Temko delivers report on city, univ. relations

Despite attempts to bridge the gap between the university and the city, some members of the university community feel they are not a part of the city community.

City Councilman Ezra Temko classified bridging community-university relations as an area that needs further exploration while giving a presentation on the city's civic health at the Newark City Council meeting on March 9.

Temko said civic health measures a community's ability to confront the opportunities and challenges it faces. As a university town, it is important for the university and Newark to be working together, he said.

To evaluate Newark's civic health, Temko discussed results from a survey given to 74 participants, which included university student leaders and administrative officials.

Issues between the community and the university include land use, binge drinking and neighborhood relations. These issues are affected by town and gown relations, Temko said.

The city's Town & Gown Committee consists of university students and administrative officials, as well as representation from the city, with the objective of serving as an open line of communication between the university and the city, he said.

However, freshman Ezekiel Tulenko, from Newark, said he was unaware of the committee's existence. He said it would be a good idea to make the committee more prominent within the city and the university so more students could know about it.

"It allows for the city officials to not only work with University of Delaware officials, but it brings students into it as well, so that contributes to help students make sure they have their opinion heard on matters," Tulenko said. "It's better to have them involved in the decision and not just find out about the aftermath of decisions."

In the survey, university student leaders commented that they did not think the city viewed them as part of its governance structure and that information regarding the city was not available to them.

One student leader wrote as a response in the survey, "Unfortunately, despite my active involvement at the University of Delaware, I feel as though I cannot answer questions related to the general Newark community. The nature of my interactions with community leaders has made it clear to me that the city prefers to keep the lines between students and citizens (which students cannot be regarded as) distinct."

Three out of the six university administrators who took the survey disagreed with the statement "community members outside the university view Newark's student population as part of the Newark community."

Temko said he thinks the community is grateful for the university's presence, but there are issues that occasionally bother community members, including nuisance problems and land use. However, he said he thinks the university appreciates its surrounding community.

"I think they view the community as overall an asset, but I think the university sometimes operates as its own entity and walks the line between public and private, and therefore can sometimes take steps without really worrying about whether or not it views the community as an asset, if it can," Temko said.

He said for example, if the university purchases the Chrysler site on South College Avenue, he hopes the university will work closely with the city to make sure there is an economic benefit for both the university and the city.

Newark Mayor Vance A. Funk III said the city and the university should take advantage of their unique relationship.

"Like every partnership, whenever there is something worth doing that we can do with the university more effectively or more efficiently, we should go together," Funk said.

He said the city and university have worked with each other to improve trash transfer within the city and university to landfills in New Castle to save both groups trips to the landfill and money. Also, the university and city police forces have collaborated on police affairs to improve their services.

When it comes to student involvement, Funk said town meetings have had limited success and it's difficult to get students involved because they come to Newark for the university and not the community, making their identity with the community not as strong as he'd like.

"It seems like you almost need an emergency to motivate the students to get involved," he said, referring to a high amount of student turnout for a security meeting the city had after the murder of student Lindsey Bonistall in 2005.

While that may be the case, Funk said he thinks the relationship between students and the community is improving, citing an increase in student involvement in city projects, such as the Community Clean-up in April and the Taste of Newark.

Temko, who recieved his master's degree from the university in January, said he thinks it's important for the university and the community to have a mutual relationship so that both sides can benefit from each other.

"I think that because the university and the Newark government can have such a profound effect on each other, it's a lot more helpful when they have a shared vision and they are both working towards that shared vision together instead of potentially working in different directions," he said.