University Business, by Marc Whitt

College towns across the country may be sitting on an economic and tourism marketing gold mine in the form of their local institution's "tourist attractions." Consider the thousands of people who go to a school's concerts, theatrical performances, athletic events, museums, and conferences, not to mention those visiting for home-coming, family weekends and daily admissions visits. A steady flow of college town "tourists" directly benefits the local economy with dollars spent on dining, shopping, entertainment and hotels. According to the U.S. Travel Association, spending by domestic and international trav-elers grew 4.7 percent to $928 billion in 2014. This attraction can influence a college town's ability to recruit business and research.  With cooperation, dialogue, planning and execution, your college town's tourism program will help make your institution, and its host town, a desired destination.  

ColoradoDaily.com, by Erica Meltzer

The University of Colorado-Boulder has worked hard to shed its "party school" reputation, and students who violate rules on drugs and alcohol can face con-sequences on-campus and off. At the same time, university law enforcement is trying to take a balanced approach to enforcement, referring more cases to the Office of Student Conduct and fewer cases to the Boulder Municipal Court. Students facing a violation of the Student Code of Conduct will receive a hearing wherein a university conduct officer reviews the facts and decides whether the student should be held responsible. Each case is decided on its merits. The Office of Off-Campus Housing also provides a party registration system. Students who register their events get a warning call from dispatch when the police receive a noise complaint and have 20 minutes to shut down the party to avoid an interaction with police. 

Gazzenet.com, by Scott Merzbach

With thousands of college students earning degrees at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College and Hampshire College, Amherst has an opportunity to capitalize on the skills they bring to the workforce, according to the town's first economic development director. "We have great colleges and a university that have a lot of vibrant people graduating from them," said Geoffrey Kravitz. "I want to look at the type of graduates who are coming out, and help them find the jobs of today and tomorrow." The economic development director position was included in this year's budget by the late Town Manager John Musante, who long supported the need to have a point person for promoting economic development. Kravitz said that with the right approach, Amherst can have a robust economy, and an enhanced tax base, with job seekers flocking to town, while still preserving its character.  

KBOI2.com, by Deni Hawkins

Boise State University is planning a multi-phase expan-sion over the next 30 years, and it will likely change nearby neighborhoods. Boise State's 2015 Campus Mas-ter Plan includes three phases, the first of which should take shape in the next 10 years. In that time frame, the university plans to build an Honors College on campus, and also make University Drive more pedestrian friendly. The expansion plan is being based on growth projections for the university, which currently is home to some 22,000 students. In the next two or three decades, spokesman Greg Hahn says Boise State could have anywhere from 30,000 to 35,000 students. While the projections are still far off, BSU has already started having dialogue with neighbors in areas south of campus. Hahn said the expansion into the neighborhood is still decades away and there is still room for change during that time period.    

NYTimes, by Ronda Kaysen

A block from Drexel University, a glassy new rental building offers residents a roof deck with a heated salt-water pool, a fire pit and outdoor televisions, amenities that would make for a raucous college party, if college students could live there. But, the 28-story tower was not built to house any of Drexel's 16,900 under-graduates. Nor is it intended for the 10,400 under-graduates studying at nearby University of Pennsylvania. Instead, it aims to attract young professionals, office workers and young doctors, to live in University City, a West Philadelphia neighborhood, home to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Near college campuses around the country, developers have begun building luxury housing for staff, not students. These developers have discovered that students are no longer the only ones who want to live near campus. 

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