9. Campus-Community Relations

Campus-community relations ended up being so much more important to me than I initially realized. When I say “campus-community relations,” I mean how the students and non-students in the surrounding community react to and interact with each other, as well as the general sentiment or vibe between the two populations.

I grew up in a college “town” — actually, a mid-size city, Berkeley, California, where U.C. Berkeley is located. I would say that pretty much everyone who resides in Berkeley (my guess is 70 to 80 percent) is a U.C. Berkeley student, alumnus, faculty or staff member, or a relative of one of these groups. U.C. Berkeley is a public university with a population consisting of predominantly middle-class California natives, similar to the city of Berkeley’s population as a whole. With that in mind, I was accustomed to experiencing good relations between the campus and the city residents.

I experienced just the opposite when I attended Yale, which is a wealthy private university surrounded by a very impoverished community. There is a history of resentment by the townies toward the Yalies, and, to be fair, many Yalies behave in a manner that warrants resentment. A lot of Yalies were scared to go off campus because they grew up in sheltered, homogeneous environments. However, other students were active volunteers in the New Haven community. It was emotionally difficult for me to experience that kind of tension in the air. So I made an effort to get to know some New Haven residents and earn their trust and respect, but it wasn’t easy. My point is that you should make sure you can live with any adjustments you may have to make.