Date=09.17.03

Type= English Feature

Number=7-37859

Title=Town and Gown

Byline= Maura Farrelly

Telephone= 619-2023

Dateline= New York

Editor= Rob Sivak

Intro: New Haven, Connecticut… Durham, North Carolina… and Providence, Rhode Island, all have something in common: They are home to some of the best universities in America… specifically, Yale, Duke, and Brown. These three cities have something else in common: They've all fallen on economic hard times in recent decades, as the manufacturing industries that employed people for generations have moved away. The result has been a rift between "town and gown"… a disconnect between economically depressed cities and the affluent universities they host. VOA's Maura Farrelly recently visited New Haven, Connecticut… where Yale University officials are trying to bridge the gap between town and gown. But as she reports, many in New Haven believe the school could be doing more…and they point to the recent actions of university workers as proof.

TAPE: Cut One: Ambient sound from "The Green" (fade up laughter, and then fade down under VO)

TEXT: It's a crisp, sunny morning on a massive lawn in downtown New Haven known to locals and students alike as "The Green." Dozens of people walk along paths that criss-cross The Green. Some are having an early lunch… others are just enjoying the pleasant fall weather. And then there are the people like Wilhemina (will-uh-MEEN-uh) Wright, who are out on The Green for one very specific reason.

TAPE: Cut Two: Wright

Because Yale isn't giving us the right benefits. They're not paying us good wages, and we haven't had a raise going on three years. (0:09)

TEXT: Ms. Wright is one of about two thousand Yale employees who have been out on strike since August 27th. Most… like Ms. Wright herself… grew up in New Haven and work at the school as custodians or cooks. Nine of the past eleven labor negotiations between Yale and its unionized workers have ended in strikes. This year's action has captured national attention. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson was recently arrested at a protest, and two presidential candidates… Joseph Lieberman and Howard Dean… both of whom graduated from Yale… have called upon the university to settle with its workers. Wilhemina Wright says Yale hasn't been doing enough.

TAPE: Cut Three: Wright

The can do better than what they're doing. And they treat us like we're nobody, basically. And in a way I'm glad we're out here on strike, so Management can get to see what we go through. We come into work, sometimes we don't even know if we're going to get to eat our breakfast or lunch, because of the filth that these young kids do. Vomit in the sink, vomit in the shower. And they do it on purpose sometimes. (0:23)

TEXT: And that is the heart of the "town-gown" antagonism. Locals perceive the university as an island of spoiled, disrespectful, aloof, and mostly white middle-class privilege… in a sea of African-American and Hispanic poverty. Twenty-two percent of New Haven's population lives below the poverty line. That's about twice the national average. Until recently, the stark contrast between President George W. Bush's alma mater and the town in which it exists was a bit of a joke among graduates of other prestigious Ivy League schools. And then Yale administrators started to realize that New Haven's poverty… and the crime that comes with it… was a liability.

TAPE: Cut Four: Morand

People who are thinking about going to school, people who are thinking about working and teaching at Yale consider the surroundings of the university. So having a strong community is important for us to be the best university we can possibly be, and to continue to attract the best faculty, students, and staff. (0:18)

TEXT: Michael Morand (more-AND) is Associate Vice-President of Yale's Office of New Haven and State Affairs… which was founded in the mid-1990s for the express purpose of strengthening the relationship between Yale and New Haven. Since that time, the university has opened its doors to hundreds of local high school students, who come to Yale every summer to take classes and make use of the school's museums and libraries. Yale has invested in seventy-five small businesses in New Haven, and it also offers a cash grant to any employee who buys a home in one of several neighborhoods surrounding the campus.

TAPE: Cut Five: Morand

We pay our employees twenty-five thousand dollars as a bonus over ten years to purchase homes, and have had nearly six hundred employees purchase homes here in New Haven. That represents a commitment by Yale of our resources of more than thirteen million dollars, and that's helped leverage home purchases by our employees valued at more than seventy million. (0:22)

[OPT] TAPE: Cut Six: Bus stop (fade up right as Morand bite is ending and run under VO)

TEXT: And yet, Yale's negative image among New Haven natives remains. At a bus stop several blocks away from campus, one local resident… who says he doesn't work for the school but still didn't want to give his name… points to the strike as a sign that Yale doesn't care about the people of New Haven.

TAPE: Cut Seven: New Haven Native

There's no relationship between town and university. The university is a separate entity from the town. Yale has all the money, and they won't try to do anything to be helpful to anyone. Look what they're doing to their own people who work for them. They won't give them their just due. They won't give them what they deserve. (0:17) [END OPT]

TEXT: [OPT: IF THE ABOVE OPTION IS CUT, YOU MUST BEGIN THIS TEXT OF THIS GRAPH WITH THE FOLLOWING LINE: "AND YET, YALE'S NEGATIVE IMAGE AMONG NEW HAVEN NATIVES REMAINS"] Yale University is New Haven's biggest single employer. By some accounts, as many as one in four residents work for the university in some capacity. Julio Gonzalez, Chief of Staff to New Haven's mayor, says that's why residents and elected officials expect a lot out of Yale .

TAPE: Cut Eight: Gonzalez

At the heart of the "town-gown" dispute is what kind of values do we want the university to have. And I think besides them being a fair employer, we expect them to be part of the community. Not just an entity that happens to be located here, but a genuine partner in strengthening us. And I think the dispute that we have is "How much more can they do?"

TEXT: Julio Gonzalez says the Mayor's office would like to see Yale expand its home-ownership program to include neighborhoods that don't border the campus. They'd also like Yale to voluntarily give New Haven some of the sixty million dollars in tax revenue the city isn't allowed to collect on Yale's properties each year, since Yale is an educational institution. But the most pressing town-gown issue right now is, of course, the strike. The main point of disagreement is pension payments. An estimated ten thousand people turned out in New Haven last weekend for a rally in support of the striking workers.

I'm Maura Farrelly.