In the early 2000s, the relationship between Durham and the University of NH was, in a word, ugly. Town officials were exasperated by hard-partying students and drunken bashes that sometimes erupted into riots involving hundreds of kids. School leaders felt Durham was stonewalling progress, deliberately making it difficult to obtain zoning or permit approvals and refusing to compromise with the university. “Durham and UNH were at each other’s throats,” says Town Manager Todd Selig, who has held that job since 2001. “There was a very high degree of mistrust, an extreme lack of meaningful conversation. Things were at an all-time low.”
Today, town and university officials describe a different relationship, calling it “harmonious” and “a healthy marriage.” Meetings between the two sides are cordial. The town is even enjoying an economic boost from a spate of new student housing, and a number of joint projects are in the works between the university and the town, including plans for a new hotel in downtown Durham.
This roller coaster relationship is emblematic of the challenging bond between schools and their host communities. In NH, college towns like Durham, Hanover, Keene and Plymouth are tasked with balancing the needs and demands of residents with those of the large colleges in their backyards. Disputes can flare up and smolder for months, such as in Keene, where the city and Keene State College (KSC) are still smarting from the aftermath of last year’s Pumpkin Festival, when an alcohol-infused riot involving college-age troublemakers led to the cancellation of the long-standing civic tradition. “Our relationship has been more like a divorce situation,” says Ruth Sterling, a long-time resident who was the coordinator for last year’s pumpkin festival. “What happened in Keene was an affront to everyone.”
The Keene Pumpkin Festival, seen here in 2012, was cancelled after the 2014 riots,
led by college-age troublemakers. The festival has since been relocated to Laconia.
Photo by Mickey Pullen
In Manchester, though, the NH Institute of Art (NHIA) recently won kudos from the Union Leader editorial page and various community leaders for its plans to transform the historic St. Anne Church in the city’s center into a youth arts education lab. Brady Sullivan Properties gifted the shuttered church to NHIA in 2009. The Institute also recently received $367,250 in Community Development Finance Authority tax credits for the $600,000 project.
The NH Institute of Art plans to transform the historic St. Anne Church in downtown
Manchester into a youth arts education lab. Photo courtesy of NHIA
Economic Engines
As in other college towns nationwide, NH’s colleges and universities play a significant role in economic development, including serving as major employers. UNH is Durham’s largest employer and attracts thousands of visitors each year for hockey games, live performances and professional development conferences. In Manchester, home to several growing colleges, including Southern NH University, the NH Institute of Art and the newly-renovated UNH-Manchester campus, the increasing student population has helped create new demand for housing and affordable restaurants. In Keene, KSC President Anne Huot estimates the economic impact of the college on the city of Keene at $165 million annually.
In Hanover, Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering and Geisel School of Medicine have helped fuel a high-tech economy, drawing tech companies and medical product innovation to the Hanover region or spinning out companies from research conducted there. “We’ve seen a number of start-up companies emerging in the Upper Valley … garage concepts that have grown into very robust companies and great employers,” says Julia Griffin, Hanover’s town manager. “That’s a direct result of the intellectual community here.”
A Constant Negotiation
Economic benefits aside, sharing a zip code comes with plenty of challenges for both sides. One common bone of contention is money—who is going to pay for what services, and how much. In NH, public universities like UNH and Keene State College are not required to pay taxes, so it’s up to the towns to negotiate agreements with the schools for financial support.
In Durham, UNH has its own police force but pays about two-thirds of the costs for shared services like water and wastewater treatment, and about half the cost of the fire department, says Selig. The school also reimburses the town annually about $240,000 for things like additional police services and road and bridge maintenance. In Keene, city officials recently negotiated an agreement for KSC to pay about $3 million over five years toward services like police, fire and court costs. But some say that despite the financial agreements, the presence of a college still places an unfair burden on town resources.
“Most people in the city think they need to do more,” says Keene City Councilor Kris Roberts, especially providing more financial support for police services, he says, as the college does not have its own police force as UNH does.
As a private college, Dartmouth must pay taxes on dorms and dining halls, which goes a long way toward keeping town-gown relationship positive, says Griffin, the town manager. Public colleges do not have to pay these taxes. “We get a lot of tax revenue from Dartmouth. It make our lives easier and nicer—we’re able to do things in our community because Dartmouth pays taxes on its residential property,” such as creating a high-quality school district, helping to maintain town services and keeping general property taxes lower, she says. Griffin estimates the property taxes in Hanover are 15 to 20 percent lower than they would be without Dartmouth’s contribution.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t conflicts. The town frequently turns to Dartmouth for additional money, which can create some tension, says the college’s executive vice president, Richard Mills. “As the largest taxpayer in town, when Hanover needs resources, we’re obviously top of mind, but on our end, we’re trying to keep costs down and tuition to a reasonable level,” he says.
