Officials participating in the "Neighborhood Initiative" forum on town-gown relations Feb. 2 are, from left, Jack Oblak, vice president for student affairs at Ithaca College; Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations at Cornell; and Nancy Lieberman, associate dean at Tompkins Cortland Community College.
For the first time anyone could recall, key administrators from the three institutions of higher education in Tompkins County met with the general public for a town-gown dialogue last week.
The 90-minute meeting at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Ithaca was the first event in the second year of a series of "Neighborhood Initiatives," a community-empowerment project sponsored by Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services and the Ithaca Journal.
The Feb. 2 panel included Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations at Cornell; Nancy Lieberman, associate dean at Tompkins Cortland Community College; and Jack Oblak, vice president for student affairs at Ithaca College. The campus representatives presented a general profile of each campus and responded to questions.
About 75 people, including several representatives from the colleges, were on hand to ask questions and comment on topics such as economic development and job training, construction, parking, business competition, voluntary cash contributions to local governments and voluntarism by faculty, staff and students.
Another topic of discussion was student behavior off campus, such as rowdy activities stemming from after-hours parties on East Hill and South Hill, and the relatively recent development of large block parties in Collegetown during Senior Week at Cornell.
One Collegetown resident said she "fears" for her personal safety and property when "thousands of students" celebrate on Linden Avenue, trash private property and violate local and state laws. She called for stiff penalties for violators and for a change in the university calendar to shorten or eliminate Senior Week, the week before Commencement.
Campus officials sympathized with the year-round residents, but noted that the judicial systems at both schools focus on students when they are on campus, while local police agencies enforce laws off campus. They added that the good behavior and deeds of most students throughout the year were being overshadowed by the bad behavior of a few, despite efforts aimed at "being a good neighbor."
Ithaca Police Chief Rick Basile said his department has met with student groups and university officials and will continue to help students understand their impact on residential neighborhoods.
A campuswide forum on neighborhood relations, including student block parties during Senior Week in May, is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 16, at Cornell. The forum, at 7 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall, is co-sponsored by the Cornell Senior Class Council, Cornell's Office of Community Relations and the Collegetown Neighborhood Council.
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