Published: January 18, 2008 11:26 pm            

Mark Bennett: Terre Haute is in the midst of a noticeable infusion of new faces in some of its most visible leadership positions

TERRE HAUTE — One thing never changes in America — our demand for change, followed by our displeasure once it happens.

The presidential campaign is full of “agents of change.” That sounds like a cult whose members dress like James Bond and worship Ross Perot. In reality, though, only a handful of the candidates — Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton — seem to represent a significant change in our country’s predictable course and thinking.

Yet, no matter who wins, a new face will occupy the White House, and that alone marks a refreshing change.

Right here in Terre Haute, our community is in the midst of a noticeable infusion of new faces in some of its most visible leadership positions. The city, of course, has a new mayor, Duke Bennett, its first Republican elected to that job in 40 years. But also, each of the local four-year colleges has, or soon will have, a new president. Throw in new head coaches of the Indiana State University men’s basketball and football programs, and the town could rightly hang an “Under New Management” sign.

“You’ve got a unique moment in Terre Haute history,” said Lisa Blomgren Bingham, an Indiana University professor. At IU, she specializes in collaboration among managers of public agencies to solve problems at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

“You’ve got all these folks who don’t have any pre-existing relationships,” Bingham said, noting their “blank slate” with each other, and a lack of baggage. “These organizations need to collaborate.”

Sounds good. But does that ever really happen?

It happened in Youngstown, Ohio, and that city’s revolutionary plan attracted the attention of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the Harvard Institute of Politics. Presidential candidate John Edwards called it “a national model.” Youngstown’s city government and its local university, Youngstown State, joined forces to devise an unconventional strategy to help that community rehabilitate itself after huge job and population losses. Instead of pouring dwindling resources into recapturing its vanishing steel mill economy, the city accepted its shrinking situation. Money went toward demolishing vacant, unneeded and dilapidated housing and turning it into greenspaces.

The “controlled shrinkage” tactic was devised by YSU’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies and the city administrations. Called Youngstown 2010, the program earned 36-year-old Mayor Jay Williams a New Frontier Award, given by the Kennedy Library Foundation and the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Not only was the concept out of the box, but it also illuminated the potential of a local university and its surrounding city working together. They’re clearly intertwined.

“The city plan reflects the university plan, and the university plan reflects the city plan,” said Hunter Morrison, former director of the YSU Center for Urban and Regional Studies. Morrison remains involved, but now directs YSU’s office of campus planning and community partnership.

Smaller, but better

Youngstown 2010 drew its share of controversy. (Imagine that, assertive action — or change — sparking controversy.) It defies traditional plans for reviving Midwestern cities wounded by the loss of manufacturing jobs. While most pump energy and funds into growth, Youngstown is preparing itself to be smaller than it was, for a long time. Youngstown has fallen from a 1950 population of 168,000 to 80,000. The steel industry, booming back then, no longer has a fully integrated mill operating within its home county.

When city and university planners looked at the problem, the choice seemed clear — try to somehow re-create the robust, steel-driven Youngstown of 1950, or change. Together, they chose the latter. Some called Youngstown 2010 a concession, or giving up. Morrison sees it as seizing reality, and capitalizing on it. The focus now is to bring Youngstown a more balanced economy and drawing more attainable employers, such as health care, education and services. By razing blighted, empty neighborhoods and replacing them with parks, the town can lure new residents with a more hometown feel.

It’s a big change from the past.

Controlled shrinkage needn’t signify weakness, Morrison said.

“I really think it’s a language issue, because in our culture, decline is death,” he said. “But if we describe ourselves as changing, maybe changing is better.”

To succeed, Youngstown 2010 must also embrace confidence and optimism that future leaders will keep it in motion. Local voters want that. In a referendum, they endorsed an amendment to the city charter, insisting a master plan be maintained.

Going to the ‘sweet spot’

A central component of the future there is the university. That downtown campus is home to 14,000 students, as well as faculty, administrators and support staff. They aren’t isolated from the local residents. YSU’s involvement in the city’s planning proves that.

“There’s more collaboration between the university and the city, and there’s more collaboration among different interest groups in the city,” Morrison said.

YSU will be a steady force in the city’s economy. “The university provides payroll, a tax base, significant employment. It educates people,” Morrison explained. “But the major value of the university [to the city] is 14,000 new minds coming in each fall. … You know that every fall, 14,000 people will come in there, regardless of what anybody else does. That’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of money in the wallet. Urban universities have a key role in the future of their towns.”

Terre Haute has lost its share of jobs since the 1950s, as well as population, though the number of residents has risen since 2005. As its future economy changes, the presence of three four-year colleges, as well as Ivy Tech Community College and Indiana Business College, give a city of 58,000 people a huge edge, if the town embraces them like never before.

“That’s your sweet spot,” Morrison said of Terre Haute, using a baseball analogy.

In the past, Terre Haute treated its college campuses like independent enclaves — necessary, noble, beneficial even, but separate from the city. Some tangible steps to give those concentrations of young, innovative people a chance to contribute to their adopted town emerged in recent years, including a new business incubator involving the city of Terre Haute through former Mayor Kevin Burke’s administration, ISU and Rose-Hulman.

New Mayor Duke Bennett acknowledges that progress and potential.

“There has been some progress the last few years,” he said, “and I want to take it forward even more.”

Refreshingly, Bennett refuted some of the backward, anti-college-town cynicism that trickled into last fall’s municipal campaigns. “Some people say, ‘They need to stay over on the other side of Cherry Street,’” he said, referring to the ISU community. “But that’s old thinking.”

Since taking office two weeks ago, Bennett has been hiring staff and acclimating himself to inherited projects, and hasn’t had much big-picture time. But he’s met with ISU President Lloyd Benjamin, who will step down on June 30. A search committee, which ironically includes former Mayor Burke, is in the process of finding Benjamin’s successor. Meanwhile, Rose-Hulman hired Gerald Jakubowski as president in 2006, and St. Mary-of-the-Woods brought in its first male, first layperson president, David Behrs, in 2007. Bennett has yet to meet them.

If Terre Haute is searching for its future economic niche, it needs to deeply involve its “sweet spot” — the local colleges.

A college-town atmosphere here is “a gold mine that hasn’t been discovered yet,” Jakubowski said.

“These five institutions can be used for economic development. They can be used to bring corporations to Terre Haute and the surrounding area,” Jakubowski said. “The city and county leadership needs to bring these five institutions together and see how to leverage that.”

Rose, for example, is currently compiling its own campus strategic plan, charting its next seven to 10 years. Some of its goals are improving Rose’s diversity, and making sure all of its students have an international learning experience before they graduate. The school also intends to develop a program involving all of its major departments to “address the problems of our nation and the world.” It will focus on lowering dependence on foreign oil, developing renewable fuels, reversing global warming, recycling and health care.

Someday, those Rose students will be solving those problems in cities around America. Shouldn’t Terre Haute be the first to let them exercise their ideas?

The city needs a Terre Haute 2010 or 2015 or 2020. And the colleges should be at the table, helping formulate that plan.

“The real question for a place like Youngstown or Terre Haute or similar towns is, what is here today that we can build on for tomorrow?” Morrison said.

As Jakubowski put it, “Terre Haute has the makings of being a real college town, and I don’t think that’s happened yet. I think it can happen, though.”

That would be a change. Do we want it?

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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