The College Town

Tracing the story of the quintessential college experience

College occupies a special spot in an American national psyche. From ivy covered gothic halls of Princeton to urban campus of Northeastern to suburban leafy streets of Iowa State, universities are woven into the fabric of American history, with far-reaching impact on affairs of communities both local and global. A lot has been been written about universities; they have been praised as enclaves of intellectual discovery and criticized as strongholds of debauchery. However, not as much has been said about the university in the context of its local community, particularly the neighborhood that forms in its immediate vicinity — the college town. In this article I seek to discuss the college town as a phenomena, incite interest on the topic, and provide the foundation of knowledge for further research.

Contents of the article (hyperlinked):

1. University in America: how university developed in the United States.
2. Defining College Town: what do we mean by “college town”.
3. Types of College Towns: discussion of three types of college towns.
4. Who lives in College Towns: quick profile of the residents.
5. College Campus as a Unit: features and development of college campuses.
6. University as a part of College Town: four features found in college towns (frat row, student ghetto, commercial district, faculty enclave).
7. The Town vs The College Town: discussion of the town — gown relations.
8. Resources for Further Learning: books and links to resources you should check out to learn more.

University in America

College towns are dichotomous; they evoke images of intellectual conversations and late night study sessions on one hand, and messy pregame sessions, dilapidated apartments, and greasy bars on the other. Whatever the imagery the term evokes, one thing is certain — the college town, with all its quirks and twists, is a uniquely American phenomena. Most institutions of secondary learning around the world are located in large cities — London, Berlin, Moscow — with few exceptions. Even in Canada, a country which is historically and culturally similar to the US, college towns are rare.

In Europe — the motherland of higher education — cities preceded universities, and intellectuals were drawn to cities for their studies. First universities rarely had campuses or buildings; instruction typically took place in private homes, and education through apprenticeship was common. Even when the universities did acquire buildings, more often than not these were acquired haphazardly, and quite possibly located on opposite ends of the city.

In United States the story was different, partially attributable to the geography. The country is large — enormously so — with population scattered throughout. Its population was also much more religiously-minded; various denominations flourished. One way to put your town on the map and ascertain the community was by opening a university. Universities were regarded as a temples of enlightenment, and their establishment immediately became a source of local pride. Furthermore, for better or worse, religiously affiliated universities were ideal vehicles of both sustaining and propagating world views, with a diploma to demonstrate qualifications.

Secondly, Americans had a special attitude towards where learning should be conducted. City — grimy, proletarian, fast paced — was no place for a self respected institution of higher learning. A quiet, rural setting was thought to be more conducive to learning. As a result of these two trends, universities in America were primarily established in small towns. In effect, they were the town. Even Harvard, one of the oldest universities in the US — now de-facto part of Boston — was established well outside the boundaries of the city, across the river in Cambridge.

Defining “College Town”

As alluded to in the introductory paragraph, college town is a complicated concept to define. A few standardized criteria have been used by other writers in the field, and I will use similar definitions.

The classic college town is located in a city or town where the college or a university is by far the largest employer. The student population constitutes at least 20% of the town’s regular population. While neighborhoods of large cities — like Cambridge (MIT/Harvard), Back Bay (Northeastern), University District (Seattle) — can be regarded as college towns by some, the city life dominates the cultural scene within these enclaves, and therefore researchers are generally hesitant to regard them as truly authentic college towns. The university must be a visceral part of the town, forming a core of its social life, permeating daily life and thoughts of the town’s dwellers.

The university must be a visceral part of the town, forming a core of its social life, permeating daily life and thoughts of the town’s dwellers.

What are some towns that fit this description? Ithaca, NY is a classic. Ames, IA, home of the Iowa State University; Hanover, NH, home of Dartmouth; Lawrence, KS, home of University of Kansas — are all great examples of what constitutes a college town.

Intersection of College Ave and Dryden Road in Ithaca, NY

Types of College Towns

Even within a classic “college town”, multiple flavors exist. Most of the works in the field usually subdivide college towns according to the type and size of the university. Three broad flavors are identified by Gumprecht:

• Flagship Bearers. These are sizable towns and cities that are home to a large public research university usually bearing the state’s name. Examples of such cities are Chapel Hill, NC and Ames, IA. These cities are often showered with federal research funding, and are home to an educated elite. They draw students from all of the states and have sizable international student presence. A number of graduates choose to remain in cities like these after graduation due to the established high-tech focused economy, wide selection of social events, and overall younger demographic.

