Flagship state university towns

[Docere]

Yeah, gotta wonder about some of these (University of North Texas?)

[iheartthed]

University of Houston also isn't a flagship state university.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by The North One

Madison is also a state capital so IDK if we could ever say it was a textbook college town.



Well so is Ann Arbor. Although I guess not to the same extent Evanston is.

I was going to mention the fact that they are state capitals.

If University of Illinois was founded in 1867 in Springfield which was the Capital of the state by than, instead at Urbana-Champaign I would figure Springfield would be a much larger and nicer town. Not Madison, Topography is different but I'm sure it would have been nice Capital/collage city.

Iowa City is a pretty good collage town and used to be the capital of Iowa before they moved it to Des Moines.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by bnk

I was going to mention the fact that they are state capitals.

If University of Illinois was founded in 1867 in Springfield which was the Capital of the state by than, instead at Urbana-Champaign I would figure Springfield would be a much larger and nicer town. Not Madison, Topography is different but I'm sure it would have been nice Capital/collage city.

in some ways, it's kind of a shame for downstate IL that a significant secondary urban center didn't form in the middle of the state to have at least a modest amount of gravity to counterbalance chicago to a small degree.

instead, central IL ended up with that triangular cluster of 5 small cities defined by springfield, champaign, and peoria, with bloomington and decatur in between. they're all pretty small potatoes on their own, but if the bulk of their total population had coalesced around one place, instead of being dispersed among the 5 small cities, it might have actually amounted to something much more significant than the sum of their parts.

MSA populations (2020):

peoria: 402K
champaign: 222K
springfield: 202K
bloomington: 171K
decatur: 103K


that's 1.1M people. it's no chicago, but it might've been big enough to warrant a real airport, and with a real airport, perhaps companies like ADM and Caterpillar don't move their HQ's to chicago, and maybe with major corporate presence anchors like those two giants, others could be grown/attracted, along with all the other tangential benefits that come from being a state capital and home to the state flagship university.


it's interesting to think about anyway, but water under the bridge now.

[McBane]

If you're looking for that classic, quintessential college town, then look no further than State College, PA. The town is literally called State College! Also, its location was chosen as the geographic center of the State, so it's hours from Philly, Pittsburgh, and any other urban area in PA. It's not the state capital and is totally it's own thing, 100% dependent on the college. And aside from a few suburban areas on the fringes of town, it's entirely a pleasant, walkable town with a nice downtown area.

[3rd&Brown]

I went to Cornell. Ithaca is a great college town.

Nothing comparable to Madison or Ann Arbor, but def in a league of its own in the Northeast.

I've always been gobsmacked by the fact that New York has no identifiable Flagship College. Functionally, the SUNY system does a great job, but come on...it has literally no identity. Probably the most iconic of the SUNY schools are actually within New York City and with the rise of the popularity of cities generally, have taken on their personalities. But it's one of the few shortcomings of New York State, generally.

A more interesting topic might be least iconic flagship campuses, towns. Sounds like Purdue and Texas A&M might be in the running. There are other flagships I don't know much about, but also never hear about. I've done some Google Streetview of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. It seems completely underwhelming.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by McBane

If you're looking for that classic, quintessential college town, then look no further than State College, PA. The town is literally called State College! Also, its location was chosen as the geographic center of the State, so it's hours from Philly, Pittsburgh, and any other urban area in PA. It's not the state capital and is totally it's own thing, 100% dependent on the college. And aside from a few suburban areas on the fringes of town, it's entirely an urban, walkable town.

Granted I've never actually been even though I'm from PA. But I would argue given its so isolated, it's also a missed opportunity. Many other states have turned their flagship institutions into regional economic powerhouses.

There's little economic spinoff coming from Penn State. And the middle of the state sorely needs some umph.

[pj3000]

What does this "flagship" university term even mean?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

A more interesting topic might be least iconic flagship campuses, towns. Sounds like Purdue and Texas A&M might be in the running.

west lafayette was the most underwhelming of the nine big 10 university cities/towns i've been to.

but just across the wabash river over in regular lafayette, there is a pretty awesomely classic county courthouse square in the center of town, which is nice.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4190...7i16384!8i8192

Originally Posted by pj3000

What does this "flagship" university term even mean?

wikipedia:

Most states in the United States provide public university education through one or more university systems, with each system having multiple campuses located throughout the state. The phrase flagship institution or flagship university may be applied to an individual school or campus within each state system. The College Board, for example, defines flagship universities as the best-known institutions in the state, noting that they were generally the first to be established and are frequently the largest and most selective, as well as the most research-intensive public universities.[1][2][3] These schools are often land-grant research universities.[4] According to Robert M. Berdahl, then-chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, the phrase "flagship" came into existence in the 1950s when the Morrill Act schools were joined by newer institutions built in a wave of post-war expansion of state university systems.[5]

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship#University

[Atlas]

Boulder, Colorado

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by pj3000

What does this "flagship" university term even mean?

It don’t mean nuttin’ none.

[McBane]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Granted I've never actually been even though I'm from PA. But I would argue given its so isolated, it's also a missed opportunity. Many other states have turned their flagship institutions into regional economic powerhouses.

