We love to talk about what we’re going to do next in London.
We’ve been ReThinking the city, trying to discover ‘Whose London?’ and, generally, community meeting ourselves toward data overload for years now. But forward momentum has been elusive. We’re a city that loves to rev its powerful engine in neutral.
Collectively, we have decided it is far easier to brainstorm and visualize than to actually do something. You get in less trouble when ideas – radical or otherwise – are left on white boards and websites.
Next up in London’s community conversation carousel: town-gown relations.
Two events land on next week’s calendar.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, the City of London’s Town and Gown Committee will hold a public meeting including presentations by London Police Chief Brad Duncan as well as Western’s and Fanshawe College’s student councils. The meeting grew out of criticism for heavy-handed tactics by London Police as part of the city’s Project LEARN initiative.
The next day, Thursday, Nov. 14, Engage London will bring together campus representatives, community members and special guests to discuss ways academic institutions partner with their community. The event is part of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada’s Open Doors, Open Knowledge national campaign on the theme of university-community engagement.
So, let the community conversations begin. Again.
I don’t mean to be so cynical here. In other locales, I have seen positive action come out of honest, occasionally rocky, meetings like these. The same will be said about these meetings, so long as they avoid the London pitfall, and become more static against the backdrop of hundreds of unresolved city conversations.
But allow me to offer some positive perspective going in.
Like many issues in this city, our town-gown relations do not need to press the reset button. We are in a good place. Let me repeat that: Despite the hand-wringing of gadflies and zingers of unnamed online commenters, both constituencies given far too much credence in this community, London is in a good place.
Admittedly, London is not today, nor ever will be, a ‘university town.’ We are a big city that will always have big-city problems; just as we are a big university that will always have big-university problems.
Our combined strength is in discussing issues – where town rubs up against gown – and acting on them quickly together.
London and Western can be a bit myopic when it comes to their problems; we tend to see ours as the worst possible scenario. But look at the town-gown messes in College Park, Md.; Durham, N.C.; Providence, R.I.; Columbus, Ohio. Soon, you realize we are Shangri-La compared to so many.
For that fact, credit the hundreds of people – inside both the city and university – having thousands of unheard conversations and taking even more unseen actions to make this a smoother partnership.
Town-gown relations are not about discovering one big, over-arching strategy. A university too aligned with its city risks becoming too provincial in its thinking, and becomes a city college more than a global institution. We know Western’s aspirations are larger than that. A city too aligned with its university risks becoming too dependent to solve its problems, offloading everything from volunteer staffing to economic development onto the university’s back. We know London needs more diversity of solutions than that.
Instead of one plan, town-gown relations are comprised of thousands of little plans that take place every day on and off campus. We have been having those conversations – and, more importantly acting upon them – for some time.
So, let’s welcome the next opportunity to discuss and act. And maybe in the process, offer a lesson for other conversations in the city to follow.