Townie View

In most college towns, the cultural divide between college students and townies can be pretty wide. It's similar to the divide between the natives and the visitors to any area. In New York City, for example, visitors are often refered to as "Tourons" and made fun of by those who never leave Manhattan.

The majority of us who have been living and breathing in Worcester for most, if not all of our lives, can easily remain completely unaware of the tens of thousands of students who live here during the school year. It's only during July and August of every year that the impact of their absence might impinge somewhat upon the awareness of most townies.

Indeed, the very birth of the word "Wormtown" may very well have sprung out from the vacuum being created by the spring exodus of students in 1978, when L.B. Worm took a look around and is alleged to have said, "This scene is so dead, maybe I should call it Wormtown."

The phenomenon of the annual spring evacuation is something that every retail business in town feels. It's the omen of the summer to come wherein the streets of Worcester look like a ghost town. If you don't believe me, watch the T&G webcam during the morning "rush hour" on any weekday during July and August.

Without the colleges, it would be like this all year 'round. Schools, in matters of cause and effect in Worcester, are the largest single category that exists.

As a townie in a college town, I find it interesting to see what Worcester looks like to the people who run the local college websites. I could find nothing about Worcester on QCC's website. But MCPH has this, Becker has that, WSC offers this look, Umass Medical School has this to show, and WPI offers a short take on us here.

Assumption has On The Move In Worcester, which gets us more into the spirit of things.

In the "student life" section of the Holy Cross website, there's Word On Worcester that has lots of content, and lots of positive things to say (watch the sub-menu changes on the left-hand side).

Clark University has "9 Ways to Become an Engaged Clarkie" with a dial over the columned "Discover Worcester" image on the right, and a 1 thru 9 selection widget. Number 8 ("Have Fun") is a slideshow.

Finally, there is the Colleges of Worcester Consortium offering. They've gotten a grant to produce an online video touting this college town we live in. I posted about this as soon as I heard about it.

The ETA for the online video is mid-August, so I'll be re-visiting this subject again.