Boulder County public health officials will only allow students to gather in groups of two, a lighter version of its ban on gatherings of 18- to 22- year-olds, issued last week. The original two-week policy came after the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found Boulder’s campus to have the largest outbreak in the state.
These delicate negotiations between campuses and their surrounding communities aren’t new. Higher education scholars have long expressed concern about town-gown relations, the sometimes-fraught relationships between colleges and the towns that host them. But the pandemic is an unprecedented strain on those ties, as university and municipal leaders try to balance public safety and an influx of students returning to campuses.
Universities that previously cultivated strong campus-community connections are faring better than their peers. These relationships are like “a marriage that cannot end in a divorce,” said Beth Bagwell, executive director of the International Town & Gown Association. “A good town-gown relationship needs to be developed before a crisis or else you’re always being reactive.”
Her association ran two focus groups with members of university communities, which found that their top concerns were health and economic security. For some, students’ return to campus felt like a boon for struggling local businesses, but it was also of “deep concern” to residents as universities continued to see upticks in COVID-19 cases.
In general, fissures between universities and their communities stem from two major issues: student misbehavior and land use at the edge of campuses, said Dr. Stephen Gavazzi, a professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. Property “gobbled up” by universities is tax-exempt, which means that land can’t be used for enterprises that bring in municipal tax dollars. But during the pandemic, student misbehavior is the kicker, as parties in off-campus housing lead to increasing infection rates.
Universities are trying to make sure students adhere to coronavirus protocols, noted Ron M. Jackson, formerly the president of the International Town & Gown Association and associate dean of students at Arizona State University. But with limited campus housing, more and more students are moving to the periphery to stay close to their peers. Universities might not even know where their students are living, which makes them harder to manage.
“Even when trying to collect census data, some of the universities have an idea where their students are, but they really couldn’t tell you an actual address,” Jackson said.
