Write for College Towns this Summer, RIP Hostel Common Room, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of May 19 - May 26.
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.
Write for Summer School at College Towns
Graduation is in the rearview mirror, Memorial Day weekend is now behind us, and it’s getting hot outside; it is the official start of the summer. School’s out. Rejoice, teachers and students alike (sorry to those not in education).
It was a strong academic year for College Towns. I have continued my publishing schedule, and the site has gotten some media attention beyond just the Substack community. A recent Inside Higher Ed article, “Second Acts for Closed Campuses,” quoted me and my work here on shuttering college campuses. They also used some of my photos from my work, which I love sharing.
Ryan Allen, a professor of comparative and international education and leadership and author of the College Towns newsletter, has crisscrossed the country in recent years to visit closed campuses, traveling thousands of miles for a book he’s writing on the subject.
I want to keep this momentum up over the summer. One way to do that is to open up College Towns as a platform for other authors. I’m dubbing this call for articles the “Summer School at College Towns” series. Last year, I had some amazing guest posts from all walks of life and perspectives. We have had guest posts from former bus drivers on college town transit systems, professors and researchers on issues in higher ed and housing, and other writers on reviving dead malls.
I am broadly interested in issues at the intersections of education and urbanism, the theme of College Towns. So if you are interested in publishing something a little bit different that might not have a home elsewhere, my DMs and email are open (ryanmallen555 at gmail.com). I can work with you to craft an article or idea. Here are some things I would be interested in covering:
Local issues in urbanism.
Commutes to school.
Colleges building housing.
Movies/ TV through urbanism and education.
Stories from studying/ living abroad.
Reach out if you want to be a part of Summer School at College Towns. And since it’s the start of summer, I remind you to rewatch the greatest end-of-school-year movie of all time, Dazed and Confused. Then check out my article on the education and urbanism of the film. It is an all-time classic.
The Education and Urbanism of 'Dazed and Confused'
Dazed and Confused is a 1993 movie that depicts the final days of the school year back in 1976, the US Bicentennial. It has become a cult classic because of its legendary cast, soundtrack, and overall vibe.
Links I’m Reading This Week
Education
Alabama has a program to fully cover housing and childcare for student moms in university. This is the kind of policy we need to grapple with the birthrate issues.
Michigan buys a dying college campus. The Age of Conquest marches on!
Student housing portfolio sells for almost a billion dollars. That’s 12 properties with 7,578 beds across 12 universities.
Texas State U is constructing a $280 million high-rise dorm project. The university has aggressive growth targets, hoping to go from 44K to 50K by 2030.
And if you think student housing is lucrative, another firm has recently expanded senior housing to the tune of $5.4 billion.
This gives me an idea: new way for colleges to survive? Become a senior home.
Tulane backs away from student housing proposal that would have knocked down a dumpy post-war sprawl development. The university would have preserved the vintage sign and allowed the diner to operate on the first floor.
UC Berkeley law school enacts a big ban on AI. Are these restrictions too strict?
Wharton professor sounds the alarm bells that so many high school students reach out to him to do research. This kind of thing is a farce, agreed. It is mostly about padding college application stats, not real research.
Anand Sanwal@asanwalWharton Professor warns the high school strivers with a sudden "interest" in research Excellent sheep doing what excellent sheep do12:02 PM · May 20, 2026 · 18.3K Views12 Replies · 17 Reposts · 179 LikesChristian colleges think Trump’s new policy is an existential threat. These changes to higher ed are not just hurting the Harvards and Columbias.
Sam’s Club in Shanghai is selling Harvard-branded backpacks. The strongest American brand in the world is a university.
Urbanism-ish
LA and Orange County, where I live, have the lowest rates of young homebuyers in the country. Previous generations pulled the ladder up from behind them.
Former IBM offices in LA are being retrofitted into housing. Good, more of this.
I used to be skeptical that golf cars could be usefulness for good urbanism. But Jeffery Tompkins runs through the advantages that they bring. I have changed my mind and see their utility.
Singapore is going through its own kind of social and cultural transition of the urban form via Kai at Singapore Samizat. I was taken by how similar these yearnings for nostalgia are to what is happening in the US.
Pew reports that a larger portion of websites are no longer available. Sad. At least there is a new digital graveyard for lost websites and apps. Fun to explore.
Pew Research Center@pewresearchThe recent removal of FiveThirtyEight's archive is a reminder of how fleeting digital content can be. Our research found 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible a decade later. pewresearch.org/data-labs/2024…
7:44 PM · May 18, 2026 · 56.4K Views6 Replies · 157 Reposts · 315 LikesOn the flip side, I saw this interesting story on how print magazines can work if they are hyperlocal from Simon Owens. Maybe it’s not print that is dead, but the Internet.
Closing Time… Did Phones Kill the Hostel Common Room?
I saw this question posed on r/solotravel on Reddit. The user was lamenting the lack of social interactions happening at the hostel where they were staying. “Socializing in hostel common room is slowly dying?” they asked.
My last night here at the hostel and I thought "oh why not stay a while in the common room and have a chit-chat with other fellow travelers. Lo and behold! Everyone is on their phones like literally every single soul in the common room! After half an hour of" dead silence", I decided to just give up, finished my tea and went back to my room.
A lot of users agreed with the thread. “I’m new to solo travel and this is the only experience I had in hostels. It’s good to know I’m not alone,” agreed another user with the most upvotes in the thread. Others, however, suggested that travelers should “sometimes you need to make the first step.” Some tips on the thread to help lubricate socializations are, no surprise, through alcohol:
If the hostel isn’t lame and allows outside drinks, posting up with a bottle and a deck of cards is one of the easiest ways to make friends
Buy a case of beer or box of wine and everyone who walks in offer them one (if you can afford it). Has worked for me and there is a few people other people tend to want to join in. Also smoking areas are good to meet people but don’t start smoking.
Reading this as there’s 5 dudes pregaming in my room and I’m laying in bed obviously about to sleep 🤣
I will say that I used to love staying at hostels when I was younger, especially when I was traveling solo. However, with age, I do not frequent them as much anymore, as my wife and I have raised our standards since our grad school days. I will say that we stayed in a hostel in Seattle’s Chinatown last summer. It was fun! And we hung out late one night in the common room, socializing with guests from around the world. Bringing some beers certainly helped, confirming the tips in the subreddit thread.
So is this something that you have noticed during your travels? Have phones killed the hostel common room? Or are we all just collectively getting older and doing this kind of thing less with age? Tell me what you think in the comments.
