Candidates in Hillsdale’s recent election said that the town has a good relationship with Hillsdale College in the forum on Oct. 22. This left college students wondering: were the candidates spewing political jargon or just misguided?
Hillsdale’s downtown does not have a Hillsdale College sign, poster, or even a hint that there is a school less than a mile down the road. In return, students seldom venture into the city’s shops and restaurants, of which many close before students finish with classes anyway. To solve this, Hillsdale town should work with Hillsdale College.
According to Gary Wolfram, Hillsdale College Professor in Economics and Public Policy, the college brings in thousands of visitors a year.
But because the city has so little to offer in the way of food, recreation, and entertainment, the college has created an almost completely self-sufficient environment for its students and visitors.
Many of these guests come to campus as wealthy donors to the college. It seems logical that the community would want a piece of the pie, but the city seems uninterested in stepping up its game.
According to the United States Census Bureau’s latest study conducted in 2011, only 16 of Hillsdale’s 797 establishments were for the “arts, entertainment, or recreation.” To put this number in more perspective, www.accessmygov.com reports that a meager 2.23 percent of Hillsdale’s budget went towards “recreation and culture” in 2012, while Ann Arbor allocates more than double of that percentage to creating a college town for University of Michigan students.
There is one hotel in Hillsdale, leaving most visitors the option of either staying in the college’s Dow Leadership Center Hotel or in a neighboring town. And for students hoping to study late into the night, or even into the evening, there is no coffee shop or similar gathering place open past 7 p.m. any day of the week. It makes sense that students often say, “Why would I go downtown, there’s nothing to do.” There really is nothing to do for a college student; thus, the city doesn’t get their business. Hillsdale offers very little to serve the market the college provides.
Roads were the primary issue in the Nov. 5 election. Town leadership thinks that better ones will attract business and foster economic development—in about 260 years. In the meantime, why not make use of the economic resource that’s been here for 150: Hillsdale College. Unfortunately, the current focus is over whether to cut Granicus—the software used to film city council meetings—from the city budget for a bit more road money.
Although every candidate labeled the city-college relationship as good at the forum, then-mayoral candidate Brian Watkins did admit more could be done on the city’s side.
“When it’s Homecoming at Hillsdale College, you shouldn’t be able to come into town and not know that it’s Homecoming,” he said. “I think we could do a much better job at recognizing that we have a great college here.”
Newly elected mayor Scott Sessions added that he’d like to see stores selling Hillsdale College apparel added to the downtown.
Several Hillsdale business owners have successfully tailored their shops to these interests. For example, 8 North owner, Mindi Meyer said her sales have increased by 20 percent since deciding to sell college-aged clothing. And by finding out “what that [the college] demographic would want,” Broad Street Market Ritter said his businesses has increased dramatically.
Hillsdale Director of Economic Development Mary Wolfram explains that few businesses offer goods for the college market partially because there is a lack of students who currently shop downtown.
“All of economic development is like the chicken and the egg,” Mary Wolfram said. “In order for the students to come here, we need businesses they will frequent, but in order to open those businesses, we need students to come to them.”
But the success seen by business owners like Meyer and Ritter shows that if the city takes the initiative to serve the college market that the business will come.
Mary Wolfram hopes to foster a good city-college relationship. “I would really like to see Hillsdale move from being a town with a college in it to being a college town,” Mary Wolfram said. “Both the college and the town have an interest in being a college town.”
