As new students flood into the city for the upcoming school year, Evanston’s NU-City Committee convened to navigate the town-gown relationship amid unoccupied University properties and an onslaught of back-to-school events.
The meeting’s first flashpoint emerged with residential concerns over seemingly unoccupied University-held properties within the city, particularly highlighting the Old Roycemore School building — a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places — and several properties on Orrington Avenue.
Evanston resident Kiera Kelly said she was worried about seeing the properties “in disrepair” and hopes that it isn’t “by design.” She proposed for NU to list unoccupied and decaying buildings back on the market for more use.
“We need families,” Kelly said. “We need kids, we need students in our schools. We want neighbors with families and children. And we also need the tax dollars.”
Joining in on waves of residential concerns, Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) inquired about the University’s intentions with such properties.
NU’s Senior Associate Vice President of Facilities Angel Dizon III responded that the University keeps those properties as residential spaces for faculty and staff, and their use fluctuates with residential and academic needs.
Addressing concerns for the future of those properties, Dizon said it is important for them to remain in residential use for residential areas.
NU’s Vice President for Operations and Chief Operating Officer Luke Figora reaffirmed that the University had “no plans to discuss here today,” prompting additional questions from Evanston representatives, including community representative David Schoenfeld, who called the answer “evasive.”
“To say you have no plans to discuss here is not really responsive,” Schoenfeld said. “Because the consent decree requires you to discuss plans for future use of the building. And so if you have plans, I think you need to discuss it.”
Figora relented, adding that the University had “no plans to change the use of Roycemore.”
Following the discussion, community representative Bob Hercules brought up a residential complaint about a skate party held at the Foster-Walker Complex basketball court Tuesday night for First Night Northwestern. Residents had received no notice about the event, which took place on a week night.
Hercules, who lives in the residential area near Plex, called the music playing from the event “deafening” and said the party’s bright lights and noise felt like an “assault” to the neighboring homes.
According to Hercules, event organizers refused to turn the music down. He added that University Police and Evanston Police Department said they could not do anything about the noise because the event had a permit, something he deemed a “double standard.”
“The residents in the city, even some of your own students, can get shut down, but an event like that can’t get shut down because they have this permit,” Hercules said.
Dave Davis, NU’s senior executive director of Neighborhood and Community Relations, reminded the group that such loud on-campus student events occur only once a year during Wildcat Welcome festivities to celebrate students’ arrival into the community.
Davis took responsibility for the oversight for the event, as his office did not host a community forum for the start of the school year as it normally does. While he and other NU representatives promoted more off-campus bonding events between students and residents hosted by the University, Davis cautioned residents about their language in addressing student complaints, which he said can veer “paternalistic.”
“I don’t think we want to limit our students’ ability to enjoy all of the privileges that Evanston residents do because they are residents of Evanston,” Davis said, addressing a murmuring audience. “Although some may disagree with that, when our students are here, they are residents of Evanston.”
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