The Connection between the City of College Park and the Students of the University

There has always been some conflict between the non-student residents of the city of College Park and the students of the university. In fact just today I saw in an article in the Diamondback (the student newspaper at the University of Maryland) that many off-campus student residents are getting noise complaints from regular family homes right outside of campus. This was in an article in the April 22, 2008 issue of the Diamondback entitled “Students, Permanent Residents clash over noise”. I believe this issue of dis-connectivity though the College Park community is a continuing problem.

As I mentioned in the blog post entitled “The East Campus Initiative and Gentrification”, the university isn’t concerned so much about the need for student housing. As for the permanent residents of College Park, they also need to realize that this is a college town with college residents and there will be college-like behavior. I believe that the community needs to be more connected for there to be any progress in resolving these issues.

The picture below is a good representation of the College Park community. Yes, an old broken payphone may show that there is a high contrast of cleanliness and class between the city of College Park and the university. However, may also reveal to the viewer that there is a lack of communication and connectivity between the different sects of the College Park community.