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New initiative inspires more collaboration between Central College and Pella [1]

['Brooklyn Draisey', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2024-02-08

Central College and the Pella community are putting their imaginations to work with the goal of creating housing, working and living opportunities for students and residents alike.

The “Imagine More: It’s Central to Pella” initiative, publicly launched in December, will blend the boundaries between college and town through strategic partnerships and projects taking place both on and off campus, Central College President Mark Putnam said.

The programs, which Putnam said will be completed over the next five years or so, will help make the college more impressive for potential students and the town more attractive for alumni and others looking for a place to plant their roots.

“This has really resonated with people because it’s a natural outgrowth of who we are as a community, both the campus and the town,” Putnam said. “So as we’ve had all kinds of meetings and discussions and brainstorming sessions about this, there’s just lots and lots of ideas that are popping up about ways we can deepen that relationship.”

Initiative covers housing, dining, business and more

“Imagine More: It’s Central to Pella” is broken into seven categories, Putnam said, which include housing, dining, workforce, business, education, participation and “a world of good,” which includes philanthropy and entrepreneurship.

Central College currently has residence halls and townhomes available for students living on campus. According to a presentation about the initiative, students past their second year are looking for more independent living situations, such as private rooms and kitchens. The current housing options also are in need of repairs.

Putnam said the initiative would have the college work with the city and developers to construct apartment-style housing on and around campus, with some units being available for community members and the rest reserved for students. This way both the college and community are meeting a need without either having to bear the costs or planning alone, he said.

The college is also working on ways for students to use funds from the college for meals at Pella’s participating restaurants and inviting residents to eat on campus, Putnam said. The program will also seek opportunities to partner with businesses for students seeking employment and residents wanting continuing education.

Karen Eischen, executive director of the Pella Area Community & Economic Alliance, said the college and city have also discussed offering office spaces on campus for local businesses. All of these ideas have come together to create opportunities for both students and residents that they wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere, she said.

“If you’re looking for a well-rounded college experience, I think these kids will really have a leg up,” Eischen said. “And I think the community is really looking forward to seeing how they can help, because it’s going to benefit everybody in the community.”

Putnam said he and others began formulating ideas for the initiative for around one year, and plan to have at least some more programmatic ideas tested and put into action by this fall. Projects involving construction or real estate, however, will take some time to fully hash out and finish, hence the five-year timeline.

Plan was inspired by college’s history

“Imagine More: It’s Central to Pella” was born out of Central College leadership thinking creatively about the future and the school’s priorities, Putnam said, which they began doing by looking back at how the college came to be.

It was Pella citizens who competed with other communities to be the location the Baptist Church chose to house a higher education institution more than 170 years ago, he said, and the community’s energy and support has helped Central College ever since. In seeking ways to make Central stand out to a shrinking student body amid the challenges facing higher education today, it made sense to use the college’s relationship with Pella as an asset.

Many colleges and universities are seen as towns within towns — not truly connected to the community, Putnam said. While that has never truly been the case in Pella, working to close the gaps between college and community even more would help students who are looking for a place they’d benefit from in learning and living, he said.

“There are people in town who will talk about this being an interdependent relationship, some people will talk about being symbiotic,” Putnam said. “There are probably different models for thinking about it, but the future of the college and Pella, as well as the corporate community, the faith community, everything else that’s here, are all intertwined.”

Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities President Gary Steinke called the initiative “truly unique,” having never seen anything like it before in the state. However, other universities could use it as inspiration to forge greater partnerships in their own towns.

“I think all the right circumstances would have to come together, but it could certainly be a model, with some variations,” Steinke said.

Around 11% of Pella’s population are Central College alumni, Putnam said, and Robert Judkins is one of them. The senior vice president at Marion County Bank in Pella didn’t grow up in the area, but after he and his wife graduated from Central and moved away, they decided to come back 12 years ago and settle in the community.

When he attended Central College, Judkins said the college was more separate from the town than it is today, but he’s happy to see they’ve come closer together and is excited for the further integration. Marion County Bank has had interns from the school in the past and Judkins has seen Central’s positive impact on the local schools and other areas of town, and he hopes to see those impacts grow with this initiative.

“Those are the future employees, those are future customers — that’s a generation that we need to attract, that we need to go after,” Judkins said. “And, you know, us old guys kind of get stuck in our ways… So just being around that age, listening to their ideas, getting feedback from them, I think it’ll be good for us as well.”

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