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WHAT IF...
...COMMUNITIES AND UNIVERSITIES JOIN TO REVITALIZE
CITIES?
The lawns are manicured, the walkways free of litter,
and the buildings behind the locked doors hum with
the pursuit of pure knowledge. Islands of tranquility
amid the harsher realities of the inner city, many
urban American colleges and universities have indeed
been "ivory towers" of learning amid the decaying
city that surrounds them.
But that is changing.
Almost a decade ago Yale University launched a $50
million economic development initiative in partnership
with community and business interests in New Haven,
Conn. The initiative included a $12.5 million commitment
to developing a biomed/biotech park, a proposal for
Family Campuses based at inner city schools to bring
access to education and human services into local
neighborhoods, and financial incentives to encourage
university staff to live in the city.
Wayne State University in Detroit recently formed
the Urban Safety Program, involving the university's
educational resources and research expertise to develop
ways to positively impact on youth crime. In partnership
with a local community organization, neighborhood
crime reduction efforts were begun to train teachers
and students in nonviolent dispute resolution, multicultural
appreciation, parenting skill development, strategic
and neighborhood planning, and to offer summer youth
employment.
In an effort to broaden its community partnerships
to address pressing urban issues, San Francisco State
University established the Urban Institute. A collaboration
of educational, business, labor, community, and civic
organizations, it serves the city's most at-risk citizens.
Faculty provide research, consultation, technical
expertise, and training; students counsel AIDS patients,
work with disadvantaged children, assist the homeless,
and teach the elderly to read.
These urban universities, and hundreds more across
the United States and Canada, are part of a growing
movement in institutions of higher education to become
more actively involved in their communities. The reasons
for their engagement vary. Some do so out of "enlightened
self-interest," aware that neighborhood crime, poverty,
and economic stagnation will hinder their ability
to attract and retain students and quality faculty.
Unable to "flee to the suburbs," institutions work
with their communities to improve quality of life
and economic opportunities.
Others see their commitment to societal welfare
as a response to the public support they receive infunding
and tax payments. According to The University
and The Urban Challenge, by Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, in 1991-92 federal,
state, and local governments spent $64.4 billion on
higher education. "Taxpayers have every right to expect
these schools to contribute--in their own ways--to
solving society's problems, including its urban problems,"
says Cisneros.
And, among university leaders, there is a growing
chorus of voices for a more engaged, connected university.
Ernest Boyer, for example, called for the creation
of a "New American College" that would "connect thought
to action and theory to practice," an engaged campus
that would be "a staging ground for action." Many
individuals actively involved in community-university
partnerships are engaged not just to do good works
in the world but because they believe such partnerships
are vehicles for healthy change in higher education.
In the process of connecting with the community, universities
themselves change, and, in Boyer's words, "bring renewing
into the campus."
"Our nation's institutions of higher education are
crucial to the fight to save our cities," Cisneros
notes. "The long-term futures of both the city and
the university in this country are so intertwined
that one cannot--or perhaps will not--survive without
the other. Universities cannot afford to become islands
of affluence, self-importance, and horticultural beauty
in seas of squalor, violence, and despair."
Regardless of the reasons for involvement, institutions
of higher education can be key players in the urban
collaborations that will be necessary to make effective
use of dwindling resources and to develop new approaches
to urban problems. Federal agencies with inner-city
responsibilities, such as HUD, Agriculture, Education,
Health and Human Services, and Labor have turned to
universities as crucial allies, some offering funding
to encourage a wide range of community-university
partnerships. "These existing federal dollars, if
aligned with flexible philanthropic resources--and
coordinated effectively--could greatly enhance and
sustain the university's capacity to respond to urban
crises," says Gilbert Robinson, associate director
of the San Francisco Urban Institute at San Francisco
State University. "The quest for strategic collaboration
between government and philanthropic funders has never
been more compelling."
That "quest for collaboration"was one of the goals
of a recent Wingspread conference, Strengthening University-Community
Partnerships for Urban Revitalization. The gathering
was unique in that it brought together individuals
from four important stakeholder groups: community
development, institutions of higher learning, government
agencies, and philanthropic foundations, with the
goal of advancing university-community partnerships
at the national policy level and fostering sustainable
partnerships for urban revitalization at the local
level.
For many of the participants from community development
organizations, the opportunity to talk about urban
issues with funders and university representatives
was a vital first step. "I am glad attention is being
paid nationally to community and university partnerships,
because it is going to be a painful process," says
James Grace, executive director of the East Winston
Community Development Corporation in Winston-Salem,
N.C. "For a long time it's been the community against
the university and no one has found where the twain
meet. In our experience the university wants to be
in control but the community insists it must have
value as a partner too."
