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| Yale's College Town |
Monday, October 8, 2012
Universities and Their Surroundings
This weekend, my mom and I went on a college road trip of sorts up the east coast. We visited many colleges with beautiful campuses. What really struck me though was the contrast of many of these universities between the campus and the neighborhoods that border the campuses. We saw this a little bit during our field trip to Hyde Park between the University of Chicago and the surrounding neighborhoods. However, this contrast is visible in many other locations. The contrast of Yale's campus and surrounding New Haven, Connecticut really stuck out at me. When we were driving towards the campus, we saw rows of small partially dilapidated buildings with bars on all of the windows and doors. But suddenly after crossing an intersection, the next block is filled with expensive stores like J Crew and the Apple Store. The contrast was really shocking. Literally one street divided a population surrounded by poverty from extremely wealthy population of educated young adults.
Many other universities had similar contrasts. It was interesting how many of the universities talked about community service opportunities for students to help out the communities they were in such close proximity to. It was nice to know that the universities are working towards integrating the neighborhoods with the university, but it didn't seem like much visible progress was being made. Do you think it's important to integrate wealthy Universities to their surrounding neighborhoods? How do you think this could best be achieved?
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It's fascinating that there are many college towns that have the same dynamics as the one we saw on our field trip. The contrast you explained in New Haven seems even more prominent than the difference we saw with the University of Chicago! I find it interesting that the students are trying to help the local communities but not much change can be seen. Maybe they're trying to help families individually rather than the whole neighborhood all at once? And perhaps the change will be more prominent with time. I think integrating the university with the surrounding neighborhood could be done if the students started resident employment programs or helped the kids of the urban community become more prepared for college.
ReplyDeleteI was in New Haven for a debate tournament several weeks ago and noticed the exact same contrast. It is funny how one a city's appearance can change so drastically in ONE block. There are many colleges that have beautiful campuses, but beyond the gates there are poverty and run-down areas. Trinity College in Hartford is a good example, along with Union College in Schenectady, New York. I wonder if the colleges make strong attempts to harmonize their campuses with the poverty-stricken surroundings.
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