Students assay Newark's social geography

class project interviews result in a useful Town & Gown dialogue

A geography class project has spun into a useful Town and Gown dialogue that both groups said they hope will become a regular event.

Fall semester's Geography 301 was a service-learning class that required students to videotape interviews with seven groups within the city­residents, students, city officials, business owners, religious leaders, landlords and University administrators.

When the interviews were aired at an old-fashioned town meeting in November, several audience members said they really hadn't understood how much their actions affected other groups in the city.

"Maybe there are some lessons for all of us in that course,'' Edward J. Freel, policy scientist in the University's Institute for Public Administration, said. "We sort of take for granted that everybody understands everybody else's problems, and maybe we all don't.''

Billy Swiatek, a senior geography major from Wilmington, said the class led by April R. Veness, associate professor of geography, studied how social groups often act on their own behalf without considering the effects their actions might have on other groups. "The project was about making them step back to make that consideration,'' Swiatek says.

John M.Corradin, owner of The Days of Knights fantasy shop on Main Street, represented business owners at the meeting. He lauded the effort but said most groups used a "kid glove" approach at the November meeting. He said he thinks the dialogue would be more natural if the meetings were held several times a year.

"I think people would start feeling a little bit more comfortable and they would come to the meetings ready to advocate different approaches, and you'd get a more constructive dialogue,'' Corradin said.

Joan Odell, chair of the Town-Gown Committee of city representatives, residents, students and University representatives, said the one-time forum conceived by Veness' class worked very well.

"Communication is key to improving relations between the city and the University,'' she said.

John Lesher, a Newark landlord, said communication makes landlord-tenant relationships and city-University ties work. "If you lay everything out and communicate, it helps,'' he said. "That's why the town meeting was good.''

Lesher, in the class' videotape, said he thinks of Newark as a diamond, and every diamond has a flaw, sometimes more than one.

"Usually, in a diamond, they can't be corrected,'' Lesher said. "The good news is, in Newark, we can always work on them to try to improve them.''

Freel, who watched the interaction at the town meeting, said many of the panelists have been to several University-city meetings but most of them genuinely tried to respond to the issues raised by the geography class.

The difference this time was the involvement of the students and the perspective that they brought to the discussion. "The students' openness and candor set a very positive tone,'' he said.

Freel said he was struck by the students' willingness to articulate how much they learned about town-University issues and, in many cases, how unaware they had been of those issues.

"I know this course was a great deal of work for Dr. Veness and her students; however, I believe, for all involved, it was a valuable and unique learning experience that perhaps will also serve the community well in the long run,'' he said.

In their final papers for the course, several of Veness' students suggested service-learning become a larger part of the University graduation requirements.

James P. Neal, a former state senator from Newark and a new member of the University's Board of Trustees, said the relationship between the University and the city is the best he can remember. He said the town meetings were a positive way to introduce students to the community and vice versa.

"It really helps build the citizenship awareness we need,'' Neal, who has been involved in city activities for more than 30 years, said. "Wherever students go to live and work, they need to have that awareness and concern for the communities they're in. Our country doesn't work unless it gets participation and interest from citizens.

"To whatever extent more students can become involved in the local community, it can benefit them in much the same way as the University's excellent study abroad program,'' Neal said. "The University of Delaware is one of the top universities in the country in the number of students who participate in study abroad. Well, I'd like it to be one of the top universities in the country for students participating in the local community.''

Veness often incorporates service learning in her classes. Her students helped plant dozens of flowering trees on South College Avenue two years ago. One class interviewed apartment residents. One volunteered in shelters in Elkton, Newark and Wilmington.

Veness said she was grateful to all the people who participated in her class' project and glad that it stimulated further conversations.

"Not bad for a first-time effort,'' she said.

KATHY CANAVAN