Fayette Alliance Blog

William T. Young Library

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities will present the  second half of the two-part 2011 Lafayette Seminar “Town and Gown III: The University-Neighborhood Connection” later this evening. This seminar, which is free and open to the public, will feature a panel discussion titled “University – Community Engagement Models.” This panel will be discussing ideas and issues presented in the first part of the series, “How Great Universities Can Shape Great Cities” by Omar Blaik, in a local context. The event is scheduled to start at 6 pm at the William T. Young Library Auditorium located on University of Kentucky’s campus.

Members of this panel include:
- Leah Ashwill, director of Western Kentucky University (WKU) ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships;
- Nadia De Leon, the community engagement coordinator of the WKU ALIVE Center;
- Paul Markham, co-director of the WKU Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility and assistant professor of honors interdisciplinary studies;
- Terry Shoemaker, program coordinator at the WKU Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility;
- Katherine McCormick, the James W. and Diane V. Stuckert Service Learning Professor and an associate professor in interdisciplinary early childhood education at UK;
- Bob Kelly, architect, adjunct faculty at UK College of Design, co-chair of the University Neighborhood Advisory Council, and founding member of the Lexington-Fayette County Urban Government Town and Gown Commission;
- co-leaders of Transylvania University’s Community Engagement through the Arts Course, Kurt Gohde, professor of art, and Kremena Todorova, assistant professor of English;
-and student respondents.
The panel discussion will include also include a question and answer session.

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities presented the 2011 Lafayette Seminar “Town and Gown III: The University-Neighborhood Connection” on Feb. 16 and 23. This year’s two-part seminar, which was free and open to the public, looked at how universities and colleges can help shape the communities they call home.

The 2011 Lafayette Seminar opened with the talk “How Great Universities Can Shape Great Cities” by Omar Blaik, president and CEO of U3 Ventures LLC, a real estate development and advisory firm solely focused on developing the university market.

2011 Lafayette Seminar “How Great Universities Can Shape Great Cities” from UK Gaines Center on Vimeo.

Omar Blaik founded U3 Ventures in 2006 with the belief that anchor institutions hold the key to sustainable community and economic development in many cities across the country. He has led the advisory efforts of U3 Ventures over the past five years working with university leaders, cities and municipalities, state governments and foundations. Blaik’s advisory work focuses on institutional strategy, campus edge planning, deploying economic activity for local benefits, real estate strategy and economic feasibility. U3 Ventures specializes in leveraging economic capacity, integrating institutions with their surrounding neighborhoods, and creating opportunities for vibrancy around urban universities…Download more information.

Town-gown relations the topic of Wednesday lecture at UK

By Beverly Fortune, 2.15.11, Kentucky.com

Large urban universities often underestimate the effects their decisions have on neighborhoods around their campuses and their cities, says Omar Blaik.

“We’ve been to 30 to 40 campuses, and it is just remarkable how similar the approach is and how devastating the impact is on neighborhoods,” said Blaik, president of U3Ventures, a real estate development and consulting firm that specializes in helping universities integrate with their surroundings to create vibrant areas…Read more at Kentucky.com