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Green Street at night, in Campustown.

It’s easy to think that Universities and campus towns exist in their own bubbles, immune to the consequences of the real world. If you think about, the University is an institution that holds captive a 40,000 strong group of the nation’s largest target market: 18-25 year olds not living off of their own income. Business should be booming and the strange world of academia should be impervious to the effects of recession outside of town, right?

As much as it’s nice to think that CU is some kind of suspension of reality, our town is having to deal with this economy just like any other. Students and faculty of the University has been sent a series of e-mails since October from President White concerning the school’s budget concerns. My roommate, a music student, has been warned by the college to plan the Spring semester assuming that all summer courses are cancelled. My other friends who work for the University now have hour restrictions, and one is even arguing against earnings being taken away from her from the summer. The downtown areas have also been coping. With more expensive parking meters and closed streets contributing to the problem, business is getting tough.

President White, in his annual interview aired on WILL-TV this past Monday, did acknowledge a lot of student and faculty concerns and clarified the vague language in his e-mails. The transparency was much appreciated and hopefully continues throughout the semester. Call me optimistic, but I think that while it’s easy to consider campus towns as weird bubbles, CU is more “real” of a town than most and the people here realize that things getting a little tougher shouldn’t prevent us from doing the things we want to do.