community-based planning

University Expansion and Community Involvement: Balancing Town and Gown

Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 04:33pm
Submitted by Jonathan Sills

Rockefeller University hosted last night's panel discussion When the Big Get Bigger: New York's Universities and Their Neighborhoods, which featured James Traub of The New York Times, Judith Rodin of the Rockefeller Foundation (former President of the University of Pennsylvania), Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, Hilary Ballon Vice-Chancellor of New York University, and Kent Barwick, President of the Municipal Art Society.

The panel was held against the back-drop of the expansion of several of the city's large universities into their neighborhoods - New York University in the vicinity of Washington Square, and Columbia University in Manhattanville/West Harlem. Much of the discussion centered on how these proposals should be managed with community involvement with Judith Rodin offering the University of Pennsylvania's campus expansion as an example. Issues of whether universities were obliged to relate to their neighbors in a certain way, given the linkages between the two, and the sense of mission that universities are there to "do good," were addressed, as was the point that even with a great deal of money and collaboration consensus over the development might not be possible.

A lively Q & A session followed with the audience posing some serious questions to the panelists. Click "post new comment" below to tell us what you thought of the discussion.

Audio Available
To listen to the panel discussion in full on your computer or to download to your mp3 player, click here. A video podcast of the event will be available to watch online on Friday.

The panel was covered by AtlanticYardsReport.com and NY Metro.