Town Gown Advisory Board holds first meeting
Binghamton University convened its first Town Gown Advisory Board (TGAB) meeting Oct. 25, a first step of many on route to the overall goal of enhancing communication between the University and surrounding communities.
The TGAB, currently comprised of 32 members, shared ideas and discussed relevant matters with the objective of making recommendations to the city of Binghamton and Binghamton University administrations regarding potential programs, funding and policies deemed relevant to improving the relationship between the city, its resident and the University.
Five subcommittees have been established: Transportation and Parking, Student Housing, Positive Community Engagement, Dangerous Drinking/Underage Drinking, and Safety.
All of the subcommittees have met multiple times and some have invited community members and community based organizations to the meetings for the purpose of consultation and information sharing.
The work of the board is a critical enterprise for the University because it allows the community to be engaged in and with the University and the University to be engaged in and with the community. Not only do both parties have a great opportunity to learn from living together, they both can also positively enrich each other.
The subcommittees have had great dialogue and have generated a number of ideas and will report out on their work at the next TGAB meeting. Already it is evident that better lines of communication need to be established. A lot of real estate is being shared in close proximity, so for exciting things that the University wants to work on, there is now an opportunity to work on them together with the community. For town-gown issues that need to be solved, the University and the community now have an opportunity to work them as a group.
The TGAB will reconvene at its next meeting Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in the Binghamton University Downtown Center.