People in business must keep an anxious eye on what’s happening—a horse dealer, say, when somebody rumbles by in one of those new automobiles. (Where Georgia Heights is now nearing completion downtown, there used to be a vast livery stable.) Athens, of course, must watch the University of Georgia; its faculty, staff and students have always formed the core of our livelihood. We have accustomed ourselves to the steady growth of that institution, and we have adjusted to changing policies there. (A years-ago decision to push drinking off campus helped create our downtown bar scene in spaces that were available because of the opening of Georgia Square Mall.)

So, look at what’s happening now around town, and see if you can connect the dots.

UGA campus enrollment plateaus; UGA offers more online courses in the basic, required subjects. State support of higher education lessens. The Hope Scholarship provides less support. Epps Bridge Centre announces plans to double the size of its outdoor shopping mall. The mayor and commission begin talking about developing the north side of downtown (where a years-ago decision destroyed the downtown street grid). Luxury student high-rises flood downtown. Amazon sells everything online with good prices and fast delivery. The university raises more money than ever before in its fund drive, while reneging on its insurance agreement with retirees and  sweeping under the carpet the departure of its alumni director and firing the whistleblower who caused it. A third of our people are mired in poverty, with the attendant impact on education, welfare, crime and healthcare. Businesses owned by national chains proliferate and increase the pressure on local businesses. Athens Regional Medical Center seeks an outside partner to stabilize its financial future and assure its ability to remain competitive. UGA gets a medical school, but the parent school in Augusta makes it painfully clear that ours is only an adjunct of what used to be the Medical College of Georgia before its unfortunate name change.

So, here are some dots to connect. University parking policies (no parking) and crackdowns on DUI have produced a nationwide trend of students wanting to live near campus and in proximity to bars and restaurants. In Athens, that means downtown. And, thanks to the Hope Scholarship and the affluence of their parents, many of those students can afford to live in luxury. Hence, the influx of upscale student apartments downtown, making obsolete less luxurious apartments farther from downtown. It’s just the way the market swings. But students are a part of the mix drawn by Epps Bridge Centre, too, so between walking home from class and walking downtown to the bars, they’ve got to drive out to Epps Bridge Centre to shop and eat, perchance to see a film. The investors steering the expansion out that way know their market, so it will no doubt continue to pay off for them and for Oconee County. God forbid that a woman sitting by the pool atop a luxury student high-rise downtown should just opt for ordering her shoes from Zappo’s, while enjoying the first drink of the evening and maybe watching a movie before ordering out for supper.

And, of course, there’s that other worrisome trend: teaching courses online. If you can get your freshman English out of the way digitally, the same way you order your shoes, is it possible that eventually you can just stay home in Marietta and earn your whole degree on your iPad? Go Dogs, and don’t forget to turn out the lights.

What has happened in the newspaper business and every other business in the last six or seven years makes one sensitive to change. The Internet is not through with any of us, yet, especially UGA. The university has made Athens what it is, and as it changes, so do we all.