I’ve posted cards about Whitewater from earlier times, but it’s a card from Iowa that I’ve embedded today.
Imagine someone passing along a card from Ames, Iowa, site of a recent International (!) Town and Gown Association meeting on sustainable partnerships. Here’s that recent find:
The postcard that I’ve embedded is a parody, but the actual description of the conference, from Whitewater’s city manager, is no parody. It’s more like a self-parody.
Here, from his early June Weekly Report, is what Whitewater’s city manager had to say about the conference:
Presentation at International Town and Gown Best Practices Conference
I had the opportunity and privilege of making a presentation at the 5th Annual Best Practices in Building University/City Relations Conference at Iowa State University earlier this week. Jan Bilgen of the UW-Whitewater Office of Career and Leadership Development and I spoke about the Whitewater Technology Park and the Whitewater Innovation Center.
Our presentation focused on how quickly this project has come together primarily due to the extraordinary partnerships that have been developed between the city and its Community Development Authority and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Attendees at our session told us that they were very impressed with the speed at which this project has evolved. There were representatives from Michigan State University, Florida State University, Northwest Missouri State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Iowa State University, Clemson University among others at our session. We received many favorable comments and requests for additional information on three items: (1) how our new University Technology Park is organized on the principle of shared governance; (2) information on the green and sustainable restrictive covenants that have been developed for the park; and (3) specific architectural information on the Innovation Center itself.
In addition to making our presentation, Jan Bilgen and I were able to attend a number of educational sessions on improving and building University and community relations. There was considerable sharing with both City and University officials on some of our ideas for future projects and initiatives that might bring our Town and Gown relationship even further in the future.
Of the requests for additional information that Brunner and Bilgen received, not one involved the kind of businesses that will locate in the park, how many will be private businesses (unlike the anchor tenant), how many new, private jobs will be created, etc. Those are the significant and substantial issues about any tech park. Instead, they received peripheral requests about less important concerns. Say what one wants about the attendees at Brunner and Bilgen’s talk, but at least those attendees didn’t waste time asking for follow up on significant questions for which there are no clear answers, anyway.
I’m not sure what to make of the paltry list of attendees at Brunner and Bilgen’s presentation. One school represents the host university, and another (Clemson) is the headquarters of the International Town & Gown Association.
(International, I’d guess, because someone from Canada once joined. That’s silly, and it’s like a tiny airport claiming it’s an international airport because a private plane from Canada once crash-landed on a runway.)
I wouldn’t imagine that too many ordinary residents were able to travel out-of-state to attend a pricey conference of sundry universities. There’s a membership application to the ITGA available online, but it’s not focused on ordinary people, any more than the conference was. The group wants better town & gown relationships, but a conference like this is mostly a few self-important public employees talking to other self-important public employees. Actual conditions in a town are unaffected positively by such bureaucrats.
I have no idea if Whitewater’s attendees enjoyed any of the special events at the conference, each and every one useless to our city during a deep recession, but surely fun for participants nonetheless:
- a reception and walking tour (“Regular shuttles will run between the conference hotels and campus to ensure attendees can participate whenever they arrive!” — so much for “green” living),
- dinner and a concert at one of the “most beautiful locations at Iowa State University. The evening will feature a unique reception and dinner amidst the12 distinctive gardens and lake that make up this beautiful venue. Situated on 14 acres, the conservatory will provide a backdrop to this great networking. Enjoy wandering about the unique rose gardens, which will be at their peak at the time of this event.”),
- or a downtown reception with a concert (“To complete your town and gown experience, on the last night we will take attendees to the Ames Main Street Cultural District. Attendees can take part in a favorite community outing, enjoying one of the first Band shell concerts of the summer, or wander through our downtown, experiencing the unique retail and dining opportunities that are available to them. A reception will be held at the Ames Community Center, conveniently located in the Cultural District. Shuttles will be offered until late that evening, to allow attendees enough time to not miss a single location!’)
Even if Whitewater’s attendees didn’t visit these events, it’s an embarrassment to attend a conference where people waste money on these events. Learning about city-school relations requires meeting with common people, not attending fancy events, or associating with fancy people who think these events tell them anything about ordinary life. There’s no investigation here; it’s just entertainment. No, and no again — there’s nothing useful to be learned in these vanity excursions.
For prior FREE WHITEWATER coverage of the grossly wasteful project that the Innovation Center/Tech park is shaping up to be, several posts are available in their own category.