Relationship between college and town?

Hello everyone, i%26#39;m a new member to the forums here, although I have been reading them for some time. Starting in late August, I will be attending College of the Atlantic. I visited in April, when there was a horrible storm but I still found the town to be amazingly beautiful and i%26#39;m extremely excited to make it my new residence. I was wondering how the college got along with the town though. I know of many colleges whose towns despise the local students, and I was hoping this wasn%26#39;t the case with Bar Harbor. This may be a question more related to the students than the college itself.

Thanks for any reply. :)

-Danny

Relationship between college and town?

Welcome to MDI, Danny.

I say MDI (Mount Desert Island) because Bar Harbor (and the COA campus) is just a part of the island that also, of course, has Acadia National Park---the world%26#39;s greatest back yard.

I haven%26#39;t been a student at COA, so I can only give you a partial picture. In terms of an introduction, my wife and I vacationed here every second year or so for about 20 years until we moved here in 1996.

In all of that time, I have not seen nor heard of any serious town vs. gown problems. I%26#39;m sure that there are some (very few, and not very vocal) of a highly conservative bent that mutter about the rather liberal attitudes of COA and probably don%26#39;t understand (or agree with) the rather unique approach to college education that is a COA hallmark. However, most everyone that I know takes pride in the college and its students.

If you don%26#39;t already know, several COA grads couldn%26#39;t bear to leave the island for long (if at all) and have established successful businesses here. They hardly could have done that if the atmosphere was in any way adverse.

So, don%26#39;t worry. COA and its students are part of the community, not some add-on.

Relationship between college and town?

I can%26#39;t speak for the whole town, but it appears to me that there are no problems between the students and the townspeople. Bar Harbor changes a great deal between summer and winter. In the summer, everyone is so busy that very little social life takes place. The lobstermen are so busy that they have a self-imposed ban on Sunday fishing during July and August so that they will be forced to take some time off. The shop keepers and inn owners are kept hopping making a living in the six months of the tourist season.

When November 1st finally comes around, everyone breathes a sigh of relief at having survived another winter and the town sort of closes in on itself. Whoever is around for the winter, is ';one of us';. People socialize at the YMCA, at dinner parties, and over their snow shovels. The COA students become part of the winter scene.

Because COA does not have nearly enough housing for their students, many of us live near to students. Three to four students, changing yearly, live across the street from us in the upper story of a house that is rented to the tourists by the week in late June, July and August.

I%26#39;ve always been impressed by our student neighbors. More than one year, one of the students from across the street will knock on the front door during the afternoon of a planned party and volunteer their phone number which we are to use if they should get too noisy! How many college towns have that experience? I think perhaps COA tells the students that Bar Harbor is a very small town and they need to get along.

One winter a visitor to the students%26#39; apartment had his car towed because he parked on the street which is a no-no during the snow plowing season. Because the police officer did not have a number for the students, I got a 3 a.m. phone call asking me if I knew whose car it was before they towed it away. The student/guest came over the next day to apologize to me for having been awakened. Who can dislike that kind of courtesy??!!

The only negativity I%26#39;ve seen toward the students is a certain condescending sarcasm from the only-slightly-older group of year %26#39;round residents who work the service industry -- restaurants and such. They seem to think the COA students have a cushy life because of the rather relaxed curriculum. The running joke goes something like this: Why did the COA student cross the street? Becaue they gave him credit for it.

Personally, I love the presence of the COA students. They all look like hippies from the 1960s -- my era. When a Boston preppie college student shows up to do some hiking in the winter, we all know he isn%26#39;t ';one of ours';.

Thank you both for such long and detailed responses, and that last quote about COA students crossing the street made me laugh. Speaking for myself, i%26#39;m a city kid, so it%26#39;ll be an adjustment living in a small town, but i%26#39;m definitely more geared to that sort of life. Looking forward to actually going up there and perhaps seeing you two in the future. :)