Students" this is the town of Chapel Hill. Town of Chapel Hill these are our students.
This is an introduction I've never fully realized. The Apple Chill festival at least gave me some sense of this but as we all know" that great community event was ""shot down."" While the University fosters a good relationship with the town" students are disconnected from the town. The Chapel Hill community is great and it would be nice to feel more like part of it. The town could provide a real-world training ground; UNC could do a few things to encourage that.
Dorms on campus are their own microcosms. It's definitely different from living at home but very much the same in the disconnect we have with regard to how everything around us operates and comes to be. Utilities and town services are the best examples of what gets left out.
I like the system some apartment complexes have where they cover all utilities ... to an extent. The rent price will include say up to $60 for the water bill. But if you have a month where you feel particularly dirty or downright nasty and just one shower doesn't do it and you end up racking up a $70 water bill you pay the difference (possibly with some interest on that excess). It's basically putting a credit limit on utilities and given the struggles we have with utilities today it's not a bad idea.
In the past the water shortage has been so bad that UNC considered sending students home. It's not such a surprise that students use utilities as though they're free. They don't see the costs of their actions. If on-campus students received water electricity and cable bills they might conserve these increasingly depleted and/or expensive resources.
When I moved off campus after my sophomore year especially after living up here for the summer I quickly realized how expensive it can be to keep a house at 75 degrees. And guess what: Setting the thermostat to 82 degrees is well worth the savings especially when three people can accrue a one-month summer electric bill between $150 and $200. Learning lessons such as this during even just one year in a dorm can be invaluable for preparing for life and costs in the real world.
But while the University seeks to make life better on campus it must also ensure the town's welfare. The next major focus of University-town relations (after Carolina North construction begins centuries from now) ought to be to nurture downtown business (well at least what's left).
Trying to bring up a business on Franklin Street resembles trying to get pregnant while on birth control - lots of failure. The IRS aborted The Rathskeller in December and now Buffalo Wild Wings and Schoolkids have miscarried. I can think of a dozen changes to the main section of Franklin Street since I came here. When I was 10 to 14 years old and came up here for basketball camp a majority of establishments were different.
The University would be wise to work with the town to ensure there are accessible off-campus establishments that are not bars restaurants or T-shirt shops. How long is it before Varsity Theatre closes down? Why the hell have there been three empty store spaces under Top of the Hill for the past four-plus years?
The problem here is yet again when do enough students feel the loss? There isn't really anything we need on Franklin Street that we couldn't get closer on campus. But that doesn't mean we need to sit back and let the town collapse in on itself just like it's doing with regard to water capacity right now.
Tar Heels - realize that you are members of the town of Chapel Hill. The University can do more to act as a bridge between the students and the town for it's a relationship to which we ought to become accustomed. It is one we're bound to enter soon.
