A mock business card designed using Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.

Documentary looking at the implications of a Marine troop recall in 2007.  Parts 2 and 3 after the jump.

Local community groups met with Syracuse University officials last December to seek ways of improving the quality of life for students and local residents living in off-campus neighborhoods.

At her first “Town Hall” meeting, held in the Goldstein Student Center, Chancellor Nancy Cantor outlined her plan for an East Neighborhood [...]]]> By Alison Harding
Published: Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Local community groups met with Syracuse University officials last December to seek ways of improving the quality of life for students and local residents living in off-campus neighborhoods.

At her first “Town Hall” meeting, held in the Goldstein Student Center, Chancellor Nancy Cantor outlined her plan for an East Neighborhood Task Force that would work with Syracuse city administrators, students and rental property owners to examine issues in the neighborhood, which is heavily populated with SU students.

One of the main goals of the new task force is to make living off-campus safer and more convenient for students by creating a hotline for non-emergency neighborhood complaints. Another is creating a list of landlord profiles to help students.

About 34 percent of undergraduate students choose not to live in university-owned residences. A good portion of these students lives in the east side of the city, said Laura M. Madelone, Director of the Office of Off-Campus Student Services.

Neighborhood groups have also suggested that the university look into creating alternative student housing. Additional student housing on North Campus could help alleviate the heavy traffic and parking problems.

“Living off-campus provides students with the experience of living in a real community, which they will have to do as soon as they graduate,” said Henry Lewis, president of the Southeast University Neighborhood Association and a Lancaster Avenue resident.

He believes that both the university and the community offer positive assets to each other, and should work together to improve relations.

Starke Donnally, a current board member of the Wescott East Neighborhood Association and former president, said other problems arise when irresponsible landlords improperly divide homes meant for single families, leave them vacant and stop maintaining them.

The result is unsightly properties that reflect poorly on the neighborhood, Donally said. Apartments occupied by several students also cause traffic congestion and parking problems because each resident has their own car.

Donnally said he enjoys attending public events at the university and wishes that students would take advantage of the many events the Wescott neighborhood offers, such as the Wescott Community Fair, held in the fall each year.

Other provisions for the task force include Neighborhood Safety Patrol enforcement, an organized collaboration between Syracuse Police and the Department of Public Safety, as well as a more strict approach to quality of life code enforcement issues. These include snow and trash removal and the number of students per household, according to the Office of Government Relations’ minutes.

Crimes such as burglary and theft are common in the neighborhood because students are not educated about the precautions they should be such as locking doors when living in a city, Lewis said.

New York law states that only five non-related individuals can inhabit the same residence.

Another crucial issue that both students and neighbors would like to see addressed is snow removal.

“Students don’t have time to shovel the sidewalks before walking to class,” said Erin Thompson, a junior child and family studies major who lives on Lancaster Avenue. “We have to walk in the streets because the sidewalks are covered.”

The taskforce will seek to address these problems by revitalizing the University-Community Partnership as a problem-solving group that facilitates communication within the community. The UCP will also research problems regarding such issues as maintenance, parking and rentals.

Another common interest between students and area residents is strengthening the sense of community in the neighborhood.

“It’s nice having families live on your street. It’s a real neighborhood, with more than just college students,” said Thompson.

Lewis also feels that this interaction, along the vein of Cantor’s getting-off-the-hill theme, is important.

While the meeting was seen by many as the first step in a long process, it is clear that everyone is optimistic that there will be more positive interaction between the university and the local community in the near future, said Donnally.

“A better neighborhood means a better university, and better university means a better neighborhood,” Lewis said.

Read at the Daily Orange