Value

The previous sections describing the town-gown relationship provide multiple examples of the value of this relationship to both the University and the local community. Some additional benefits of town-gown collaborations outlined below include efforts to coordinate public safety and emergency response.

• University, city, and county law enforcement officials all utilize state-of-the-art interoperable radio equipment. This facilitates interagency communication and provides redundant capability in the event of a disaster. The University and city police agencies are technologically linked to allow two-way access to their respective computerized records management systems. Iowa State has established mutual aid agreements between University, county, and city officials to ensure coordinated law enforcement response to emergency situations.

• The Public Safety Department has partnered with city and county law enforcement officials to assist people in emotional crisis or who are mentally ill. Each participating agency has specially trained officers who have completed a 40-hour class on recognizing and responding to mentally ill and emotionally distressed people. The department also coordinates a multi-disciplinary, nine−agency Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) to provide immediate and follow-up medical care, advocacy, counseling, and criminal justice services. The team has been nationally recognized for providing quality survivor−centered services to all members of the county.

• Iowa State’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) assisted the City of Ames in the planning and eventual development of the Hazardous Materials Response Team and the equipping of the team.

• EH&S develops, hosts, and supports emergency response exercises with both city and county emergency response agencies. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the department developed and now provides training in procedures to successfully manage the handling of suspicious packages.

• The City of Ames acts as the dispatch agent for the University’s Utility Enterprise, which allows Iowa State to access power on the electric grid when its generating units are out of service or when power on the grid is less expensive than power generated by the institution. In doing this, the institution makes hourly make-buy decisions that help to keep the cost of power to a minimum. These agreements also allowed to the University and city to collaborative build a 69,000-volt substation in 1993, which not only greatly stabilized electric service for both but also allowed Iowa State complete access to the electric grid in two separate locations.