Loh presents vision to surrounding cities

University President Wallace Loh outlined his plan to connect the university with the surrounding communities last night at the "Four Cities Meeting," which marked his first opportunity to share his vision with neighboring city governments.

In his remarks, Loh addressed a wide-array of long-standing goals — from the planning of the Purple Line that would connect Bethesda to College Park; the 38-acre East Campus development project to build more retail, apartment complexes and hotels; and the plans to create a county-wide charter school. While Loh has unveiled these goals on a number of occasions since his arrival at this university last November, it is the first time he has held a "collaborative dialogue" with officials from the city of College Park, Berwyn Heights, Greenbelt and New Carrollton.

He said he not only intends to improve the university, but the surrounding areas as well.

"To continue the university's very remarkable public trajectory we need to develop College Park into a top-20 college town," Loh said in his opening remarks.

Increased collaboration with surrounding cities is crucial to achieving this feat, he said, and several council members agreed. Loh said he plans to create a point person who will directly interact with these communities.

"I have all sorts of people in my cabinet, but we have nobody who deals with local outreach and development," he said. "I would like to see [a university representative] go to all these communities to build these relationships. It's almost as if the surrounding neighborhood is not even in the consciousness of many people in the university."

Vital to the success of that plan is the need for graduate students and faculty members to reside in the city, Loh said, or at the very least, in Prince George's County.

New Carrollton Councilwoman Katrina R. Dodro expressed what she considers a need to create more charter schools and for the university to forge a stronger connection with local elementary schools.

"That is a very hard question," Loh said. "So, I can't give you an answer other than I recognize the need for it."

Additionally, Loh said one of the most pressing issues now is to develop an appropriate response to the continuous concern with public safety both on and off the campus.

Several council members said the meeting appeared to be productive, and Greenbelt Councilman Emmett Jordan said he hopes to build on these promises of partnerships.

"I like the fact that we have this opportunity to come together and share ideas," he said. "We have so many mutual interests that it's important to all of our communities."

College Park Mayor Andy Fellows said Loh's willingness to listen to the ideas of other communities will go a long way in establishing a positive relationship between the university and city.

"Since Dr. Loh has been here he's been such a great collaborative partner," Fellows said. "He's someone who really listens and really understands the value of the community to the university so that it's not two sets of common interests."

Loh concluded his remarks by setting the framework for future dialogues and his interest in using the meeting between four cities' governments as a springboard for bettering relationships between communities.

"I would appreciate if we could keep this channel of communication open," he said." "You can hold me accountable for the things I've said we are going to do, and I'm very much committed to this open and transparent collaboration."

sinclair@umdbk.com