Jackson: "This is Not Quinnipiac, CT"

The following is Mayor Scott Jackson's response to the interview with Quinnipiac University's President John Lahey in the school's student newspaper the Quinnipiac Chronicle:

It is important for the university and its students to understand that this is not Quinnipiac, CT, it is Hamden, CT.  

Just as the university does not exist to serve the town and its residents, neither does the town and its residents exist to serve the university. We need to model the most advanced and most progressive examples of municipal/university relations because our respective constituencies deserve it. Where we fall short, we must not just admit to it, we must strive to mitigate that deficiency.  

University students who study here should feel that they are a part of this community; they shouldn't drive as if "real people" don't walk here and they shouldn't throw parties as if "real people" are not their neighbors.  We are civic actors, as are those students.  

But expectations about what it means to have the privilege and opportunity to live in Hamden should be clear, just as ramifications for failure to meet those expectations should be clear. The notion that there is gamesmanship, a chess match of wit and will between the Town and the university, somehow battling for the prize of Mount Carmel and West Woods and now North Haven, does not resonate with me.  

Our capacity to grow in collaboration, organically, each meeting the intrinsic needs of our counterparts and respecting the integrity of our protected spaces...that, to me, is a much more compelling narrative and imperative.  

Our neighborhoods are undergoing seismic change and the residents should clearly understand what that means over five, 15, and 30 years because that is the scope of the mortgages they have scraped to earn.  The university should know, feel, and acknowledge that human impact.  

And if that larger vision of development subtracts from the bread that residents work for every day, they should have the opportunity to let everyone know that their piece of the American Dream has been eroded. Giving them that voice is the very least that we can do, and it is what Hamden shall do as long as I maintain my position.