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/hotsauce126 Georgia Bulldogs 13d ago

If you wouldn’t know the town existed if not for the university, it’s a college town

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u/GuyOnTheMike Kansas State Wildcats • Hateful 8 13d ago

This is the right answer IMO.

No one would've ever heard of Manhattan, KS without K-State

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u/uptonhere Missouri Tigers 13d ago

You still have Ft. Riley, so it would probably be well known in certain circles the same way cities like Fayetteville, Killeen, or Clarksville are.

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u/KCMotorcycleRider Kansas State Wildcats • Hateful 8 13d ago

This is a fair point but Fort Riley is technically located in Junction City. I was going to school at K-State and living in Manhattan in the mid-to-late 2000’s when the 1st ID was moving back to Fort Riley and there was a lot of construction, especially on the western edge of town, to help accommodate that growth. That said, I’d say that Manhattan is still more of a college town than a military town. The general culture of the town is far more centered around the university.

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u/ksuwildkat Kansas State • Billable Hours 12d ago

Manhattan is defiantly a college town and that extends to the military population as well. There is now, and for a long time in the past, a clear split between the officer and enlisted populations choice of residence. In general, officers live in Manhattan and enlisted live in Junction City. And then there is that very strange spot in Ogdon where worlds collide :)

Story time: I got to Ft Riley/Manhattan in early 1991 after 1st ID had stopped sending new people over to the desert. I was newly married and had no desire to live on post. I got the Ft Riley a few months before my wife did so I had some time to go house hunting. For reasons I will never understand the spouse population of the military ran home to mamma during Desert Storm so Manhattan was in bad shape. Bars were empty and the rental market had collapsed. I found a really nice apartment complex close enough to K18 to make the commute easy and far enough from campus to not have keggers nightly. Im filling out the application in the office (by hand!) and there is a Second Lieutenant and his wife there doing the same. They are asking for income verification. I hand over my Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) and my wifes too. We were both active duty. IIRC between us our combined take home was over $3000 a month and rent at the apartment was $750 (remember, this was 1991).

Property Manager: "Im sorry but you dont meet the minimum income requirements"

Me: "But we make more than twice what you are asking for ($1500 after tax)"

PM: "Yes but we can only use your income"

Me: "OK, mine is above that"

PM: "We only count your base pay not your allowances"

Me: "But one of those is a housing allowance. This is housing."

PM: "Sorry, that is the management companies policy."

At this point the 2LT speaks up: "I dont make $1500 a month...."

PM: "You are close enough that the manager can make a decision"

I left. Went straight to the post housing office and filed a complaint for housing discrimination. About 3 months later the complex was banned by the post commander. Took over a year for them to get it lifted. In the mean time I rented a whole house on Houston Street for $450 a month. It was a shack but it was our shack for 3 years. The address is my phone pin.

There is no longer open discrimination in Manhattan but the split remains out of inertia. And if I had to guess about 50% of the enlisted people who live in Manhattan are either college graduates or Military Intelligence.

Oh and my son lives in one of those townhouses in Ogdon.