Plant a million trees, renovate a city baseball field, cultivate a community garden, open a free entrepreneurship training center...the ways in which partnerships between private campuses and public governments are improving and revitalizing cities and towns across New York are as diverse as the institutions and municipalities themselves. These partnerships are almost always collaborative visions. After all, the missions and core values of higher education institutions and their host towns and cities often mirror one other. Enhancing community life, promoting economic opportunity, improving health and safety, and ensuring a quality education for all make an appearance on the mission statements of town and gown alike.
When these two entities decide to partner up, the results can be powerful and far-reaching. Here is just a sampling of the many ways these partnerships contribute to the current momentum of city and town revitalization.
Partners for Upstate Renaissance
The abandoned gas station at a main entry point to downtown Schenectady was an eyesore for commuters, but for county leaders and administrators at Union Graduate College it sparked a vision—one that these partners would make a reality in two short years. In January, the overgrown site with contaminated soil was transformed—into a LEED-certified, state-of-the-art educational facility, complete with the re-introduction of American Elms and a swale system that prevents neighborhood flooding. The $8.5 million Graduate Center building reaps another reward for Schenectady: the overall economic impact brings more than $650 million each year to the region. It keeps well-educated professionals working in the “original Tech Valley” and draws in new high-tech businesses. Additionally, students provide important community service work, such as counseling and support programs to keep at-risk workers employed and provide local companies with free business and marketing plans.
In another partnership project for urban renewal, Union College and the City of Schenectady renovated a baseball field in the city’s Central Park last spring. The new field will host collegiate-level competition, the city’s youth leagues, and even, if the plans move forward, top-quality amateur baseball. Sports-for-all is also the guiding principle of a massive effort underway by The College of Saint Rose and the City of Albany. These private/public partners are transforming an unused portion of Albany’s Hoffman Park into a first-class sports complex. The $4.5 million project includes five fields—for baseball, softball, soccer and lacrosse—available to the College’s outdoor athletics program, Albany youth, and community leagues and camps. At the completion ceremony in March, Albany Mayor Gerald D. Jennings said, “We often hear the term ‘town-gown relationship’ and are unclear as to what it means. Today, we see first-hand how The College of Saint Rose and the City of Albany have partnered to define this concept.”
Le Moyne College is working closely with the City of Syracuse to solve a problem shared by many Upstate communities: what to do with abandoned commercial space. In this case, a new plaza is being built to house a bookstore, a pizzeria/deli, and a space to accommodate over 90 people in a comfortable setting, featuring a fireplace and flexible of seating options. In addition, a street adjacent to the property will become green space with outdoor seating. This project fixes a blighted area of the city, stabilizing the neighborhood and adding new jobs and opportunities for local vendors.
Visible changes in the struggling parts of cities motivate the partnership between Hobart and William Smith Colleges’ Architecture Department and the City of Geneva. The private/public pair created the Office of Neighborhood Initiatives and the Geneva Neighborhood Resource Center to enhance future building projects in the city. Students provide design advice to residents, both individuals and groups of neighbors, who aim to improve their blocks and streets. “We specifically want to involve architecture students in community engagement so we have not only political, social and cultural change in Geneva but noticeable, physical changes too,” says Assistant Professor of Architecture Kirin Makker.
Upgrading housing is also part of the Connective Corridor project of Syracuse University. In an initiative called SALT (Syracuse, Art, Life, and Technology), the University will help develop a center for artistic and cultural activity in a portion of the city that has fallen on hard times. Niagara University is doing the same, but specifically in tourism-related initiatives. The University partners with the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau on projects related to strengthening the local tourism industry. Students helped improve the bureau’s Web site and crafted a plan to enhance brand awareness in the historic Village of Youngstown. The University is also a founding member of ReNU Niagara, a Community Outreach Partnership Center funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to improve the quality of life for Niagara Falls residents.
Green growth is the focus of other urban renewal partnerships. Manhattan College, for example, is partnering with MillionTreesNYC, an ambitious initiative established by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office to plant one million new trees in the city by 2017. To this end, the College contributed an assortment of dogwoods, red oaks, black locusts, and littleleaf lindens—all in an effort to increase the tree canopy coverage of New York City for the sake of improving air quality and reducing energy costs. The College of New Rochelle is partnering with the City of New Rochelle with its own plan for smart growth entitled GreeNR. The sustainability plan will serve to guide the city over the next 20 years, ensuring development that is environmentally responsible and socially equitable.
