Town-Gown Segregation: How Colleges Influence Residential Segregation

• In Event: 4419 - Higher Education: Consequences for Individuals and Communities

Abstract

Although research examines the influence of education on people’s attitudes and possible residential decisions, and how colleges can shape the economy of the communities that often depend on them, little is known about how colleges influence residential segregation. The current study expands the conversation about differing metropolitan areas and their patterns of segregation by examining the “college towns” and “educational metropolises” of the U.S. to identify how segregation evolved from 1980-2010, and what mechanisms of these communities impact the segregation experienced by its residents. With more people attending postsecondary institutions and a diversifying student body across the nation, one could predict these communities are lessening in segregation over time. Also, if education is predicted to have a general liberalizing effect on people’s racial attitudes, these highly-educated communities could hold residents who are more likely to live in more diverse neighborhoods. Our research challenges these presumptions to show how segregation in these communities has not declined at a similar rate found in other metropolitan areas in recent years and the factors that contribute to these trends. Multivariate analyses also uncover two important findings. First, we find that higher tuition relative to local incomes is the most consistent correlate of Black-White segregation. Second, we show that diversity and segregation both matter to local outcomes like the share of voters within 1 mile of campus who voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Specifically, student racial diversity corresponds to significantly lower Republican vote shares, while racial segregation predicts higher vote shares, which occurs net of controls in college towns, but not elsewhere, underscoring the stakes of campus diversity and college town racial segregation amidst resurgent racial tension today. We discuss what our findings mean for future examinations of residential segregation as well as how colleges may perpetuate racial inequalities beyond their campuses.

Authors

• Carson Byrd, University of Michigan

• Jacob S. Rugh, Brigham Young University