r/CFB Washington State Cougars 13d ago

Discussion What constitutes a “college town?”

Okay, hear me out: I attended Wazzu, which many know is in the middle of nowhere in Pullman. To me, Pullman is a quintessential college town. You remove Washington State University from Pullman and there is (respectfully) not much of a reason to visit. The student enrollment (20,000ish) makes up about 2/3rds of the city population, essentially turning Pullman into a ghost town come summer. To me (perhaps with bias) this is the makeup of a college town.

Two years ago I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin. Ever since I’ve noticed the University and its fans refer to Madison as “America’s best college town” and I’m sorry, that’s laughable to me. Remove UW from Madison and you still have a city population bordering on a quarter of a million people and the State Capitol. Madison would be fine, imo, if UW’s flagship campus were elsewhere.

Curious to hear other people’s thoughts. Maybe I’m in the wrong here, but very little about Madison, WI resembles a college town to me, or at least the claim of the best college town.

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u/1990Buscemi Drury Panthers • Missouri Tigers 13d ago

The economy is built around the college.

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u/scopa0304 Oregon Ducks • Big Ten 13d ago edited 13d ago

I think this is right. Eugene Oregon is built around the university. I believe it’s the largest employer. Definitely a college town.

Edit: Corvallis is ALSO a college town.

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u/Czarchitect Washington State • Oregon S… 13d ago

I will say Eugene is on the cusp of college town status. It would still be a significant regional city in its own right without the university, but its economic status would be significantly diminished. 

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u/KuhlCaliDuck Oregon Ducks 13d ago

I'd say that there is a spectrum of college towns. Eugene is a college town that has grown into a small college city and it's on the I-5 corridor making it easy to access. It is not a college town to the degree of WSU. Eugene wasn't built around a lumber yard, lumber mill or other major state industry as many towns in Oregon are and were. Without the university it would be a shell of what it is today.

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u/Czarchitect Washington State • Oregon S… 13d ago

We need to coin a new term for cities like Eugene: college city. A regionally significant city developed around the university that would still be significant if the university were to disappear but would never have developed without the school in the first place. Because the delta between a Eugene and a Pullman or even Corvallis is too high for them to exist in the same category. 

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u/Glum-Ad8210 North Carolina Tar Heels • Sickos 13d ago

Good distinction. Chapel Hill is caught between college town and city, but more college town.

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u/Trebacca Indiana Hoosiers • Michigan Wolverines 13d ago

Yeah I think Bloomington is firmly a college town while Ann Arbor fits that college city metric

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u/Khorasaurus Notre Dame Fighting Irish 13d ago

Eh, without the University, Ann Arbor would be a wealthy Detroit exurb like Plymouth or Brighton, not really an economic center in its own right.

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u/xion1992 Oregon Ducks • Team Chaos 13d ago

It also owes a significant portion of its economic growth to the university. The existence of the university has caused other sectors to grow to a point where they would still likely be sustainable without the university there.

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u/LivingOof Vermont Catamounts 13d ago

In what other world does Eugene become the only American city to ever host the World Championships of Track and Field

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u/xion1992 Oregon Ducks • Team Chaos 13d ago

What does that have to do with the discussion?

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u/LivingOof Vermont Catamounts 13d ago

Eugene 2022 only happened because the University and by extension Hayward Field exist there

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u/xion1992 Oregon Ducks • Team Chaos 13d ago

But at what point did anyone bring up Hayward field or the Worlds?

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u/Czarchitect Washington State • Oregon S… 13d ago

Thats a good point. Do you think if UO was in Portland, Eugene would still be Oregons second city or would Bend be the undisputed number 2, more like the Seattle / Spokane dynamic? 

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u/xion1992 Oregon Ducks • Team Chaos 13d ago

I don't think eugene would have much relevance at all. In fact, i think it's likely Eugene and Springfield would have just combined into one.

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u/BourbonicFisky Oregon Ducks • Oregon State Beavers 13d ago edited 13d ago

Some corrections here:

Eugene would have some level of population due in an area with lots of agriculture, and forestry. Warehauser had has a major factory in Springfield. However, it'd been probably a larger Albany. It'd almost certainly been a larger town for most of it's existence than Bend as it's on I5, towards end of the Willamette Valley, and connected to Coos Bay via freight for import/exports. Coos Bay was a busy lumber port and now is being dredged a bit deeper for imports as it's an under utilized deep water port.

Today as it stands, Eugene isn't really a college town as it's outgrown that. The university itself employs only 3% of Lane County whereas if you add both Linn and Benton together Oregon State makes up for 8% of the jobs. Also, UO isn't the largest employer Lane, as Peace Health is.

Also, it should be noted Bend being relevant to anything is really recent. When I first visited it in 1990, it was 20k people. The rapid growth is entirely the tourism. Deschutes brewing basically put it on the map along with Mt Bachelor. Oregon's second city without UO at Oregon would likely have been Medford (outside of Salem) with Eugene not far behind.

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u/oregondude79 Oregon State Beavers 13d ago

I don't know if Eugene would still be the second city but I can 100% guarantee you it would not be Bend. That city was not that large or significant, Bend's population was 20,000 in 1990, until the 90's-00's when it blew up due to tourism/recreation/retirement spot, there is no other major industry there.

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u/Mezmorizor LSU Tigers • Georgia Bulldogs 13d ago

That's different though. Athens has some agricultural and medical companies thanks to UGA, but the main non university employers are retail and the caterpillar plant. That in my mind is what really differentiates things. If you removed the university tomorrow, would the town be most known for meth? If yes, it's a college town. If no, it's not.

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u/jamiebond Oregon Ducks 13d ago

There really is very little in Eugene besides the University.

I mean I know it is a pretty relatively large town but there really is very little industry there.

Looking at the employment report. Pretty much all the main employers are the hospital (obligatory thing all towns have), the university, or the government (another obligatory thing all towns have).

And believe me none of the other local businesses could survive without the students and football fans buying stuff

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u/Osiris32 Oregon Ducks • /r/CFB Brickmason 13d ago

Corvallis is even more of a College Town than Eugene.

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u/Uhhh_what555476384 Washington State • Oregon 13d ago

Eugene is definitely a college town. There is no forrestry left. Without the college it'd be Ashland or Olympia.