There's little economic spinoff coming from Penn State. And the middle of the state sorely needs some umph.

This is partially true unless you want to accept the fact that, if not for the University, this area would be probably nothing but forests. But I get what you're saying.

But as it relates to the OP, I think State College is as good an example as any. For the purposes of this thread, its isolation only enhances its college town feel as there are no outside influences from a nearby city and the town itself is completely reliant on the college and nothing else.

[homebucket]

What's the definition of town though? Some of these seem more like small cities rather than towns. Berkeley feels more like a neighborhood of SF rather than what I envision of a true college "town". Davis or SLO probably fits this description better, but they also aren't flagship schools.

[sopas ej]

Isla Vista!

Wikipedia



I only went to UC Santa Barbara for a year (my freshman year in college) before transferring to Cal State Long Beach, but Isla Vista really felt like everyone was a college student. The crazy silly antics, especially Halloween. If you looked older than 30, it was like "So, are you like, a graduate student?" Or maybe you were presumed to be someone's parent.

A few years ago, my partner and I stopped in Isla Vista during one of our road trips, and I thought to myself, 'I wonder if these kids think we're professors...'

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I've always been gobsmacked by the fact that New York has no identifiable Flagship College. Functionally, the SUNY system does a great job, but come on...it has literally no identity. Probably the most iconic of the SUNY schools are actually within New York City and with the rise of the popularity of cities generally, have taken on their personalities. But it's one of the few shortcomings of New York State, generally.

Three of the best SUNY schools are Buffalo, Albany, and Stony Brook. Buffalo and Albany aren't college towns and Stony Brook is entirely suburban. I don't think Binghamton is really considered a college town, either. Maybe New Paltz is the closest thing to a college town in the SUNY system.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I only went to UC Santa Barbara for a year (my freshman year in college) before transferring to Cal State Long Beach, but Isla Vista really felt like everyone was a college student. The crazy silly antics, especially Halloween. If you looked older than 30, it was like "So, are you like, a graduate student?" Or maybe you were presumed to be someone's parent.

A few years ago, my partner and I stopped in Isla Vista during one of our road trips, and I thought to myself, 'I wonder if these kids think we're professors...'

I took summer courses at UC Irvine about 25 years ago and we lived less than a ten minute drive from UC Irvine and Irvine is definitely not a college town (despite UC Irvine being one of the best public universities in the country).

Of the college "towns" that I've spent significant time in, I think Madison is my favorite. Lovely setting, unpretentious Midwesternism, and the core is super walkable.

I've visited Columbia, MO many times over the years and have always enjoyed it. The core is very walkable/bikeable and active. It's an artsy, unpretentious small city.

I spent a summer in Ann Arbor 20 years ago and liked it but... 20 years ago.

I lived in Boulder for 2 years. The foothills and proximity to the mountains are nice but otherwise it was was pretty meh. Very West coast pretentious. The area around Pearl street is urbanish with some decent architecture but outside of that it feels like a suburb.

I lived in Charlottesville for over a decade. The scenery is lovely and the very small core is pleasant, but there's not much else to it. The city is horribly connected (no grid except right around the downtown mall, lots of dead ends and cul-de-sacs), automobile traffic has exploded due to sprawl, and little to no effort has been made to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. Culturally it's pretty stuffy and Vinyard-Vines preppie.

[Pioneer]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ i'd challenge Southern Illinois University's inclusion on that list.

it's a good enough school, but a "flagship" university for the state of illinois?

i'd argue no. it's nowhere remotely close to the prestige level /academic reputation of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

hell, i'd even argue that the Unviersity of Illinois Chicago is now much more of a secondary state flagship than SIU is, at least going by academic reputation.

UIC is the only other R1 public university in illinois, along with UIUC. (U. chicago and northwestern are the other two, but they're both private schools).

U of Illinois is obviously the flagship public university in Illinois. Not sure why they'd identify S. Illinois other than a mistake or some odd criteria (establishment date?).

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Three of the best SUNY schools are Buffalo, Albany, and Stony Brook. Buffalo and Albany aren't college towns and Stony Brook is entirely suburban. I don't think Binghamton is really considered a college town, either. Maybe New Paltz is the closest thing to a college town in the SUNY system.

SUNY Oneonta is a college town. Oneonta is really under the radar, but nice, with two colleges (SUNY Onenota and Hartwick College) nestled in very scenic hills/small mountains.

SUNY Cortland, SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Plattsburgh also feel college town-y. A lot of the smaller SUNYs feel like traditional college towns but instead with a public university (as many were private colleges taken over by the state).

[Docere]

Originally Posted by homebucket

What's the definition of town though? Some of these seem more like small cities rather than towns. Berkeley feels more like a neighborhood of SF rather than what I envision of a true college "town". Davis or SLO probably fits this description better, but they also aren't flagship schools.

It's a good question with no definitive answer. Some are small places that pretty much "pure" university towns (Amherst, MA or State College, PA). Others are cities where the university presence is very prominent but not the "only" thing (Madison being a good example of a mid-sized city of the type; Burlington, VT could be a smaller example). But any metro beyond 1,000,000 is too big to qualify, in my opinion.