Just a month into his City Hall office, London Mayor Matt Brown sees positive town-and-gown relations as driving the city’s evolution from a traditional manufacturing centre into its still undefined future.
Western News reporter Adela Talbot sat down with the mayor to discuss how he sees Western’s role as a partner in the city’s transition.
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The city is at a brink of change right now. You’ve inherited the helm of a city that’s – admittedly – seen some turbulent times and you’ve inherited a new council. Where does Western fit into this shift, into a new vision of the city’s future?
I think Western fits very clearly in the vision of London – past, present and future. Western and all of our academic institutions are what make London the community that it is – from an economic perspective, from a social perspective and everything between.
There are so many economic partnerships we can establish between the university and the city. One is a partnership I’m particularly excited about and it’s the Medical Innovation and Commercialization Network. It’s a partnership between the city, Robarts (Research Institute), Lawson (Health Research Institute), Western and, of course, St. Joseph’s Health Care and London Health Sciences Centre. It is the kind of program that has all partners working together, on projects that can be done particularly well in London, that can drive our economy forward and provide benefits to all partners.
Our community’s economy, for a long time, was driven and defined by production. How is Western contributing to a redefinition of the city?
As we pivot – we are in the second decade of this century – toward the types of industries that are going to drive our economy forward, it is certainly largely knowledge-based. It’s an incredible benefit to this community that we have Western as part of London as we transition into what’s next.
How does the town-gown relationship contribute to the quality of life for people who live in London? How does the friction between the two manifest itself in the day-to-day?
As past chair of the Town & Gown Committee for many years, I had the benefit of working with all of the stakeholders from a town-gown focus – with the residents, with our emergency services, with the university, with student leadership and, of course, with the city partners. There’s a real benefit to that process because there’s a real benefit in working together on solutions, identifying issues and collaborating together to make sure there is good alignment of expectations.
We’ve had public meetings with police, city council, students and residents of neighbourhoods adjacent to Western and Fanshawe because of tensions that sometimes come between the city and the university. How are issues like these working toward resolution?
The best antidote for tension is dialogue. That’s exactly what’s happening; it’s exactly what continues to happen.
As we work through strategies to address those tensions, everyone has a role to play and it is certainly a community-based model that’s not just specifically based in enforcement. That’s a key message we’ve heard from our students and our student leaders. We need to have, certainly, education. We need to have involvement, collaboration and, of course, enforcement as part of that picture as well.
What kind of gains do you want to see in the relationship between City Hall and Western?
I’ll steal a line from student leadership at Western. (Laughs.) I’ll back up and borrow a line. I really want to see us blur the lines, blur the boundaries between the city and Western. We should be seen as synonymous.
How would you ‘blur’ these lines?
The Town & Gown (Committee) is a great start – placing student leaders on our advisory boards to help guide decisions as we shape our policy as a community. They also help to develop roots. For students at Western who are coming to school from other areas around the country and around the world, I really want them to see themselves as having a place in this community moving forward, after graduation, and becoming long-term residents of London.
What are you most excited about?
What I’m most excited about is our strategic plan we are developing as a council. These are ‘big ideas’ we can focus on, that we can rally around, that we can leverage to move our agenda forward. Part of that strategic plan is going to include specific and important improvements to public transit. I know I’ve heard from my conversations with students, student leaders, staff and faculty at Western, and other academic institutions, that that is a key priority of theirs as well.
As Western is looking to internationalize the campus community, the student body and the student experience, what does this mean for London, in your view?
I see the university as not doing one (localizing) or the other (internationalizing), but both. As we reach out and attract students from around the world to one of the best academic institutions in this country, it’s a positive thing for this city. When I meet with students who come from other areas around the world, I always encourage them to get as connected as they possibly can here with London and with the region. I let them know that I hope they plan to stay over the long term.