Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by police a decade ago set off more than a week of protests by thousands of people in Ferguson, Missouri.

The nationwide reexamination of policing after the killing of George Floyd has led the Ivy League town in New York to consider an ambitious and contentious plan to remake its force. A proposal would replace the 63-officer Ithaca Police Department with a new Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety. As city council members consider the plan, the cross-current of impassioned reactions illustrates the challenges of overhauling traditional police forces. From New York City to small upstate towns, localities came up with proposals on training, recruitment and community engagement. The Ithaca city council can accept, reject or modify the recommendations when it votes on a resolution Wednesday.

What happens to a college town when the students disappear? Most of the 24,000 students at Cornell University and 6,200 more from Ithaca College effectively vanished in March when the coronavirus pandemic struck, leaving behind struggling restaurants and shops. Ithaca College intends to bring students back this fall, but weeks later than normal on Oct. 5. The quaint Massachusetts college town had to deal with the sudden loss of some 35,000 students from UMass Amherst and four other colleges in the area. Ithaca College has already furloughed 167 workers.