USD and Vermillion? Is there a town and gown relationship?

[Nidaros]

Under the Smack, JDJack posted a link from Vermillion PlainTalk relating to Dividends Of D1.
This lead me to put the below comments together. To be honest, I am not that familiar with Vermillion as a community nor have I ever attended a class at USD. But here are my thoughts about the Article:

The article is very interesting. Not to pick on Nielsen, but he tries to to leave people with the impression that SDSU does not exist and also ignores that another South Dakota school has taken the plunge to D1 athletics. The benefits he is trying to sell to the community are on target and I give him credit for that but can they dup the SDSU trail of progress? That remains to be seen.

I wonder whose idea was it to have this interview? The newspaper? Or is the immediate community of Vermillion having problems buying into the D1 concept? Of course Brookings went through phase of doubts too, and we still might have some doubters about the move to D1. Does Vermillion have more doubters?

Those of you who are more familiar with Vermillion can set me straight, but I have been told that the business community and the University in the past have tended to ignore each other and that they seldom united as a community. If Brookings has a edge up on Vermillion, its in town and gown relationships. Thats my impression but I have a bias in growing up in Brookings.

The Argus did a large article a while back on Vermillion and its reaction to the proposed pipeline. The pipeline should be good for growth for Vermillion and USD, but there are a number of people who are adamantly opposed to a pipeline. Some food providers think the opposite, so I recall from the article.

[Jack4Life]

Re: USD and Vermillion? Is there a town and gown relationship?

Those of you who are more familiar with Vermillion can set me straight, but I have been told that the business community and the University in the past have tended to ignore each other and that they seldom united as a community. If Brookings has a edge up on Vermillion, its in town and gown relationships. Thats my impression but I have a bias in growing up in Brookings.

My work takes to Vermillion at least a couple times a week. I am surprised to see that the business community and the Udot do not work together very closely. There are some business people that realize they need to cooperate w/ the Udot, but several of the businesses do not make an attempt. It may come from Udot that way also, but I don't have much contact w/ Udot staff. I would feel it is imperative that the city and school work together since Vermillion does not have the business climate that Brookings does. I have lived near Vermillion most of my life, so I cannot compare it to Brookings since I have not lived there except for college. It looks to me that Vermillion needs to work with the school more than Brookings does. Even without the school, Brookings appears that it would be a successful business community. However, without the school, there would not be much in Vermillion.

[rabidrabbit]

Re: USD and Vermillion? Is there a town and gown relationship?

Having spent my summers of 78/79 watching the DakotaDome be built, and struggling to survive Vermillion in the summer, my impression is that Vermillion is ok with the U, but doesn't build off it.

Brookings, in contrast, has built many of its industries off of the relationship to SDSU.

[Nidaros]

Re: USD and Vermillion? Is there a town and gown relationship?

Having spent my summers of 78/79 watching the DakotaDome be built, and struggling to survive Vermillion in the summer, my impression is that Vermillion is ok with the U, but doesn't build off it.

Brookings, in contrast, has built many of its industries off of the relationship to SDSU.

This is what I was getting at. I dont know how much, but maybe something is starting to change in Vermillion. I believe they do have an industrial park. The Polaris plant has been in existence since about the early 1990's. I used to drive by it when it was being built on the way from my home in Columbus Nebraska to SDSU games, and I wondered what it was going to be. Now we know and it has to be a good employer for Vermillion. Not Daktronics, but no doubt a help to the community.

I think the AD needs to talk to the business community one on one about D1 athletics rather than sound off in a the local newspaper. Dr Oien I know for a fact has had to do the same thing, but it was done more with one on one contacts, and not a half-a@s job through the newspaper.

First Bank and Trust, possibly the oldest business in Brookings also owns one of the bigger banks in Vermillion. I wonder if they are or going to doing any corporate sponsorships like they have at SDSU.

[JackJD]

Re: USD and Vermillion? Is there a town and gown relationship?

Having attended law school at USD, I spent three years living in Vermillion. I'm not critical of Vermillion and rather enjoyed the experience of living there. Carey's served very cold beer and the Char Bar was a fun hangout too.

I very much enjoyed my four school years in Brookings too. Hort's served very cold beer and Jim's Tap was a fun hangout too. If I had to rank the experiences, certainly I'd rank my undergrad years in Brookings much higher. I think one tends to put down "roots" where they attend undergrad so it may not be fair to compare the two experiences. I talk about SDSU and Brookings in terms of "we" and "us" and I do not do that when speaking about USD.

I thought there was less of a connection between the town of Vermillion and USD compared to Brookings and SDSU. I think in recent years steps have been taken to address the connection. USD employees/professors/administrators have become more involved in City Government and the community in general since Abbott became President and that benefits Vermillion and USD.

I recall wearing my SDSU letterjacket into Carey's the morning of the Dakota Days parade my first year in Vermillion. I got a lot of good-natured teasing (yeah, a couple bozos gave me the skunk eye, too -- probably comparable to the reception an idiot wearing a USD letterjacket would get walking in to a bar in Brookings the morning of a Hobo Day when USD was the opponent).

[Nidaros]

Re: USD and Vermillion? Is there a town and gown relationship?

I thought there was less of a connection between the town of Vermillion and USD compared to Brookings and SDSU. I think in recent years steps have been taken to address the connection. USD employees/professors/administrators have become more involved in City Government and the community in general since Abbott became President and that benefits Vermillion and USD.

I am with you on the leadership of Abbott. He has done a good job in leading USD, and maybe a successful businessman was what was needed for USD in order to catch up with SDSU and the other five state assisted schools. Traditionally USD has not had good leadership and that might explain the gap between town and gown that possibly now is disappearing.

Abbott just might be the guy to lead them through the D1 transistion. If USD's prior presidents going way back had been as aggressive and sensed the importance of cooperation, USD might possibly have a larger enrollment and possibly the flagship of South Dakota, but they are not.