Beardshear Hall, Iowa State University

• Land Grant Proletariats. These cities are usually formed around schools offering agricultural and mechanical education, which were established in 1862 by the Morrill Acts. As a historical aside, under Morrill Acts each state was granted 30,000 acres of federal land for each Congressional representatives. Schools founded through the act were required to provide public services, which they more often than not viewed as burdensome obligations. They draw students from a more rural pool — usually within a state or neighboring states. Because of their focus on applied sciences, they lack the depth of the intellectual climate and elitism that is characteristic of older, more established East Coast enclaves. Some examples are East Lansing, MI (home of Michigan State), Manhattan, KS (Kansas State), Ithaca, NY (Cornell University).
• Private College Estates. These towns are much smaller than both land-grant and state universities, and are home to student populations of no more than 5,000. They tend to draw their student populations from outside of their states. Unlike large research universities, private schools have not experienced the growth spurt following the 1940s, and remained relatively unchanged in size. They are experts of liberal arts, instilling classic education using established curricula, in small classrooms fostering individual attention. Examples of these towns are Grinnell, IA (home of Grinnell College), Quincy, Illinois (Quincy University), Wellesley, MA (Wellesley College).

Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

Who lives in College Towns?

What do all these diverse college towns have in common? They are comprised of youthful, highly educated populations. For example, 53% of Hamilton, NY has a bachelor’s degree or higher; a whopping 59% of residents of Ames, IA have completed a four year college. This is far higher than a national average — only 33% of adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

College towns are homes to quirky, unconventional organizations. Food co-ops are common. Organic and vegetarian restaurants are often a given. Local music permeates the atmosphere, and a town in general is home to many home-grown bands. Vagabond and bohemian lifestyle, while not explicitly encouraged, is not exactly discouraged either; it is viewed with a sense of nostalgia, reminiscent of Parisian Montmartre, fully devoted to art cafes, tattoo shops, and rustic bistros.

Vagabond and bohemian lifestyle, while not explicitly encouraged, is not exactly discouraged either; it is viewed with a sense of nostalgia, reminiscent of Parisian Montmartre, fully devoted to art cafes, tattoo shops, and rustic bistros.

College Campus as a Unit

College campuses have been traditionally set in lush surrounding, with abundance of grass, trees, and numerous quadrangles. This practice is in part a derivative of the belief that studies are best performed in a natural setting. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, wrote in the 1890s during his Presidency at Princeton that “collegiate studies are ideally ascetic in nature and require a secluded environment to flourish”.

American college campus is much larger than its European counterpart. The tradition dates back to Harvard, where the first campus buildings were made out of wood — and separating them by relatively large spaces was a fire precaution. As the university has grown, expanding beyond Classic Studies, the tradition of large spaces endured.

Universities became mini towns, and as all self respected towns, needed a designer. The landscaping of the American university normally took on one of the two schools of thought — the informal, naturalistic one or the European, formal, one. The informal approach of design is formally accredited to Frederick Law Olmsted, who is well known for his design of the Central Park. His designs were rooted in pastoral motifs, set in a natural setting characterized by sweeping views of lakes and rivers, with a plethora of trees and brush. Among others, Olmsted and his children built, designed and updated parts of Colgate, Bryn Mawr, MIT, Wellesley, Tufts, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Lawns of Colgate University

The other approach — mimicking the eloquence and grandeur of Versaille — was developed by Andre Le Notre. Notre’s style — the French Formal — originated in the age of Renaissance, and remained true to its rationalistic origins. Every plant and every contour had a meaning and a purpose. Villanova and Duke both possess elements of grandiosity commonly associated with this style.

The university remained relatively unchanged until the 1940s — but this would not last. As federal spending ballooned after the defeat of fascism, the university has expanded with it. Multiversity is a word capturing the essence of university during the 50s and 60s — married, unmarried, returning soldiers, beatniks, hipsters — everyone was getting a diploma. To cater towards the clientele, universities built parks, gyms, movie theaters. Universities, in essence, became towns within towns. Unfortunately, this often happened at the cost of the surrounding community. The era of town & gown relationships as we know it today has begun.

University of Pennsylvania and University of Chicago were among the most active and vocal supporters of Housing Act of 1959. The act de-facto gave universities the front row seat in manipulating local urban development. The program created a 2 to 1 federal matching grant given to cities where universities had made acquisitions or improvements (an an example, a university expansion project totaling 5 million would bring 10 million to the town;s coffers for other projects). The act encouraged expansionist activities by schools by making the proposition too difficult to pass up. In a spirit of Marshall Plan, the federal government sought to modernize the university and the town — all in one swoop. Instead, the university actually became more withdrawn; the proliferation of the automobile, which made commuting easier, encouraged people to move out of towns and cities. The flight of the middle class, among other things, resulted in the dilapidation of the inner towns; all of a sudden, it didn’t make sense for universities to expand.

University as a part of the College Town

Gumprecht, among other writers, identifies four features that can be found in a typical college town. He argued that the frat row, the student ghetto, the faculty community, and the commercial district are key elements of college towns. The development of these can only be understood in the framework which regards the university and the town as an indivisible whole; and hence, I seek to supplement the descriptions with historical background.

