety, approximately 126 students have perished from fires that occurred on a college campus, in Greek housing or in off-campus housing from 2000 to 2014. Of the 89 fatal fires that occurred during that time, over 85 percent occurred in off-campus hosting. Schools and other organizations interested in using the video should contact [email protected]. 

The Enterprise, by Charlie Peters

On college campuses across the nation, professors often remind classrooms that their lecture carries the poten-tial for post-graduation practical application. But one teacher at Bridgewater State University (BSU) who has delivered the same lecture nearly 100 times since Sep-tember is hoping his pupils never need anything from his curriculum. Capt. Michael Froio of the BSU Police Department has spent a good chunk of this year leading students, faculty and staff through active shooter response training. Froio's lesson plan includes a PowerPoint presentation, dramatic video re-enactment of a shooting and even room-specific tips on how to be best protected if the unimaginable becomes a reality. "In the days after (the) Virginia Tech (shooting in 2007), we got hundreds of calls from parents of student's asking, 'What are you going to do?'" Froio said.  "There were a lot of things we looked at in terms of educating the community." 

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.