Collaboration among federal agencies is also a problem,
notes Marcia Marker Feld. Formerly chair of the department
of Community Planning at the University of Rhode Island
and director of HUD's Office of University Partnerships,
Feld says that while many federal agencies have programs
to encourage university partnerships--HUD, for example,
has just launched a new initiative to encourage community
colleges to apply for community development grants--"there
are no common strategies to get there. This conference
pointed out the holes: there is no structured communication
between groups and no general exchange of ideas,"
Feld said.
The Wingspread conference was an important first
step in beginning the exchange of ideas across stakeholder
groups. "Our resources may be few and far between
and the dollars may be drying up, but our opportunities
haven't dried up," says Grace. "Let's keep talking."
Communication is important, says Feld, because the
time is right for community-university partnerships."I
don't want to say it is an idea whose time has come.
Rather, it is a concept whose need has finally been
understood. By starting to talk about how universities
can care for their communities, they are beginning
to understand why they have to care," says Feld.
Why should universities care about their communities?
Charles Lee, Research Director of the United Church
of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice, says universities--as
well as other organizations and the population in
general--are searching for relevance. "The urban crisis
reflects a crisis in the human spirit," he says. "That
is the issue we need to put front and center. We will
need both individual and institutional transformation
to solve the problems of our cities."
Such a transformation may be possible when partnerships
are rooted in the community. Ira Harkavy is director
of the Center for Community Partnerships at the University
of Pennsylvania and he believes community revitalization
will not come from the state or from the free market,
but rather through "new, co-operative endeavors" of
universities and foundations that will be willing
to stand with communities for the long term. "One
of the central issues for us," he said at Wingspread,
"is the mission of creating an effective democratic
revolution that will create for all Americans a fair,
decent, and just society. That seems to me to be not
just a moral issue, but an issue for the mission of
each of our institutions.
"While we work locally, can we transform our universities
and their partnerships with communities? And then,
can these partnerships change the national agenda
to improve cities?"
According to C. Peter Magrath, president of the
National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant
Colleges, perhaps the answer to that challenge lies
in the cities where universities belong:
"We do belong in the cities--with all of us truly
working together for a greater common good rather
than narrow institutional interests. I believe it
can be done and hope that you will join with those
of us who see the future of the state and land-grant
university as a future built around collaborative
public service and extending the fruits of our knowledge
in new and exciting ways to meeting the needs of our
American people--wherever they live, in our rural,
suburban, and urban communities. All of us are the
'we' who belong in the cities."
Strengthening University-Community Partnerships
for Urban Revitalization was sponsored by the Center
for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania;
the San Francisco Urban Institute, San Francisco State
University; the United States Department of Housing
and Urban Development; and The Johnson Foundation,
Inc.
More Than Anthropology
101
What does a community-university partnership look
like? In Philadelphia, it's a wooden fruit cart with
the bold sign "Fruits Are Us--and Vegetables Too."
That cart, and the busy 6th and 7th graders that crowd
around it after school, are part of a Nutrition and
Awareness program run for the past six years at Turner
Middle School by students at the University of Pennsylvania.
Physical anthropology students work with teachers
and students to monitor student nutrition, assess
attitudes to food, map the food supply in the Turner
community, and educate peers on proper nutrition.
The fruit cart was built and operated by university
and middle school students to help increase the number
of fruits and vegetables the students eat.
Other projects at Penn include desktop publication
of school and community newspapers, local environmental
improvement projects, including school and community
gardens, and local housing rehabilitation.
Stories From the Field
How can colleges and universities collaborate with
their communities, federal agencies, and local funders
to improve their cities? HUD and the Office of University
Partnerships recently published "University-Community
Partnerships: Current Practices" celebrating the efforts
of more than 180 institutions that are currently making
a difference. As Michael Stegman, assistant secretary
for policy development and research at HUD and Wingspread
participant notes, "colleges and universities are
not only creators, preservers, and transmitters of
knowledge and culture--they are also economic engines,
applied technology centers, major employers, investors,
real estate developers, and reservoirs of creative
and energetic people. Colleges and universities have
come to occupy a pivotal role, wielding resources
that can help transform socio-economic isolation to
metropolitan opportunity for distressed communities
and the families who live there."
Copies of the report are available for $5 from
HUD. Also available at no charge is "The University
and The Urban Challenge," an essay by Henry Cisneros.
Contact:HUD USER, P.O. Box 6091, Rockville, Md. 20849-6091,
tel.: 800-245-2691.
For More Information
For more information about community-university partnerships,
contact:
Gilbert Robinson, Associate Director
San Francisco Urban Institute
San Francisco State University
321 Page Street
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
tel.: 415-863-2453
Ira Harkavy, Director
Center for Community Partnerships
University of Pennsylvania
133 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19104
tel.: 215-898-5351
Office of University Partnerships
United States Department of Housingand Urban Development,
Room 8130
451 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20410
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