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Campus-Community Connections
The official newsletter of the International Town & Gown Association™ October 12, 2020
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The 2021 ITGA City & University Relations Conference |
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Colleagues,
With much thought and consideration for the safety of ITGA members, our host city, university and guests, we have decided to go virtual for the 2021 annual ITGA City & University Relations Conference, May 24-26. Our goal is to bring the City of Milwaukee and Marquette University to you virtually!
We are in the planning stage and will have the innovative and relevant tracks available soon. This is a conference you will not want to miss! Dr. Mike Lovell, President, Marquette University, “Marquette University and the city of Milwaukee are very excited to host the 2021 conference. The theme in 2021 will be Innovating for Tomorrow, Together. We are honored to be selected by ITGA and look forward to seeing you virtually in May. Thank you.”
This year we are using a different platform and are excited about the many possibilities offered to us that will create a super engaging and fun learning event. We are excited to bring the 2021 ITGA Conference to you and ask that you take 5 minutes to complete this survey. Your responses will help us plan a conference that is tailored to your needs both economically and professionally.
Thank you,
Beth Bagwell, MPA
ITGA Executive Director
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Meet Mayor Steve Patterson, Ph.D., ITGA's Treasurer |
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Steve Patterson, Mayor, City of Athens, OH
This week's Executive Board highlight is Steve Patterson, treasurer and a new member of the ITGA board. Steve is the mayor of Athens, Ohio, a town of about 46,000 people that is home to Ohio University. A former associate professor of health psychology at the university, Steve holds a Doctor of Philosophy in medical psychology and has served in the U.S. military for 23 years. Having been a presenter at annual ITGA conferences for a decade, he says that the ITGA budget and membership retention and recruitment are the primary board challenges this year. Among his numerous board commitments are serving as vice chair for the National League of Cities’ University Communities Council and for the Mayors Partnership for Progress and serving on the Athens County Economic Development Council and the Southeast Ohio Public Energy Council. “I felt that because of what ITGA had to offer I wanted to be even more involved as a member of the board,” he says. Experience and expertise in academia, local government and the armed forces are the primary skill sets he brings to ITGA. To contact Steve: Spatterson@ci.athens.oh.us.
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2020 Data Digest: COVID-19 Focus Groups Webinar |
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Join Janet Lillie, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President for Community Relations, Michigan State University and ITGA Board member; and Joelle Brown, Assistant Director, Global Community Engagement, University of Iowa, Wednesday, October 28, noon-1:00pm (EDT) for this upcoming webinar. To register, click here.
ITGA’s 2020 Data Digest focused on the intersections of COVID-19 and town-gown relations. To explore these intersections, ITGA hosted a first set of focus groups in May 2020 and a second set of focus groups in September 2020. Participants were ITGA members who reflected a diverse array of higher education institutions and communities. This webinar will explore data and key learnings from the September 2020 focus groups with topics including pandemic-related policy enforcement, economic development, and spring semester planning. Additionally, this webinar will also be a time for discussion and idea sharing as ITGA reflects together on some of the toughest challenges COVID-19 has brought to town-gown communities.
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Colleges are Calculating the Full Costs of the Pandemic |
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Ithaca College - Colleges are now starting to calculate the full costs of the coronavirus, including the fallout from declining enrollments and rising operating costs. At places like Ithaca College, the impact of the pandemic is accelerating plans for major cuts in faculty jobs and academic programs. Barbara K. Mistick, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said that the extra spending required to keep colleges open will lead to more layoffs in the spring if Congress fails to pass another stimulus bill that aids higher education. Many public institutions will be making more budget cuts as states offset steep declines in tax revenues. The Urban Institute estimates that state revenues will fall by as much as $200 billion by end of the 2021 fiscal year. The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Purdue Partners with Greater Lafayette Leaders |
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West Lafayette, Ind. - Purdue University has collaborated with West Lafayette, Lafayette and Tippecanoe County leaders to craft Protect Greater Lafayette partner and individual pledges, asking the community to voluntarily join the University’s campuswide commitment to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The Protect Greater Lafayette Partner Pledge, created in alignment with the Protect Purdue Pledge for students, faculty and staff, outlines nine public health measures that community partners, businesses and organizations can embrace in the fight against COVID-19. The effort is advanced through eight similar points in the Protect Greater Lafayette Community Member Pledge for individuals in the community. Virginia Vasquez Vought, Director, Wabash Valley Regional Office of Engagement, commented by email, "It’s been a mutually beneficial project for our community and a replicable model, which is always welcome. With the Champaign County Safe model, we were able to launch the messaging campaign in just a couple of weeks." Purdue University
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Fallowfield, Manchester: The Worst-hit Area in the UK |
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Fallowfield, Manchester, UK - News that this city is now, in spite of two months of enhanced restrictions, suffering the worst Covid-19 infection rates in the UK – 551.9 cases per 100,000 people as of Tuesday evening – has caused no small amount of frustration here. The fact that much of this contagion is centred around the relatively small neighbourhood of Fallowfield – population 15,000 – has, meanwhile, led to the paradox of residents being both shocked but not really surprised. No-one here blames students but there is much chagrin that the government and universities seem to have been so ill-prepared for the potential consequences of what is essentially a mass migration during a deadly pandemic. Fifty-five per cent of all cases identified here over the last seven days have been people aged 17-21. “I haven’t got the exact calculations for [the infection rate of] that age group,” David Regan, the city’s director of public health, tells The Independent, “but it’s now somewhere above 3,000 per 100,000. It’s a lot.” Independent
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A growing and impressive group of professionals from campus communities continue to network and share strategies for improving town-gown relations. Join us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
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