
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995                   TAG: 9503210102
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

RU-CITY DIALOGUE FRIENDLY

The perennial divisions between college students and city residents were the focus of a freewheeling, but congenial, debate that might have set the stage for a formal town-gown dialogue set for next month. At Monday's meeting of the City-University Joint Advisory Commission on Public Affairs, campus and city representatives aired their perceptions - and misperceptions - of each other and talked about how to heal the split.

The discussion began when student member Brandon Hensley balked at a suggestion by Polly Corn, representing City Council on the panel, that the city needed a law making the display of advertising for off-campus parties a criminal violation.

Hensley said the city needed to work harder to "instill values of the community" instead of passing laws or levying fines, an approach he said "evidently is not working."

"Students, alcohol, drugs. That's the way people look at it," said Hensley, who represents the Off-Campus Student Council. He suggested greater efforts to break down stereotypes of students by the community, including neighborhood get-togethers.

"We need to be neighbors," he said.

Corn agreed. "I think everybody's ready to listen to anything that will get the students more involved," she said.

Rene Price, a community representative, said she's been trying to get along with students for 15 years. "But I finally get so frustrated," she said, citing instances of students urinating and having sex in her back yard.

Commission co-chairman Paul Harris - Radford University's vice president for student affairs - said "unfair generalizations" exist in both halves of the community, but said the commission itself represented a positive approach to deal with the gulf between city residents and students.

"The students don't see the positive," Hensley said, adding that many students perceive community residents as "mean."

However, Kim Shear, another student commission member, did not support Hensley. The city reacts as it does, she said, "because the students are irresponsible."

Hensley characterized as "excellent" a planned community dialogue to be held in early or mid-April on the university campus. The dialogue is aimed at increasing mutual understanding and respect and at fostering constructive communication.

Participants from the community, law enforcement and the university will gather face-to-face in groups of eight to 10 with a facilitator to talk over troublesome issues, including the sometimes-tense relations between students and city police.

Harris said a good town-gown relationship is an ongoing process. "It doesn't happen overnight," he said. "We can and should do more in terms of getting people to talk to each other."

Dean of Students Bonnie Hurlburt said the issue never will be completely resolved, since new students arrive in the community each year, and the process has to begin all over.

by CNB