In Our Opinion
All in all, Homecoming 2016 at Eastern Washington University looks like quite a success.
If measured by last Saturday when over 10,300 people packed Roos Field to watch the Eastern Eagles score a 49-31 Big Sky Conference victory over Northern Colorado, and remain undefeated in the conference, it only adds an exclamation point to the week.
Along the way, however, there was one notable glitch that gained some ink on these pages, that being the unfortunate cancellation of an Oct. 7 event being promoted by the Cheney Merchants Association. It would have possibly helped local businesses draw some awareness to themselves.
A hosted business showcase that was to take place at the Holiday Inn Express would have exposed local purveyors of goods and services to those visiting Cheney for the weekend.
Who could have not said “Yes, we’ll be there,” to the promise of complimentary adult beverages and samplings of some Cheney cuisine while learning about the area’s business community?
For a variety of reasons the event was cancelled. There were some ruffled feathers between EWU and the CMA
The Cheney Free Press editorial board discussed this at length and while we could have easily assigned blame — on both sides — our thoughts were, let’s work to fix the problem.
For years, perhaps, decades, there has been the notion of a disconnect of varying proportions between the proverbial “town and gown,” which in real terms is the university and the community of Cheney.
Some businesses get the sense that the Eastern community simply disregards them.
However, the hand is often extended from the university, whose operating budget is just over $280 million for fiscal year 2017. For instance, $7,174.20 from hotel-motel tax money was approved to aid Homecoming promotions.
Yet when Eastern is asked to help business in a reciprocal way, there are often roadblocks in some shape or form, usually bureaucratic, or a requirement of pay to play.
The school forgets sometimes it’s the various taxes collected here already that help them exist.
Before EWU football was the hottest ticket around on a half-dozen Saturdays each fall, some might have ventured to Pullman to watch Washington State play in Martin Stadium.
And if you did, you may have thought there was a different “town and gown” relationship between the two communities that coexist in the largest city on the Palouse.
Sure enough, there is, or so says Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson, who retired in recent years as a professor of communications and is the dynamic public address voice of Cougar football.
He and another professor emeritus, former EWU economics teacher, Cheney Mayor, Tom Trulove, share many a conversation as they sit on committees together.
“We could do a lot better, especially the university, working together,” Trulove told Johnson, he said.
Just what does that relationship look like in Pullman?
“We actually had a town/gown meeting, probably a month or so ago, and this was at the insistence of our new president, Kirk Schulz,” Johnson said.
There, the various parties of the university, city government and the business community were all sitting around the table discussing important matters. Johnson said there is good communication in his city with the university, “But how can we make it better?” is the mission.
Johnson and Schulz traded cell numbers and communicate sans “handlers,” which makes things work exceedingly well Johnson said. We’re sure Mayor Trulove and EWU President Dr. Mary Cullinan have that same ability.
But where things seem to slide out of bounds are in the layers below Cullinan’s office in Showalter Hall.
In Pullman, the mayor and university officials meet for lunch at least once a quarter. That’s a great starting point here in Cheney, but the business community also needs seats at that table.
With what goes on in Pullman as a model, let’s begin to see a new way forward and move the Cheney-EWU relationship ball down field like Gage Gubrud and his talented offense do every Saturday.
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