City/Suburb Myths: Conference to explore the issues

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

UB will present a public conference in October to explore these issues with community planners, educators, social workers, librarians and three speakers of national distinction.

The conference, "Deconstructing Urban-Suburban Mythologies," will open at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, in 105 Harriman Hall on the UB South Campus and continue through Saturday, Oct. 12.

Registration is $35 (entire program), $20 (one-day session) and $10 (entire program, students). For registration information, call 645-2460.

The program, developed jointly by the UB Graduate School of Education, the UB School of Information and Library Studies, and the UB Graduate School of Social Work, is funded by grants from Conferences in the Disciplines and Conversations in the Disciplines.

Conveners say it will be a forum to bring a number of controversial issues to the surface and to explore the reasons for public intransigence to changing misperceptions and stereotypical beliefs about what urban life is like and what suburban life offers.

These misunderstandings, they say, affect the value we place on institutions in both kinds of communities and can result in decisions by legislators, budget directors, school boards, the press and individuals that produce unexpected and unwanted outcomes.

Lorna Peterson, a professor in the UB School of Information and Library Studies who helped organize the conference, says the interdisciplinary nature of the event should appeal to the generalist and specialist alike.

"There are many of us who are concerned with the health of urban institutions in an increasingly suburbanized America. We're working to find solutions that will help our schools, libraries and social services agencies again become vibrant and strong," she adds.

Lecture topics will include racism and the suburbanization movement, what it means about Americans that they "diss" their own cities and new relationships emerging between urban schools and public and academic library communities.

Participants will be involved in small-group discussions facilitated by nationally distinguished thinkers and writers in the field of planning and community development, education and libraries.

The lecturers will be:

Andrew Hacker, nationally regarded political scientist and author of "Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile and Unequal." He will open the conference with a lecture, "Dissing Our Cities: What it Says About America."

Carole J. McCollough, associate dean of the Wayne State University Library System and researcher in the field of public administration, urban libraries and library youth services. She will discuss the architectural and financial particularities of bringing information technology to urban schools and libraries.

Henry Louis Taylor Jr., UB associate professor of planning and American studies, author, director of the UB Center for Urban Studies and nationally recognized expert in the field of public policy and urban affairs.

Peterson points out that the euphemistic use of the terms "urban" and "suburban" says that the problems to be approached during the conference are imbedded in the terms themselves-identity issues like social class and economic power, race and ethnicity.

Jennifer Beaumont, UB assistant professor of education and one of the conference organizers, says these terms are now euphemisms for the "haves" and "have-nots."

"The word 'urban' suggests a community whose residents live close to, at or below the poverty level and are low-achievers with little regard for education," she says. "In general, they are understood to be people who require governmental and philanthropic support for the variety of social services they need."

Suburban residents, Beaumont says, are understood-and often understand themselves-to be middle- and upper-income earners who are "advantaged" high-achievers living in above-standard communities-communities forced to support the unemployed denizens of the inner-city. This ignores the fact that there are economically disadvantaged people living in virtually every suburban community, she says.

"The situation is not nearly so simple, but these stereotypical, often unconscious interpretations of common terms come into play when observations are made about urban and suburban school systems and library systems, and when political and budgetary decisions are made," she says. "This is information that needs to be placed in context before we make public policy."