City forms advisory board
By Dave Stephens
Assistant
Campus Editor
Purdue University and the city of West Lafayette
took the first small steps in creating an open dialogue to help address
the issues facing the community.
"I think our ultimate goal is to set up a discussion
between Purdue and West Lafayette, to go over any occurrence that arrives,"
said Jan Mills, president of the West Lafayette city council and the
co-chairperson of the Community Issues Advisory Board.
The advisory board, which was established by Purdue
President Martin Jischke and West Lafayette Mayor Sonya Margerum, plans
to study and identify the problems associated between Purdue and its
neighbors in the surrounding community.
Issues that the 18-member committee plans to address
deal with the areas of housing, neighborhood life and communication.
The advisory board plans on addressing the issues by holding a different
meeting each month to cover the individual topics.
"We don't want this project to end in May," said
Mills. "We want to set out some long-term goals."
The 18-member committee is made up of West Lafayette
and Purdue officials, West Lafayette school board members, Purdue students,
community residents and a local landlord.
"This effort is win-win as far as Purdue is concerned,"
said Joe Bennett, vice president of University relations.
Although the advisory board is new for Purdue,
it is not unheard of at other universities.
"These circumstances are not just Purdue circumstances,"
said John Sautter, co-chairperson of the advisory board and Purdue's
vice president for housing and food services. "Many universities have
committees like this one because they are experiencing the same things
we are."
DeAnn Harding, co-chair for the New Chauncey Neighborhood
Association, said the meetings between the University and neighborhood
groups is a good way for members of the community to address the issues
facing area residents.
"As residents of the neighborhoods get older, and
more and more students move in, a lot of them get scared because they
don't know the people around them," Harding said. "This board will help
their voice be heard in issues dealing with students."
In order to help clarify what issues the advisory
board deals with, all meetings of the advisory board will be open to
the public.
Mills also said that although the advisory board
is scheduled to end by May, she hopes that the dialogue between Purdue
and the community would continue.
"My personal desire is to keep the lines of communication
open because we all live here together," Mills said.
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