International Town & Gown Association 
College Town Newsletter

February 23, 2017
Welcome to Dateline, a weekly newsletter
highlighting college town news around the world
In This Issue
Montreal Has Been Named as the Best City in the World for Students
BBC, by Sean Coughlan
This international ranking of university cities has seen Paris slip from first place-a position the French capital has held for four years. The Canadian city has come top of the QS Best Student Cities, a spin-off from the annu-al QS World University Rankings. It will add to sugges-tions that Canada will attract a bigger slice of the lucra-tive international student market. It also has the bene-fit of being able to offer degree courses in two big international languages, with English-speaking universities such as McGill University, and French- speaking, such as the  Université du Québec à Montréal. Entry to this league table requires cities to have at least a population of 250,000 and to be a home to at least two universities in the World University Rankings. The rankings are based on a basket of measures including quality of univer-sities, access to employers, levels of tolerance, pollution and safety.    
Editorial: Students Should Use the Off-Campus Housing Database
The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, by Staff Writers
Johns Hopkins does not provide housing for students after their sophomore year, and many students have difficulty finding a place to live after moving out of the dorms. Students attempting to find off-campus housing have the option of using an online database located on the Off-Campus Housing website. This program is spe-cifically tailored to Hopkins affiliates and requires a JHED account in order to use it. Though it is mostly used by graduate stu-dents and Hopkins staff, undergraduate students are also able to post and respond to listings. Students can search for housing by rent, number of rooms and neighborhood. In order to increase traffic to the website, The Editorial Board suggest making it more user-friendly to undergraduates by creating search options for undergraduate-only  housing. The Editorial Board also encourages widespread advertising of this service. 
University of Kentucky Wildcat Clean-Up
The UK, by Staff Writers
Wildcat Clean-Up, a new initiative at the University of Kentucky, is aiming to reduce the concentration of pol-lution around neighboring property of Commonwealth Stadium following the day of home football games in Lexington. According to the Office of Off-Campus Stu-dent Services, one of the biggest complaints from the neighborhood associations around campus is the trash buildup from tailgating superseding home football games. Over the course of the Wildcat Clean-Up the program extended to 11 streets adjacent to campus. Wildcat Clean-Up was designed to be a continuous event during the football season that takes place the Sunday after home games. During the previous fall semester, Wildcat Clean-Up had four dates to set aside for students to come clean-up trash on public property. Over the course of four dates, 50 students racked up 110 volunteer hours. The program was able to clean-up roughly 1740 pounds of litter, debris and recyclable cans.    
Mayor Myrick: No 'Silver Bullet' to Fix Housing, More Cornell Dorms Could Help
The Ithaca Voice, by Kyle Friend
The City of Ithaca's affordable housing crisis is a complicated, multifaceted problem that Mayor Myrick said cannot be solved with a "silver bullet"-one single policy or a single housing project. To solve the crisis, Myrick said, "There's got to be a many-part strategy that includes building subsidized housing, market-rate housing, student off-campus housing and on-campus housing." "It's all one market," he explained. "It's impossible to hurt one without hurting the other, and it's impossible to help one without helping the other. If we build more student housing that will help permanent resi-dents; if we built more housing for permanent residents, that will help stu-dents." Ithaca College, a residential college, houses just under seventy-five percent of its 6,000 students on campus. Over half of Cornell's about 14,000 undergraduates, on the other hand, live off-campus. 
Final Call for the Boston Town & Gown Association Regional Conference
BTGA, by Kimberly Santo
The BTGA is pleased to present Boston 360°-a one day regional conference that will highlight some of the best practices, partnerships, and evolving challenges among colleges and universities in the City of Boston. The con-ference will take place at Boston University on Tuesday, March 7, 8am-4pm. Program highlights include a key-note address from Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans, panel discussions covering town-gown partnerships and commu-nity standards, assisting international students in turbulent times, and breakout sessions covering successful fire safety campaigns, and identifying gaps in student services and building successful resources. For more infor-mation and registration, click here. We meet six times during the academic year to address off-campus housing concerns, recognize trends, and share best practices with one another in an effort to promote safe, respectful, and healthy communities for students living in off-campus housing.   
America's Public Infrastructure: A National Report Card
Town-Gown Nation News
Editorial, by Roger L. Kemp
The term "infrastructure" refers to the basic facilities and installations necessary for society to operate. These include public transportation and communication sys-tems; educational and health facilities; water, gas and electrical systems; and such miscellaneous facilities as prisons, national park structures, and other improve-ments to real property owned by higher levels of gov-ernment. The views expressed by many experts who research and write on infrastructure issues point to a general agreement on the magnitude and complexity of the problem. Little agreement exists, however, on a con-sensus of how to achieve a comprehensive nationwide solution to restoring and maintaining America's public infrastructure. One point seems clear. The necessary leadership and policy direction required to properly address this national issue must come from the highest level of government. 
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