Town and Gown - Post-1960s: Changing Climate, Changing Issues

Post-1960s: Changing Climate, Changing Issues

Cities and their universities evolved from the integrated residential patterns of the High Middle Ages to a more distinct partition. As colleges acquired physical facilities, visible campuses formed with a proximate student population. Residential colleges became a fixture in European universities, while American colleges (often located in small towns) sequestered students in dormitories under close supervision. The lines that defined the two communities were clearly drawn, but this distinction was becoming blurred by the 1970s.

The doctrine of in loco parentis had developed both as a legal concept and as a custom in the United States. The Latin phrase meaning "in the place of the parents" held schools to a high standard of care for the welfare of students. However, this legal concept was eroded by the Bradshaw decision and by subsequent court rulings. The pendulum would swing back toward the medieval model, where students could enjoy significant autonomy in their choice of residence and habits.

The trend of American students living off campus had emerged during the post-World War II era. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act legislation, popularly known as the "G.I. Bill", provided large numbers of returning veterans with the financial aid to pursue college degrees. Many veterans were older than traditional students or had families to support; this further spurred the growth of off-campus housing. It was estimated that by century's end, as many as 85% of American college students lived off campus (Carnegie Commission). This residential trend — and other factors — would mitigate the division between town and gown (but not necessarily the tensions). Universities increasingly integrated into cities as cities absorbed and accommodated universities. Commuter colleges, such as San Francisco State University, now enroll large numbers of students who live at a distance, commute to campus for classes, and then leave at the end of each school day. Concurrently, American universities have opened branch campuses and even offer classes in storefront venues.

However, the recent integration of campus and community has not been without problems. For one thing, an urban university can generate major traffic and exacerbate parking problems in adjacent neighborhoods. The quality of neighborhoods near a university may deteriorate. Certain industries requiring highly educated workers, such as biotechnology, may be drawn to college communities. The growth of these knowledge economies, and additional upwardly mobile residents, may increase the competition for community space or drive up land costs. The expansion of campuses has led to the razing of some neighborhoods and the displacement of large numbers of city residents. These factors create continuing tensions between town and gown, but in some scenarios, the university and the local community work together in revitalization projects.

Local residents and members of the university community may clash over other political, economic, and demographic issues. Some localities in the Northeastern United States have tried to block students from registering to vote in elections as local residents, instead demanding that they vote by absentee ballot at their parents' residence. (Manahan, 1980) Many universities in college towns are located on unincorporated land, which prevents students living in on-campus housing from voting in town elections.

As urban universities increase in size and complexity, they hire a large staff of city residents. Labor unions have formed on campuses and bargain collectively for contracts. In 1971, a 53-day strike among Yale employees was the longest in the school's history. Union leaders stated that they considered Yale's social commitment to New Haven to be a key issue in the job action. University workers in New Haven would strike again and again in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Municipalities and universities continue to negotiate police jurisdiction on and near campuses. Today, many universities and colleges maintain their own police forces. In cities where a significant number of students live off campus, university police may be allowed to patrol these neighborhoods to provide an extra measure of security. Meanwhile, civil libertarians argue that school officials should only call on local law enforcement to intervene when it is necessary to protect the safety of people on campus. Such intrusion is legally mandated in some jurisdictions when school officials have reasonable suspicion to believe that a student is breaking the law. Generally, local police are reluctant to go on campus if a college maintains its own security force (the Kent State and Jackson State killings are examples of intervention turning into tragedy).

Raucous off-campus parties and the excessive noise and public drunkenness associated with them can also create town-gown animosity. The University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado, USA) and Queen's University (Kingston, Canada) provide examples where street parties have escalated into riots. In 1995, at Wilfrid Laurier University in sedate Waterloo, Ontario, the "Ezra Street riot" occurred when 1500 revelers showed up at an end-of-the-year student party on Ezra Street. The party goers drank copious amounts of beer, threw bottles, and carried on in ways that resulted in 42 arrests and two serious injuries — one when a woman was hit by a chunk of concrete thrown at the party, the other when a man was run over by a jeep. The end result was the university's adoption of a new "Code of Conduct" to govern student behaviour.

In the 1970s and 1980s, attention was often focused on off-campus fraternities and sororities, whose sometimes rowdy events were lampooned in the 1978 film Animal House. Ironically, the institution of "social responsibility" measures to restrict events at fraternity houses has exacerbated tensions, as events moved to non-Greek block and house parties farther off campus. The push of social events off campus also increases the incidents of drunk driving, as students who wish to party are pushed outside of campus.

In the US, a rash of disputes between public universities and host cities have developed in regard to the cost and benefits of the town-gown connection. Universities boast that their existence is the backbone of the town economy, while the towns counter with claims that the institution is "robbing" them of tax revenue; but as universities expand their campuses, more land property is removed from local tax rolls. Attempts are being pursued to redefine the basic financial terms and conditions upon which the relationship is based. As tax-exempt institutions (See Tax exemption), universities have had no legal obligation to contribute to the coffers of city government, but some do make payments in lieu of taxes based on negotiated agreements (as is the case in Boston).

Despite the rise in legal battles, universities and host towns have an incentive to cooperate, as the schools require city services and need city approval for long-range plans while the university towns need remuneration for public services provided. The "engaged university" is a recent term describing community partnerships and joint planning with city officials. Additionally, in some college towns, local culture is constructed by students and non-students alike, such as Athens, Georgia, which was ranked as the #1 college music town by Rolling Stone Magazine. In Athens, local culture that students identify with and take part in is often supported or created by non-students, in this case, musicians. While some degree of misunderstanding or rivalry might persist between "students" and "townies", coexistence and cooperation take place as well.

Town-gown parameters may become increasingly difficult to define in the near future. Geography is less salient as a factor in urban higher education in the Information Age. Some private institutions, such as the University of Phoenix, rely less on geographical presence, enrolling students in a broad range of online degree programs. Other courses may comprise part-time or night classes for working professionals or intensive training taking place over a group of weekends or months. Many of these non-traditional students live and work full-time in the surrounding community. Traditional brick-and-mortar universities have countered with their own distance education courses via television and the Internet. Traditional universities also recruit locally for special programs, such as executive MBA degrees.

The 12th century witnessed the birth of the first predecessors of the modern university; many educational futurists argue that the division between town and gown is rapidly fading and that the 21st century is the cusp of another revolutionary educational paradigm. According to these forecasts, the 21st-century college student may well be someone sitting at his or her personal computer miles from a college campus. Graduation may or may not include the traditional commencement ceremony. These reformers argue that for graduating students, the gown may be left hanging in the closet, with the graduate interacting more seamlessly within the global community. However, it should be noted that such views are currently dismissed to a greater or lesser extent by leading universities, who admit the importance of technology and the diminution in town/gown rivalries but stress the continuing value of traditional learning and teaching methods.