Our Town Gown: An Evaluation of the Relationship Between The City of Oxford and The University of Mississippi

摘要

This work is a study of the relationship between Oxford, Mississippi and its primary institution: the University of Mississippi. Problems and conflicts have long plagued the relationships between colleges and their host cities as the separate bodies each have their own objectives and responsibilities, which may not always align. This work seeks to analyze the strategies and objectives of both the City of Oxford and the University of Mississippi (UM) through the examination of their published documents regarding objectives and, especially, land use planning. This analysis can be used to determine the fortitude of UM and Oxford’s relationships in terms of overcoming or avoiding conflict in the future as they both continue to grow. The methods used were a review of primary and secondary documents as well as multiple personal and email interviews with officials from both the University and the City. The relationship between Oxford and UM was found to be limitedly affected by many common issues experienced in town-gown relationships with the greatest weakness being complications related to student housing. Knowledge of these deficiencies or weak points in comparison to other town-gown relationships and strategies is used to determine possible solutions which could be implemented specifically in the case of Oxford-UM to improve the local relationship.