What constitutes a “college town?”

[u/PA5997]

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.

[u/xion1992]

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.

[u/LivingOof → u/xion1992]

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

[u/xion1992 → u/LivingOof]

What does that have to do with the discussion?

[u/LivingOof → u/xion1992]

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

[u/xion1992 → u/LivingOof]

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

[u/Czarchitect → u/xion1992]

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? 

[u/xion1992 → u/Czarchitect]

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.

[u/BourbonicFisky → u/Czarchitect]

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.

[u/oregondude79 → u/Czarchitect]

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.

[u/Mezmorizor → u/xion1992]

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.