Technically speaking, New London is a college town, home to Connecticut College, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Mitchell College. But it doesn’t feel that way.

Yes, there are healthy interactions between New London colleges and their host city. To varying extents, students from the colleges interact with students in the city’s public schools. There are collaborations between the city’s artist community and their college counterparts. And New Londoners take advantage of campus entertainment offerings and vice versa.

Students are no strangers to the city’s bar scene, fake identifications often in hand following a long college tradition.

But a transformative relationship remains elusive.

Last week The Day featured a story by the Connecticut Mirror that highlighted a national trend of colleges interacting with and, in some cases, helping transform the urban centers in which they are located.

The greatest example is arguably here in Connecticut, less than an hour’s drive from New London. Yale University has played a major role in that city’s turnaround, particularly for its downtown, as documented by the Mirror article.

In the 1980s Yale officials recognized that crime, blight and poverty in its hometown city were discouraging applications. Driven by pragmatism and with an air of moral rectitude, Yale began investing in New Haven, eventually spending tens of millions of dollars in commercial and residential real estate and spurring other private investors to undertake redevelopment.

Yale also provided stipends to encourage faculty and staff to buy a home in the city and awarded scholarships to students graduating its public schools.

Investment of that scale is not going to happen in New London. Connecticut College and Mitchell College do not have those kinds of resources and the Coast Guard Academy, as a government institution, cannot make such investments.

But, as noted in the Mirror article, there are examples of a smaller scale that could work in New London. Or perhaps the city and its colleges can come up with different models.

Wesleyan University relocated its bookstore into a refurbished Main Street storefront in its host city of Middletown and is also opening a finance and alumni relations office there. University of Hartford business students work with small business owners in Hartford on planning and marketing.

Going farther afield, the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland involve multiple colleges in supporting worker-owned cooperatives employing local people in green energy, urban farming and laundry enterprises.

The leaders of the city’s two largest higher education institutions — President Katherine Bergeron of Connecticut College and Coast Guard Academy Superintendent Rear Admiral William G. Kelly — have told us they want their colleges to play bigger roles in New London. Among the challenges they face is geographical separation — aggravated by Interstate 95’s slice through the city — from New London’s core. But steps to improve pedestrian connections and use of shuttle services can breach these barriers.

Needed most is commitment and imagination. This can begin with the formation of a community-college partnership to explore ideas and confront challenges. And there needs to be dedication to stick with it. Both the colleges and the community would benefit from success.

There is some irony that former Connecticut College President Claire Gaudiani was arguably ahead of the times when, in the late 1990s, she convinced her college to invest in making New London a “hip little city.” The effort failed, the headwinds it faced compounded by Guadiani’s support for the ill-fated move to seize homes in Fort Trumbull for redevelopment via eminent domain. She lost her job.

Time has passed. Other cities have seen successful cooperative efforts. Why not New London?

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.