Partners for Safe Cities
While enhancing infrastructure certainly holds visible appeal, preventing crime and violence is another approach taken by partnerships between cities and private campuses to contribute to the well-being of urban centers. With $3.5 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice and New York State, Rochester Institute of Technology created the Public Safety Initiatives Center. The center uses RIT’s advanced research capabilities in helping the Rochester Police Department to solve crimes and identify patterns and trends. The new center, which is located on campus with a presence in City Hall and police headquarters, is charged with developing an anti-violence master plan that involves government services and community assets, along with law enforcement.
Elmira College paired up with the City of Elmira and Chemung County to help bring stability to “one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city,” according to Mayor John Tonello. Together, the private/public duo launched “Your Neighborhood” with intensive clean-up, crack-down, and revitalization efforts in the troubled Near Westside District. The multi-pronged effort began with the collection of junk and debris, made possible through a donation of trucks and workers by the College.
In a partnership with Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office and the city, Union College donated public surveillance cameras to help deter crime. The cameras, installed along Nott Street and other strategic spots in the city, help police solve crimes and district attorneys to convict offenders. Most importantly, the cameras have had measurable impacts in deterring crime and making Schenectady a safer place to live and work.
Partners for Economic Growth
One meaningful way partnerships can stimulate economic growth is through entrepreneurial training programs. Frequently, campuses partner with their local department of economic development to assist residents with opening a new business or enhancing an existing operation. The Family Business Center at Niagara University, for example, recognizes the importance of family-owned businesses, abundant in the Buffalo Niagara region. The University also administers an Entrepreneurial Training Program through ReNu Niagara, and it recently established a tech-transfer clinic—to assist local companies with moving new discoveries out of the laboratories and into the marketplace.
New technology-based businesses in Central New York State get a hand in applying for grants through the Growth for Grants program, a partnership between Cornell University and the Metropolitan Development Agency of Syracuse and Central New York, Inc. This is just one program among several initiated by the University’s Center for Technological Enterprise and Commercialization (CTEC). Others include an annual Biocareer Connection, a job fair that draws bioscience-related companies across 15 counties to meet with prospective employees (in partnership with Tomkins Workforce NY, the NY State Department of Labor, and Medtech), and Pipeline for Progress, a think tank and public forum dedicated to linking technical innovation with business creation in economically distressed areas of Central New York.
Clarkson University builds on its expertise in entrepreneurial education to boost its regional Adirondack economies. In fact, its Entrepreneurship Center, with its focus on micro-enterprises, serves as a national model, regularly offering free guidance to North Country businesses. In a similar effort, the University partnered with the Development Authority of the North Country to help bring broadband to the far reaches of the Adirondacks.
On Long Island, the partnership between the regional Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University has reaped hundreds of grants, jobs, and successful users of the center’s business development services. Business advisor John Steinhoff at the SBDC office on campus agrees: “Our partnership with C.W. Post has had a positive impact on the local community.” Nearby lays one of New York City’s largest nongovernmental employers: Columbia University. As such, the campus makes its own workforce development center available to the larger community. A prime example is Columbia’s SLICE program (Service Learning in a Community Environment), delivering technology training and job placement for residents of Harlem and neighboring communities. The 16-month certification program is free to all participants.
Town/Gown: Blurring the Line
Broad projects, such as Syracuse University’s Connective Corridor, aim for a more comprehensive approach to town/gown partnerships. While at a visible level, the massive project serves to connect University Hill with downtown Syracuse through bicycle and pedestrian paths and safe green space, the Connective Corridor is effectively about urban reinvestment and revitalization. Historic landmarks, cultural institutions, art centers, and private development will be touched by this significant partnership between the city, government officials, and private corporations.
The 200-year relationship between Hobart and William Smith Colleges and its host city has risen to a new level with the forming, in 2007, of “The Geneva Partnership.” The comprehensive program leaves no strategic area without enhancements: economic development, cultural life, civic engagement, education, the environment, public safety, and the wellbeing of children and families.
The annual Poughkeepsie Institute seminar, a partnership Vassar College shares with the City of Poughkeepsie, holds a similar multi-pronged aim. Students from five institutions of higher education in the region, including Vassar, examine a variety of local issues from multidisciplinary perspectives. Housing and the homeless, development of the city’s riverfront, and the role of the arts have all been recent topics presented by students in press conferences and city council meetings.
Hamilton College, partnering with a host of municipal offices, public schools and the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, created in the last year: a Community Development Plan, an Economic Development Plan, and the Kirkland Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization that will focus on economic and community development in the Town of Kirkland. Wagner College, in turn, places student staff right in the helm of business—as interns in regional development corporations.