Favorite Eco-region, Best Tram Driver, Uni Merger Questions & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of Sept. 14 - Sept. 20.
Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.
Elon and Queens Merger
Elon University and Queens University of Charlotte announced that they are merging the two institutions together. The universities are both in North Carolina, and only a bit over 100 miles apart. While the announcement and news called this a “merger,” my take is that it is more of an acquisition, even if a strategic one.
In these kinds of merger cases, it is rarely two equals combining on a level footing together. Instead, one is usually much more stable and stronger. This is exactly the case with Elon and Queens. Elon has much broader name recognition nationally and has been growing, now up to 7,207 students. Conversely, Queens may have a fine name regionally, but not as much nationally, and the enrollment there has stumbled over 27% in recent years to just 1,846.
Even the last bullet point in the official announcement made it clear: “At the conclusion of the merger, Elon University will operate Queens.” This is just another case in the Age of Conquest in US higher education.
For most invested in higher ed, it is probably no longer a shock when something like this happens. But there were others who are just casuals, mainly only paying attention to college sports. This seemingly confused these kinds of fans, as there are now questions about sports programs at each school.
In the conversation, there were many who insisted that the schools would keep separate sports teams. That has technically been the company line right now. My take: not likely.
The comparisons to publics like SUNY and especially UT systems are totally misaligned with the challenges of private higher ed. It is no different than keeping two arts programs, even if both are strong (see Seattle U merging with Cornish College).
In the short term, yes, I can see both programs operating together. But as things progress, and divides between them fade, there will be a greater appetite to simply do away with the distinctions. It is about dollars and cents; finances are king of American higher ed right now since the boom times are long over.
I say that by 2030, most of the teams will be absorbed together. Then, by 2035, a decade from now, the entire Queens brand and any teams still left standing will be brought under the Elon label. They will call it Elon U Queen City Campus or something. Sorry to the Royals fans out there.
Education
New report on drops in enrollment for US higher ed argues much of the dips came from the lowest performing colleges. There was some celebration at these numbers, and I don’t totally disagree, but I will have a future article addressing the issue.
As schools are banning phones, students are rediscovering old MP3 players. I will be curious to see if this is an actual trend or just a couple of isolated social media posts.
A major legal case is coming to college football that may allow players to stay for seven or more years. I am hoping that this is not the outcome, and will have some commentary on this issue in a future post.
College football is heading to London’s Wembley Stadium for a future bowl game called the Union Jack Classic. Love the name.
The President of the University of Alabama questions the growth trajectory the institution has been on for years. “"We are asking those questions -- do we want to start thinking about slowing down our growth so we don't lose a lot of that culture?” he said. Is the end in sight for the Age of Conquest in US higher ed?
Urbanism-ish
New Waymo data suggests that self-driving cars can reduce 90% of serious crashes. Truly revolutionary.
Unfortunately, a Waymo was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash in Tempe, Arizona, near Arizona State University. But as per usual, it was not the self-driving car issue, but rather a human driver error. Tragic.
There is a new trend in architecture that some are trying to label as Neo-deco. As a big fan of Art Deco, I welcome this new label and building design.
175 Park Avenue, in New York City. Long live Neo Deco! A park in downtown Kansas City has ballooned in budget to over $100 million above the initial estimates. These kinds of ridiculous costs are a reason why the US simply cannot do good urbanism.
Japan’s sinking birthrate is now threatening its national pastime: baseball. The next Shohei Ohtani might just never have been born.
The Geography subreddit had an interesting post about “eco-regions” in the US (Wikipedia has a full breakdown). This got everyone thinking, which is your favorite? I guess I’d go with 6, as I hate the winter. But 84 was tempting me.
Around Substack
Note: I also think it’s important to stay connected to the growing Substack community. Here are a few I am reading this week:
Last week, I was feeling like I didn’t have a lot to say about the tragedies gripping the country, leaving some of the commentary to those who had clearer thoughts on the issues. One essay from the pack that particularly got my attention was from
writing in . He calls the moment an opportunity to retire the concept that words are violence.
Teach students that objectionable speech is violence and you invite them to see their own aggression as self-defense. This is the bloody fallacy we just witnessed: Accept the premise that rhetoric is a physical attack and you hand extremists a moral permission slip to answer speech with force. We need to bury this trope. Retire it—from classrooms, HR trainings, and editorials—for good.
I think his argument is poignant, though I don’t see it taking hold in the current environment.
Switching gears to escapism: as a massive Blade Runner fan, I am a sucker for anything Philip K. Dick. So I enjoyed the recent essay by
on . He draws lessons from Dick’s work onto our current AI conundrums.
If AI sees only what it can scrape, then the unscripted, the unwritten, the face-to-face becomes a civic virtue. A strategy of keeping reality alive by refusing to let it be indexed.
AI builds an endless surface world…predictive, generative, smooth. Dick’s fiction insists that the real world is fragile, glitchy, entropic, and irreducible. He warns us not to confuse the replica for the real.
The lesson is not nostalgia for a pre-digital past. It’s something sharper: a reminder that the most important parts of life are the ones that can’t be modeled.
Yes, I fully agree with this idea. More living in the physical present.
Closing Time… World’s Best Tram Driver
I had no idea there was a World Tram Driver Championship. The first annual event just took place in Vienna on September 13. There are various events and challenges. For instance, the drivers must stop closest to the point without hitting the barrier. Another contest has them trying not to spill water in a bowl attached to the front of the tram. There is even a bowling-like event.
It is a wild, weird sport, but I think it looks like a lot of fun. It also promotes good and responsive public transit. These are things that Europe is much more known for than us in the US. We were still represented in the contest, though.
The US placed 21st in the competition, which wasn’t last place! Croatia ended up as the caboose at 25th. The home team Austria won the gold, with Poland and Norway taking the silver and bronze, respectively.
Hey, I think this should be an Olympic sport. Why not? Get the people excited about public transit again. After all, there used to be a town planning competition in the Olympics. There should just be a slate of urbanism competitions in the Games.
It's hard to pick one eco-region for the rest of one's life. I strongly recommend 83 in summer and fall but definitely not in winter unless you are a skier!