Money also becomes an issue whenever a college wants to expand or alter an agreement with the community. Sometimes it works out favorably for both sides. In Durham, the town council approved a zoning change about eight years ago to allow developers to build more student housing, provided they reserve a certain percentage for commercial use, says Durham Town Councilor Kitty Marple, a change that led to many new properties springing up in town and an expanded tax base.
Other times, however, it can get complicated: if a public university like UNH or Keene wants to add a building or expand, that means less taxable property for the town. “Keene was a small campus, but now the campus has expanded … that’s prime real estate right on Main Street,” says Roberts.
Growing Pains
Conflicts can arise even when the college does pay taxes. In Hanover, Dartmouth pays taxes, but the town still pushes back sometimes on expansion plans in order to protect the integrity of the surrounding neighborhoods, Griffin says. “They’re pretty demanding in terms of what they expect of the town, what they expect to do in terms of planning and on the zoning front,” she says. “We understand that Dartmouth is an Ivy League institution that has a reputation to maintain … we’re trying to support Dartmouth’s desire to maintain that reputation, while making sure we’re adhering to local needs, and those two things don’t always mesh.”
In Durham, town and school officials have found some compromises so the college can expand in a way that also benefits the town. One example is the new Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. The university originally planned to put the building on the west side of campus, far from downtown. But town officials pointed out that UNH hosts many conferences and business leaders, so a location near downtown could be more economically advantageous for the town and make a better impression on visitors. Ultimately, the university agreed and built the new college in the heart of campus on Garrison Avenue, within walking distance of the shops and restaurants.
The Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of NH.
Photo by Anton Grassi, ESO Photographics
The town and school had a similar discussion more recently about the future location for a new arts center, says Selig, ultimately compromising on a spot within walking distance of downtown to help encourage visitors to visit local businesses before or after a show.
Those compromises were only able to happen because of the hard-won trust between the university and the town, Selig says, who attributes the turnaround in the relationship between Durham and UNH over the last 15 years to a sincere commitment on both sides to communicate, be honest and compromise. “Our relationship with the town of Durham is very important to us,” states Chris Clement, UNH’s vice president for finance and administration. “As in any relationship there are challenges, but we are committed to working through them together.”
That’s not to say things are always rosy in Durham. In 2013, tensions flared after UNH announced plans to close its outdoor pool and end its long-standing agreement allowing town residents to use the pool. The plan struck a nerve with residents, many of whom used the pool and saw it as a favorite community gathering place. “There were some hard feelings about that, and some residents still harbor those feelings,” Selig says. UNH has since announced plans to build a new $5 million outdoor pool open to UNH and the town.
Clashes Over Conduct
While money is a constant source of conflict for college towns, few challenges strain the town-gown relationship like student conduct—especially when it involves underage drinking.
Though both KSC president Huot and Keene Mayor Kendall Lane describe the relationship between the city and the college as generally positive and agree that both sides are committed to a good working relationship, issues with student behavior in the past few years have sparked tension and some resentment between the college and residents.
City Councilor Roberts says the problems with KSC students go far beyond the pumpkin festival incident, when hundreds of kids (not all KSC students it should be noted) swarmed the streets, throwing bottles, setting fires and uprooting street signs. Chief among the chronic problems he listed: underage alcohol sales, drug sales, sexual assault, noise violations, and landlords and city officials who turn a blind eye while students jam more than the allowed number of residents into apartments. He lives in the heart of an off-campus neighborhood filled with students and says he sees a constant flow of unruly, drunken kids staggering past his door. “Every Thursday and Friday night my wife asks why we haven’t moved yet,” he says, adding that he’s frustrated the city and the college aren’t doing more to curb underage drinking and crack down on wild parties.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Sterling, the pumpkin festival coordinator: “If we continue to tolerate unacceptable behavior, we are teaching young people that anything goes. What we need to teach (students) is how to fit into civilized community life … I hold the college completely responsible for everything students do—good and bad.”
Huot says its important to put the problems in context. “There is not a college or university that exists in any town or city that isn’t wrestling with these problems,” she says, adding the college is addressing student behavior, including hiring drug and alcohol counselors, adding a full-time campus-community liaison and more on-campus housing, and asking an expert to review its student code of conduct to increase accountability. She also says the college took responsibility for student roles in the pumpkin festival riot; As a result, 170 students were suspended, expelled, fined or otherwise sanctioned, and KSC paid $30,000 towards the cost of overtime fees fro
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