A Promise to Keep
Signing of Town and Gown agreement strengthens the bond between CSUDH and the City of Carson.
In July 2021, City of Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes and CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham signed the Town and Gown Promise agreement, paving the way for meaningful advancement in the relationship between the university and city.
The signing ceremony was held in front of CSUDH’s newly completed Innovation and Instruction building. Parham remarked on the shared history between the university and Carson, and pointed out that the first campus buildings opened in 1968, the same year that Carson was incorporated.
“Our histories are inextricably interlinked,” said Parham. “We are reimagining and recharacterizing our relationship with the City of Carson. We want to embrace what a relationship between a city and a university ought to look like.”
Ceremony Highlights
As the first formal agreement of its kind between the City of Carson and CSUDH, the Town and Gown Promise focuses on three areas of partnership:
- Leading and managing the operational relationship between the city and university;
- Establishing a task force comprising city and university executive leadership to implement mutually benefitting projects, programs, and initiatives for the enhancement, enrichment, and progression of the community and university;
- Elevating communication between the community and campus.
“We are one community, we are one university, and we are one people,” said Davis-Holmes (BA ’83, MPA ’92), who is also a CSUDH alumna. “It is important that we carefully plan in unison to enhance our projects and programs while moving the City of Carson forward.”
The ceremony was also attended by City of Carson Mayor Pro Tempore Jim Dear, Councilmembers Jawane Hilton and Cedric L. Hicks, Sr. (MA ’99), CSUDH administration, and members of the campus and the local community. After the signing, Parham presented Davis-Holmes with a crystal Toro bull in recognition of the promise. In return, Davis-Holmes gifted CSUDH with a key to the City of Carson.
“The Town and Gown Promise will strengthen our relationship with the university, ensure that we have mutually enhanced beneficial pursuits, and secure our unlimited future,” Davis-Holmes said.