Karen Hyatt and Paul Shang highlighted some of the ongoing successes in the university’s efforts to build better relationships with its campus neighbors at a City Club of Eugene panel discussion on Friday.
Hyatt, the UO’s assistant director of government and community relations, and Shang, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students, joined city, police and neighborhood representatives to discuss joint efforts to address a range of town-gown issues. They discussed student conduct, parking and traffic, neighborhood relations and other topics.
The program will be broadcast on radio station KLCC 89.7 at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 21.
Among the programs cited for their success were the Neighborhood Livability Joint Letter Program, the Welcome Walk and the Event Parking District around Matthew Knight Arena. But panel members also noted continuing challenges, such as infill development in the neighborhoods surrounding the university and the ever-present struggle with parking and traffic in other parts of the university neighborhood.
The letter program helps discourage unruly parties in off-campus residences. Any time city police make contact with UO students over noise or party conduct problems it generates a letter – signed by university, police and city officials - outlining conduct expectations and misconduct consequences that is sent to the resident and the property owner.
Hyatt said the university understands the need to work closely with its neighbors.
“Not everyone in Eugene feels the shadow of the University of Oregon daily,” she said. “But our neighbors close by do.”
Camilla Bayliss of the Fairmount Neighbors Association said efforts to mitigate arena issues largely work and have helped reduce conflicts. She said the special event parking district that extends the city’s two-hour parking limit until 11 p.m. seven days a week has been effective in discouraging people attending arena shows from using neighborhood streets for parking.
“Overall, I’d say it’s been a success,” she told the audience.
But she also said the association continues to work with the UO on parking for men’s basketball games. Because the games generally last about two hours, some people still park on neighborhood streets and try to beat the limit.
Shang said the Office of Student Affairs has been working on a number of initiatives to help encourage students to be good neighbors and more are in the works. As an example he talked about the conflict resolution services the office provides to help resolve neighbor issues and Saturday’s annual Day of Service event, in which almost 200 students join in a variety of community service projects.
“We in the dean’s office and the division of student affairs have been very involved with our partners on campus and in the community to improve the experience of students and our neighbors,” he said. “We care about our Eugene and campus communities, our students and our neighbors.”
A question-and-answer session followed comments by the panelists. Questioners asked about possible expansion of the event parking district, giving the UO Police Department jurisdiction in off-campus neighborhoods and the timing and size of enrollment growth.