The first Town-Gown Council meeting of the year will take place on Sept. 12 at 7:00 p.m. in Sykes Student Union. The meeting is open to all students who are interested in openly discussing issues and speaking with community members, as well as meeting community members and establishing initial positive relationships.As the academic school year begins, West Chester University students and borough residents are taking steps to improve relations. Most students are excited by the prospect of coming back to school and seeing all their friends they haven’t seen all summer.
This usually means forgetting that most of us are “temporary visitors” in this town and that not everybody around us goes to West Chester University. Students living in the community are encouraged to establish good relations with their neighbors. No one wants the police called on them at five o’clock in the morning for having their music up too loud.
Students do need to betotal of 150,000 hours of community service. The many local businesses, restaurants, and area people would probably live a bit differently without so many University students in the community.
As student Melanie Kistler points out, “I do think it’s a give and take situation.” Respect for property and borough signs, controlling drinking habits, noise violations and poor decisions come into play when “permanent” residents of the Borough get upset with students and officials need to be called in. Likewise, “permanent” residents of the borough should not mow their lawns at six o’clock in the morning, for example. It is all about basic respect for each other.
The Town-Gown Council has therefore been established to try to improve and maintain positive relations between the University and the Borough. Through the council’s commitment to this goal, students and the permanent families in West Chester can be assured that positive things are in both of their futures and things can only get better.
As President Madeleine Wing Adler wrote in the Town-Gown Council Newsletter, “Through this partnership, we are finding creative answers for challenges and making the most of our opportunities.