Indiana (the town) has a love-hate relationship with IUP. Businesses with a high percentage of students as customers deflate into husks during the summer and swell during the spring and fall terms (I drove a taxi here for a while, and believe me when I say it's a night and day difference.) Many businesses cater to students, who represent a large chunk of spending ability in this town. On the hate side, there's an ongoing zoning war in regards to student housing-- Much of the student housing in the boro is transformed from what was initially single-family dwellings, and many of them look pretty shabby. It's next to impossible now to convert a house in a residential district into student housing, but the residences grandfathered in are a sore point for the residents. (On my block we have one, and the smell of pot often drifts this way when the wind is blowing in the right direction.) On the student side of things, the entire central part of the boro is pretty much considered 'residential', now, with the exception of frat row and some of the other huddled buildings near campus.. So anything new (and therefore not trashed) is away from the main part of campus. Much of the student population lives increasingly in apartment complexes now-- Closest to campus are the Lazor brothers buildings, and up Oakland avenue a little ways is Carriage House and Essex House (Carriage house is considered one of the 'drug centers' of the area.) If you don't mind the noise from neighbors, Copper Beech is a really popular place to stay.. For quieter fare, try Spring Meadows, Westgate, and Hampton Court.
IUP's last president (Lawrence Pettit) received a vote of no-confidence from the faculty-- Frankly (and personally speaking) I think Atwater is really doing a lot to make IUP a respectable university again. Still, The Penn (student newspaper) is awash every issue with DUIs, disorderlies, and underaged drinking reports.
The team used to be called Indians, by virtue of being in a town called Indiana. A few years back it was renamed to the Crimson Hawks. Why people didn't google it first, I'll never know-- Crimson Hawks is the name of an adult comic, although they were kind enough to change their name. (The Gazette article about this is at http://www.indianagazette.com/index.php?Itemid=39&id=2095&option=com_content&task=view )
What part of IUP you go to makes a big difference. The business college, Eberly, is flat-out gorgeous for a college of this size. The computer labs are top notch, many interesting lecturers come to speak there, receptions with white table cloths and fancy food from the culinary students are served. In wood-trimmed cases, piles of Wall Street Journals are there for the free reading pleasure of anyone promenading the smart, tidy halls of the building. If you're in the college of humanities and social sciences like me, well, I hope you like dixie cups. Keith hall (once the Keith School) is one of the oldest buildings on campus-- It's lovely in another way, with huge windows and 1900-something architecture. The only problem is, the paint on those windows outside is peeling, and has been since I started here at IUP. I want to know why, if Eberly gets wood-grain newspapers and housing gets the Suites, IUP cannot scrape the peeling paint off and re-paint some damned windows on one building. In the next few years IUP is planning on deciding whether to rennovate Keith or tear it down. I think I'd be devastated to see it go and be replaced with something modern that'll fall apart in a decade, but at the same time I seethe every time I look at those windows, which are an outward symbol of the esteem (or lack therof) that IUP's administration looks at the history department with. Business is where the money is, I can't deny that.