More Places Should Be Like the Masters, Fights Over Dorms in College Towns, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of April 5 - April 11.
Note: There is a lot going on this week, as usual. I am using this link round-up to focus on stories that fell through the cracks in terms of higher ed and urbanism, rather than big national news (which I broke my own rule last week). Let me know if you have any tips, authors, or stories related to the content.
College Town NIMBY Complaints: Real or Fake?
I have been following San Diego State University’s plan to build a large student dorm to help alleviate housing stress on campus. San Diego has a massive housing shortage and rents are insanely expensive. Students are struggling to stay housed.
Yet, NIMBYs who live next to the university and future dorm have complained about the development: “I want SDSU to provide more housing on campus, but…”. The main complaints here center around possible fire danger and taxes. I find these arguments simply fall flat, and that the complaints are really just about obstruction (I’ll have more on these issues in the future).
But not all opposition to new student housing is fake. De Anza College in Cupertino, California, is planning to knock down an apartment to build student housing. Unfortunately, this development means current residents of the apartment must vacate. I can understand the frustration of the parents having to move, especially since housing prices in the entire Bay Area are astronomical.
My issue, though, is not the college trying to build using for its students nor the angry parents who are forced to move, but rather pitting these two communities against each other when the real fight is the town simply refuses to build more housing. California needs more housing. The villains aren’t college students nor parents in dumpy apartments. It is the regulations, red tape, and bureaucracy that make it impossible to build here.
One part in overcoming the housing crisis is through office-to-housing conversions. Boston has included student dorms in its official plans for these types of conversions, which can be complicated and difficult due to building dimensions. College students can better handle smaller or weirder spaces necessitated in conversions. We just cannot listen to the complaints about more college students living in these areas.
Fake College Students?
Scammers are creating fake college students to get federal financial aid. This is just another reason I favor in person education over online. It’s too easy to cheat with AI, and now we can add scamming tax dollars to the concern.
Actually, this story could be a pretty good movie. Scammer enrolls in college thinking class is online. Turns out it’s in-person and he has to go to class to get the money, ends up loving college life. Maybe it could hearken back to old screwball college comedies of the 1980s, or even mixed with a romantic comedy of the 1990s (fall in love with the TA or something).
Other News
The University of Houston lost in the NCAA March Madness basketball championship game against the University of Florida. But it is still impressive that a college that was considered a commuter school 15 years ago has reached these heights.
Speaking of sports, a football coach banned his players from TikTok dancing. Is this a freedom of expression issue? FIRE thinks so.
Drexel University vs. Food Trucks: University starts enforcing a policy against the mobile meal options. Students are unhappy. It comes down to parking (always does).
Apple is connecting with Michigan State to bring back advanced manufacturing to the US. This seems like a smarter way to bring back industry, through partnerships between our top two sectors: Silicon Valley and higher ed.
History PhD dropout offers his experience on how to make money in history. It’s always good to see successful alt-ac careers (I have an interview with another next week).
Community college shutting down its 50-year-old preschool program. These are the little cuts around the fringes that make our sector just a little worse. They add up.
Everyone is talking about a possible recession on the horizon. I have my own new recession indicator: college students are throwing fewer parties in this dorm.
Around Substack
Note: I also think it’s important to shout out some fellow Substackers who I am reading here this week. Here are a few:
Over at
, he has an article on the modern relevancy of Ray Bradbury’s The Pedestrian (1951), a short story where walking and being outside carries a stigma of mistrust. I can certainly see the parallels to today!
On a literal level, The Pedestrian mirrors contemporary cities and suburbs. Even now, you can find social media posts of police stopping or detaining people because “why are you walking?” I’ve seen several terrible ones that involve parents being arrested in front of their kids for the transgressive behavior of arguing with police who insisted that someone walking in a car-dominant area must have something sinister to hide.
The
makes the case that kids should have no screen time during the school week. Zero, nada, nothing. It bucks the trend in schools that are moving to pads and Chromebook for everything.
at has a the story of the YouTube influencer’s visit to China.I purposefully torched my high-paying job and moved to a classical charter when I saw what all-day screen use was doing to my son in middle school, where the District policy is to give a device to every child; part of the District's mission statement is that students will be "digital learners". Meanwhile, my kid would have As in everything but spend his day browsing YouTube shorts, rarely having to put in more than ten minutes of work in any single class, except P.E.
Finally… More Places Should Be Like the Masters
The Masters started in Augusta, Georgia, started this week. It is one of the major golf tournaments at a legendary venue, Augusta National Golf Club. Going to watch the Masters is a bucket list item for a lot of people. Myself, I have always been fascinated by the famous food menu that has been frozen in time for years.
Listening to some of the discourse around the course this week and I realized one of the best features of the event: no phones. That’s right, attendees going to watch the Masters must leave their phones at home. Even celebrities must follow this no-phone rule, like sports writer and Podfather Bill Simmons.
“We talk about this every time we come, the no phones thing is actually a real advantage,” said Simmons on a recent podcast. “It was a little White Lotus-ey.” All his pals on the podcast agreed.
I have heard others laud this same aspect of Augusta. People realize they like not having their phone when it is forced from them. More places should follow suit—from schools, to bars, to movie theaters—no phones allowed. Not all of them, just some of them.
Granted, most places don’t have the same cachet as the Masters. But if we start working in more and more no-phone spaces, it will naturally become part of our cultural expectations. I hope to write more on phones and our addiction to them.
I'm quickly becoming the old man yelling at clouds meme when it comes to phone use. I'm constantly telling people the internet is amazing. It is. Also, most of us seem to lack all control when it comes to our phones.
Another great read, Ryan. Thank you for devoting the time to it. I always find much that resonates and piques my interest.
Best,
Elliot