1. The frat row

“Eating club” at Princeton University

A frat row is ordinarily found at all universities that allow Greek life. Fraternities first came to life as literary societies, a channel of counterculture that emerged in response to religion. First fraternities pledged themselves in education their members to think for themselves; they possessed large collections of books on an array of topics not accessible at religiously affiliated institutions. As colleges became more liberal and increased the breadth of studies, fraternities turned into social vehicles.

Universities welcomed fraternities; in administration’s mind they could perform a two-fold task of socializing and housing (dorms were a foreign concept, and at Cornell regarded as grounds for “carelessness, uproar, and destruction”). Houses were initially established in rented properties not far from the universities. As the membership grew — propagated by the lack of university-sponsored dorm housing — fraternities began leasing land directly from the university and building their houses themselves. For the sake of management, it made sense for a university to keep these developments constrained to a certain area. The frat row was born.

To this day, many universities rely on Greek life for outsourcing their student housing problem. Whether this is the best approach is certainly up for debate. Despite that, all readers can likely agree that fraternities almost certainly have departed from their original missions. As a whole, fraternity houses have been home to disproportionately white, Christian males. Women weren’t allowed to fraternize until much later; at Cornell, for instance, Delta Gamma, the first sorority on campus, originated in the early 1920s. Women were bused in for parties until 1960s. Underage drinking became a rampant problem in the 1970s, when drinking age was raised to 21. One could argue that the frat row creates the perfect conditions for chaos; University of Washington, WSU, Berkeley, Fairfield University, Keene State are examples of that.

2. The Student Ghetto

What is a student ghetto? The phrase usually invokes images of student housing comprised of dilapidated houses, beat-up couches, and collapsing porches. This wasn’t always the case.

The development of Cornell’s Collegetown is demonstrative of a typical student ghetto. When Cornell welcomed its first class there were only a handful of homes in Ithaca’s East Hill. By 1889, roughly 60 houses were built in what is today called Collegetown. From the start, a portion of theses houses were homes of students who were near the bottom of Cornell’s social strata. They clearly either were rejected from the Greek system or wouldn’t bother wasting their time applying. Despite that, student housing was constrained — Ithaca locals like Cook and Catherine families (after whom the respective streets are named), resided in the Collegetown. The neighborhood was mostly residential.

After the end of the WW2, college towns around the nation expanded. In a typical scenario, landlords who recognized the opportunity would outbid families as houses came on the market. The lifestyle of the student ghetto — what one author described as a “fertile soil for writing, partying, rioting, speech-making, messing up and getting off” — would push out local residents, in its own version of an urban flight.

The modern college town is quickly changing. In a lot of small towns student residences are still owned by a handful of landlords. These landlords are being squeezed by development companies, who are building luxury apartments mimicking those of big cities. As a result, these developments have raised prices, and in effect create two “college towns” — the old, dilapidated one, and the new, modern, one.

As a result, these developments have raised prices, and in effect create two “college towns” — the old, dilapidated one, and the new, modern, one.

Today’s college town is usually an example of a mixed-use development — a combination of retail and residential spaces, where a first floor is occupied by a business with the rest devoted to residential use. The residential density of college towns reaches the density of Brooklyn and San Francisco, a trend that will likely continue as universities face the decline of funding by the federal government.

3. The Faculty Enclave

At most universities established during the 1800s the faculty first lived on campus. Precocious developers recognized that as universities expanded, the opportunity to cater towards the growing base of faculty would emerge.

In Ithaca, for example, the neighborhoods of Cayuga Heights and Bryant Park were developed and at first even restricted to university faculty. Cayuga Heights was developed on the same plateau as Cornell, providing sweeping views of lake Cayuga. Today it is the epitome of upper middle class, with large houses, tree lined streets, and well kept lawns.

It is vital to recognize that the faculty enclave is not for everyone. It is as it always has been home to the best paid and most respected professors and administrators. Assistant professors, regular administrators, and numerous university employees are unable to afford the cost of housing here. It is the enclave of the modern liberal bourgeoisie.

4. The Commercial District and New Economic Center

Healthy college town supports a vibrant economy around it. College town is home to trendy shops, ethnic restaurants, bars, tattoo parlors, health food stores, coops, and others. Business are almost always more abundant in college towns than in “college-less” cities of similar size.

The commercial district has partially developed as a replacement for the manufacturing jobs that migrated overseas in the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately outside of the university related employment, the quality of the jobs offered here is low; most openings revolve around the food and hospitality industries.

In the recent years, the college town has become a home to business incubators and research parks. In the world of higher education — typically drawing a large chunk of its funding from federal defense and research budgets — it is a new development. College towns are a logic choice for these developments because of a constant supply of well-educated employees and relatively cheap operating costs.

