East Hill Notes: A year on staff in Cornell Community Relations

By Kate Supron

 

Having just completed my first year in Cornell’s Office of Community Relations, some reflections on lessons learned, below, in addition to the most basic fact: We’re lucky to live here.

Some early-on highlights:
-Supplementing the many on-and-off-campus boards and committees my colleagues are on, I am now engaged with Cayuga Lake Scenic Byway, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, Lifelong, and the Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Council, and regularly attend Tompkins County Council of Governments and the Cradle to Career Leadership Group meetings.

– In addition to occasionally writing East Hill Notes, or hosting “All Things Equal” radio, I’ve also met people whom I never would have met otherwise, folks with impressive skillsets and big hearts. What a privilege to connect with so many people from all walks of life – including Tompkins Weekly Editor Jamie Swinnerton – working together for the common good.

-I have come to realize that the day-to-day nuances of town-gown work can’t be summarized with a headline, nor an anecdote. Most of our work is under the radar and enhanced by several regular working groups that includes City-Cornell, Town of Ithaca-Cornell, Tompkins County-Cornell, Local Government Leaders Roundtable and many others.

– It is unfortunate that for some the phrase “town-gown” may sound like there’s a problem or conflict, but in reality, the day-to-day collaborations are generally inspirational and ever evolving. In 2016, our office received the Presidential Excellence Award from the International Town Gown Association for initiatives developed related to race, economic development and community-campus leadership. The recognition was nice for the unit, but my colleagues are quick to point out it wouldn’t have been possible without top-notch neighbors and partners.

-Cornell’s broad footprint – being both a private university and the state’s land grant institution, with 11 colleges and schools at its Ithaca campus – is mirrored by the complexity of Tompkins County, with 16 independent municipalities, six school districts, and a myriad of challenges and opportunities.
The City of Ithaca has the largest municipal population, with approximately half of its 30,756 residents being students.

While having 46 percent of Cornell undergraduates live off campus contributes to a tight housing market, it also boosts the local economy through student spending ($215 million in FY 2017), supports local governments through property taxes paid through rents, and has helped spur the development of new housing in the City of Ithaca and beyond. On-and-off campus housing is a daily topic for conversation in our office.

-Finally, after year one, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my colleagues in the Office of Community Relations: Katelynne Brill, Penny Givin, Susan Riley and Gary Stewart. The majority of our team are Finger Lakes’ natives, and the interesting thing about town-gown work is that there’s no defined background or education you must have to do the job, beyond a willingness to engage, create, and follow-through.

Our five-person office has a former school teacher, ex-newspaperperson, longtime Cornell employees, one-time village mayor, and committed community members living in five separate municipalities, including one in Schuyler County.

Interests vary wildly, which makes for a robust workplace, and in our space there are two statements on our main whiteboard that serve as daily goals: “Commitment to Excellence” and “Never Settle for the Status Quo.”

If that doesn’t summarize Tompkins County as well, nothing does!

Cornell is lucky to have its home in Tompkins County – aren’t we all? – just as Tompkins County benefits from Cornell. They help make each other special, and neither would quite be itself without each other.

I appreciate many of you who helped get me off to a good start during my first year on the job.

In return, if you ever need help navigating either the Cornell or community side of the “town-gown” relationship, please let me know – Kate Supron kds95@cornell.edu – and I’d be glad to help.

Thanks again.

East Hill Notes are published the second and fourth Monday of each month. Kate Supron is a campus-community liaison in Cornell University’s Office of Community Relations.