In 1995 when Evan Dobelle was appointed President of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, he arrived to a campus that was surrounded by drug addicts, decaying buildings and a high crime rate.
The bank, insurance and manufacturing bigwigs of the past century were ghosts. None of the teachers or administrators of the college lived in walking distance of the school.
Dobelle wouldn’t tolerate the poverty outside Trinity’s privileged gates, so he unlocked the padlocks and invited the neighborhood into the ivory tower. He got the city to condemn two crack houses, bought them with Trinity money and knocked them down.
In its place he built a Boys’ and Girls’ Club, complete with swimming pool and modern facilities and staffed it with Trinity professionals and student volunteers. He’s now behind a $200 million redevelopment of the area with new schools and housing.
People are moving back to the city, houses are getting renovated and Trinity’s enrollment is up. We’re reinventing ties between town and gown in this hour of The Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
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