A New England College Town

A new perspective on the relationships among colleges, universities, and the communities with which they are now partnering. Colleges and universities have always had interesting relationships with their external communities, whether they are cities, towns, or something in between. In many cases, they are the main economic driver for their regions—State College, Pennsylvania, or Raleigh, North Carolina, for example—and in others, they exist side by side with thriving industries. In The New American College Town, James Martin, James E. Samels & Associates provide a practical guide for planning a new kind of American college town—one that moves beyond the nostalgia-tinged stereotype to achieve collaborative objectives. What exactly is a college town in America today? Examining the broad range of partnerships transforming campuses and the communities around them, the book opens by detailing twenty characteristics of new American college towns. Subsequent chapters invite presidents, provosts, planners, mayors, architects, and association directors to share their views on how college town relationships are shaping new generations of students and citizens. The book tackles urban and rural institutions, as well as community colleges, and closes with predictions about what college towns will look like in twenty-five years. Contributors include presidents from Lehigh, Portland State, New Jersey City, and Connecticut College, along with five college town mayors and the current or former executive directors from the International Town-Gown Association, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and others. The book also traces how town-gown relations are expanding into innovative areas nationally and internationally, moving beyond familiar student life programs and services to hundred-million-dollar downtown developments. The first comprehensive, single-volume resource designed for leaders on both sides of these conversations, The New American College Town includes action plans, lessons learned, and pitfalls to avoid in developing transformative relationships between colleges and their extended communities. Contributors: Robert C. Andringa, Aaron Aska, Beth Bagwell, Katherine Bergeron, Kelly A. Cherwin, Phillip DiChiara, Lorin Ditzler, Mauri A. Ditzler, Kevin E. Drumm, Erin Flynn, Michael Fox, Joel Garreau, Susan Henderson, Andrew W. Hibel, Patrick Hyland, Jr., Jay Kahn, James Martin, Miguel Martinez-Saenz, Fred McGrail, Kim Nehls, Krisan Osterby, Tracee Reiser, Stuart Rothenberger, Kate Rousmaniere, James E. Samels, Rick Seltzer, John D. Simon, Jefferson A. Singer, Allison Starer, Wim Wiewel, Eugene L. Zdziarski II

Throughout its history, New England College has been recognized for innovative academic programs and leadership in experiential education. Founded in 1946 to offer educational opportunities to veterans eager to return to the workforce, the college pioneered an accelerated and demanding three-year degree program, unique at that time. From the earliest years to the present day, the faculty has included practitioners active in their fields and fostered learning partnerships with external organizations. In 1971, the college acquired a British campus and became one of the first American institutions to offer students a full four-year degree program outside of the United States, an innovation in cross-cultural experiential education. In recent years, the college has effectively utilized technological advancements to extend the reach of its creative and supportive learning community, while still challenging individuals to transform themselves and their world, maintaining a curriculum focused on experiential learning, and fostering collaborative relationships among members of the community.

Pulitzer Prize Winner: “A meticulous and remarkably detailed account of the early government and social organization of the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts.” —Time In addition to drawing on local records from Sudbury, Massachusetts, the author of this classic work, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History, traced the town’s early families back to England to create an outstanding portrait of a colonial settlement in the seventeenth century. He looks at the various individuals who formed this new society; how institutions and government took shape; what changed—or didn’t—in the movement from the Old World to the New; and how those from different local cultures adjusted, adapted, competed, and cooperated to plant the seeds of what would become, in the century to follow, a commonwealth of the United States of America. “An important and interesting book . . . to the student of institutions, even to the sociologist, as well as to the historian.” —The New England Quarterly

This book chronicles the intersection of chaplaincy, autopathography (illness narratives), and stigmatized illness through the observations and stories of a chaplain working at a facility for people with HIV and AIDS. Trained as both an ethnographer and a chaplain, Audrey Elisa Kerr uses memoir to bridge the relationship between caregiver and patient, and allows stories of marginality to frame both her patients’ stories and her own.

In this “excellent” novel of “rare understanding” from a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, culture shock consumes a young Harvard couple in Los Angeles (The New York Times). When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. After losing his fellowship, he is out of work and one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career by taking what he considers to be an unsuitable job, he finds a temporary position at the Nutting Research and Development Corporation in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west among the beatniks and Hollywood hippies. The only thing holding him back is his wife. Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. Bogged down by her allergies and crumbling marriage, she seeks out a shrink, who surprises and transforms her. While Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find that West Coast pleasures can be quite a lot of fun. The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs “writes coolly and wickedly” of freedom and self-discovery in this witty novel (The New Yorker). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.

Universities in Decline examines the declining role of universities in policy generation and analyzes the increasing political influence of Washington-based institutions. This provocative new book identifies such Washington think tanks and policy shops as AEI, CSIS, and the National War College as the main generators of policy incentives.

Describes major tourist attractions in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, providing expanded coverage of Hartford, Boston, and Cape Cod.