The impact of these startups and spin-off companies is questionable. As they are often removed from the center of investments, the companies founded here don’t last — they are either sold or move to urban centers. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs usually drawn to these towns are different — often their only motivation is profit. The dark side of this economy runs on cheap labor and under-the-table exploitation that takes place. This topic, however, is beyond the scope of this piece.

The Town vs The College Town

The relationship of college towns and the cities which they comprise a part of brings about a sour taste in the mouths of many. For universities, the end of the 20th century is characterized by increasingly worsening relations with the town.

The problems are manifold — the increase of enrollment, combined with a dirth of funding and the tax-exempt status of the universities has put a strain on towns across America. In many cases, the burden may be too much to bear. In analysis of this phenomena — in academic circles referred to as the “town and gown” relations — the towns outline top five problems they encounter. These are as follows:

• Parking
• Housing
• Greek Life
• Alcohol
• Tax-exempt status

Let us take a look at these in more depth.

Parking

The expansion of universities following WW2 coincided with the spread of the automobile as the primary method of transportation. Starting in the 60s and 70s, students that lived on campus started bringing their cars with them in increasing numbers. The growing commuter student population exacerbated the problem. Most universities failed to anticipate and adjust to this trend in time. The lack of sufficient on-campus parking forced students and faculty to use city streets surrounding the university, impairing traffic and lowering the expected lifetime of roads.

Housing

The growth of the student body on college campuses resulting in skyrocketing rental rates in areas surrounding the university, driving families out of well-kept neighborhoods and replacing them with urban slums of student ghettos. The story is multidimensional. Every year, Small Claims Courts around the country review hundreds of security deposit disputes. Students complain that landlords defraud them of their security deposits, and use the money to cover ordinary maintenance costs. Landlords retaliate by raising monthly rates to compensate for the wear and tear than is attributable to rowdy college students. The town is caught in a middle, vilified by both sides for their inaction and antediluvian zoning laws.

Greek Life and Alcohol

Whether good or bad, Greek Life at many universities revolves around alcohol. With universities increasingly cracking down on events in the frat rows, parties are shifting into college towns. The town is left with a bleeding wound. Law enforcement is expensive and difficult if not impossible to supply in sufficient amounts. As a result, the town retaliates by stiffening penalties and fines for underage and rowdy drinking practices, making liquor licenses progressively more expensive, and forcing bars to close earlier in the night. Fraternities, increasingly under fire for their questionable attitude in regard to sexual practices at their events, are a headache for universities and towns alike.

Tax-Exempt Status

Universities are tax exempt institutions, and as a result are not required to contribute to the town’s coffers (there is no income tax or property tax for a university). The universities make an argument that they contribute in other ways — through jobs, tourism, volunteerism and tourism. The question is whether these contributions are sufficient. Services provided by towns aren’t cheap; fire department are expensive and burdensome to run and maintain; police departments can’t devote all of their time to parenting college students. City waterways need yearly upkeep, roads need to be cleaned and repaired. PILOTS and SILOTS (payments /services in lieu of taxes) are implemented as potential solutions, but are controversial. Discussions such as these are the topic of conversations between towns and colleges around the country.

College town as a place of discovery

Whatever the background of students, their majors, and their views, their experiences in college towns unite them for life and change their lives forever. College towns spur new interest and self discoveries. New friends are formed. Relationships start and end. Teenagers become adults. College towns, for better or for worse, are the formative grounds of generations — the soil that nourishes the future of America.

Resources for Further Learning:

Books:

1. The American College Town by Blake Gumprecht. This is a fantastic resource of information and a pleasurable read. Gumprecht is informal in his style, and is certain to appeal to all readers. Especially of interest to Cornellians, as a lot of the work revolves tracing the history of Cornell University and the town of Ithaca.
2. Campus, An American Planning Tradition by Paul Turner. Another fantastic source that devotes a lot of attention to architecture and the development of college campus. Available freely online here.
3. Building the Ivory Tower: Campus Planning, University Development, and the Politics of Urban Space by Winling. This is a PhD thesis written by a graduate student at University of Michigan. A lot of good information; best to look at the table of contents and browse for the objects of interest. Available here.

Articles and excerpts:

1. Town–gown relationships: Exploring university–community engagement from the perspective of community members by Bruning. A nice read on the state of town and gown relations in the recent years. This is behind a paywall, so you will need your university id to access. Available here.
2. The campus as a public space in the American college town. Also behind a paywall. Great 30 page analysis. Available here.
3. Expectations and Reality in American Higher Education by Thelin. Freely available here. In only 12 pages the author does a fabulous job of outlining the evolution of college experience over the last 30 years.