It began with a batch of cookies.
In late August, Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl decided to welcome University President Morton O. Schapiro and his family by giving them cookies she baked with her grandchildren. She planned to drop them off at Schapiro’s house, but he insisted on meeting with Tisdahl personally in her office.
“From that bringing of the cookies, they had a two-hour conversation,” said new City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz. “That really laid a groundwork, and that has set a different tone between the city and the University.”
Schapiro’s inauguration today follows a summer of transitions for Evanston, as the city welcomed a new mayor, a new city manager and five new aldermen out of the nine who sit on the City Council.
Members of the Evanston and Northwestern communities move forward with cautious optimism that this may mark a new chapter in town-gown relations after historically strained interactions.
“I think this is really a turning point for what has been a long, contentious relationship,” Bobkiewicz said. “It’s not going to change with one tin of cookies. It’s going to be something we’ll have to work hard at.”
New beginnings
Schapiro and his wife attended a welcome reception from the city at Boocoo Café, 1823 Church St., on Tuesday night, which represented a significant gesture for some city officials.
“That was the first time I remember a Northwestern president coming into the heart of the community,” Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) said.
Just a few weeks prior to the reception, NU donated $550,000 for the city to purchase a new fire engine, a pleasant surprise for many city officials. The donation came in response to a letter Tisdahl presented to Schapiro in September that contained a list of mutually beneficial ideas for the city and the University.
Number one on the list was a new fire engine.
“I met with the mayor and the town manager, and I know that municipal budgets are just really in bad shape,” Schapiro said. “We were proud to step forward when the town needed us.”
Tisdahl also expressed an interest in collaborating with NU to lobby for improvements to the CTA Purple Line, among many other things.
Aside from tangible contributions, NU administrators have been collaborating with city officials in mutual projects. For instance, Bobkiewicz has met with Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Eugene Sunshine to discuss the city buying street salt in bulk so NU can purchase the salt at a better rate.
Bobkiewicz is also working to host a Halloween party with NU to allow the children living in neighborhoods around Ryan Field to have a safe place to trick-or-treat, as Halloween falls on the same day as a home football game.
Bobkiewicz and Sunshine have both emphasized identifying the common interests between the city and the University.
“It’s not about the city ‘wanting’ anything from Northwestern,” Bobkiewicz said. “It’s a matter of partnership, and that’s something that I think we’ve struggled with.”
City officials are also trying to bring more NU students into the community. Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th), who is also NU’s director of corporate relations, is pushing for a paid internship program for NU students to work with aldermen and has already hired an NU student as her own intern.
Jean-Baptiste proposed more interaction between students from NU and Evanston Township High School. When Jean-Baptiste was an ETHS student in the late 1960s, NU students acted as mentors at the high school, he said.
In addition, Burrus said undergraduate engineers could work with Evanston’s water department, and the city could conduct studies on NU’s Transportation Center as a way to improve Evanston’s transportation system.
“Many of the aldermen are stepping up to the plate and saying this is a new day, ” Burrus said. “We need to look at things differently and walk away from the past.”
A contentious history
But the past has been difficult to leave behind for many Evanston residents. NU-city tensions peaked in 1990 when the city proposed a tuition tax on NU students and again in 2000 when the school sued the city over the creation of the Northeast Evanston Historic District.
NU also does not pay the city property taxes, which has always been a central point of contention.
Co-existing with NU students in the same neighborhood has been “difficult,” said Bob Atkins, president of Northwestern Neighbors, a group for residents living near NU.
Atkins, who has lived in Evanston for more than 30 years, said neighbors have voiced complaints about noise, trash and other disturbances that come with students throwing off-campus parties. He called the students’ behavior “obnoxious” and “unthinking.”
Jilian Lopez, Associated Student Government’s director of external relations, has met with community members to discuss off-campus problems and is working on a new off-campus housing Web site to act as a resource for both students and Evanston residents.
Lopez, a Weinberg senior, said although students need to be more considerate of their neighbors, Evanston residents should be understanding and make the effort to introduce themselves to their student neighbors.
“Obviously, it’s a delicate balance, but I would really like for the city to not carry over the tensions they have with the University to the students,” Lopez said.
The real friction comes from interactions with University administration, not with students, said real estate agent Carolyn Smith, who has lived one block from campus for more than 30 years.
“There has been an arrogant attitude with the administration,” said Smith. “Because our particular neighborhood is adjacent to University property, it has always been a huge puzzle board where the University is sometimes less than truthful about their plans.”
Most recently, neighbors butted heads with administration at an NU-City Committee on Tuesday night over the acquisition of the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary property. The committee was established by court order in 2004 as a part of the settlement in the 2000 lawsuit.
The purpose of the committee is to give residents living near NU information about the University’s development plans, said Ald. Judy Fiske (1st), who chairs the committee. Both Atkins and Smith were present at the meeting.
“The committee is very important because without the committee, there would be no communication,” Atkins said.
However, after speaking with Schapiro at Tuesday’s reception, Atkins said he’s hopeful that Schapiro will be receptive to the neighbors’ concerns.
“I was very impressed with him,” Atkins said. “We’re looking forward to the tenure of this president because I think he will make changes that haven’t been made in the past.”
Looking ahead
Although old tensions remain, officials say the overall tone of the town-gown discussion has shifted in a positive direction.
“Mr. Schapiro came in with an attitude that he wanted to maximize all of the positive aspects of the relationship, and Mrs. Tisdahl has done the same thing,” Sunshine said. “It’s not like they’re starting from scratch, but they want to take it to a new level.”
Schapiro said there are ups and downs in any town-gown relationship but added he is committed to an ongoing dialogue with Tisdahl.
“As long as she bakes the cookies, I’ll show,” Schapiro joked.
Neighbors acknowledge even though NU’s tax-exempt status may never change, bad feelings can be resolved if both parties are honest and willing to work together, Smith said.
Tisdahl said NU-city relations have already “vastly improved” since she and Schapiro took office and hopes everyone can focus on the future.
“We’re going to be a model for town-gown relations in this country,” Tisdahl said. “It’s time for a new beginning.”
