Universities' relations with neighboring communities have long been characterized as "town and gown."

		Sabina Deitrick is associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is also co-director of the COPC, sabinad@birch.gspia.pitt.edu.

Contentious relations between the two have occurred since universities were founded in medieval days. The University of Pittsburgh, for instance, had long-standing adversarial relations with neighbors in Oakland, as it sought to expand its campus well beyond its borders and encroach into Oakland's residential blocks.

In American cities today, including here in Pittsburgh, "town and gown" tensions are again on the rise. This time it's not riots or revolts. A clarion call has sounded for nonprofits to pay more taxes (again, as it did in the 1970s). Nonprofits, including universities, need to document their impacts better.

Universities and colleges contribute mightily to a region's fabric, including its economy, as a recent report from CEOs for Cities attests (as well as op-ed pieces in this paper). Other roles, however, are not quite as well understood. It's time to understand what universities can do and are doing in their neighborhoods and communities.

A decade ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recognized that institutions of higher education could -- and, more importantly, should -- play major roles in their communities, especially when they were located in or near distressed neighborhoods in need of resources and technical assistance. It established a new program, the Community Outreach Partnership Center, a grant to encourage universities to respond to needs and interests of their surrounding neighborhoods.

COPCs begin with communities identifying the areas that colleges and universities can work with them to develop into projects. COPCs bring universities and communities together to develop programs that enrich and revitalize distressed places.

The Pittsburgh region is fortunate to have such programs. Duquesne University won a grant in the first year of the program to work in the Hill District and Uptown neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh. We here at the University of Pittsburgh received our COPC grant in 2000 to work on community revitalization, housing, health, education, economic development and job training in Oakland, Oak Hill and Hazelwood with a number of community partners.

Who benefits? Students benefit from their internship experiences with our community partners. They apply their knowledge to direct action in their chosen areas. At Pitt, over 50 undergraduate and graduate students have completed paid internships through the COPC in community organizations. Students have moved on to professional jobs in their field, enriched by their COPC experience and contributing to improving our region's overall well-being.

But the true rewards are even greater. Higher education institutions have become partners in their communities, working toward common goals of improving the lives of the people who live there.

Universities are often criticized for their lack of "real world" experience. Our region's four COPC projects situate students and faculty squarely in a community. Other colleges and universities are similarly engaged across our region.

In 2002, the federal government held its national COPC conference in Pittsburgh, based on Duquesne University and University of Pittsburgh's success. The conference brought together the largest gathering to date focused on university and community partnerships. Later in 2002, Robert Morris University won a COPC grant to work on youth-focused programs in the city of Duquesne, a fiscally distressed, Act 47 community. This past year, Point Park University also garnered a HUD COPC for an arts-centered project in McKees Rocks.

The track record and continued success of Pittsburgh-area colleges and universities working with neighborhoods and communities point to a major opportunity for the region -- to become a national showcase for community revitalization through engaging our institutions of higher education with our communities.

Let's pronounce the town-and-gown era over in the Pittsburgh region. It's time for local leaders to become champions of the overarching positive relations for community revitalization that are occurring between institutions of higher education and communities.