Restoring the public purpose of America’s urban universities

Since 1992, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships has focused on strengthening the relationship of anchor institutions to their communities in general and Penn’s relationship to West Philadelphia in particular. In a new white paper supported by the Teagle Foundation, the Netter Center invited representatives from eight universities to write brief case studies that highlight mutually beneficial university-community partnerships.

The result, “Restoring the Public Purpose of America’s Urban Universities,” was written in collaboration with Augsburg University, Columbia University’s Freedom and Citizenship Program, De Anza College’s Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action, Rutgers University-Newark, the University at Buffalo Community Health Equity Research Institute, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s urbanCORE, and the University of San Diego.

Higher education needs to dramatically increase its contributions to the public good, says Ira Harkavy, the founder and Barbara and Edward Netter Director of the Netter Center, who edited the report with associate director Rita A. Hodges. “A key step is for colleges and universities to work together with their neighbors to radically reduce the problems facing America’s urban communities,” he says.

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The case studies “demonstrate that an increased focus on local, democratic community partnerships is an extraordinarily promising strategy for realizing a higher education institution’s public purpose,” Harkavy and Hodges conclude in the paper. “Higher education institutions, particularly urban colleges and universities, can make meaningful contributions to knowledge and better educate the next generation for civic leadership by working with their neighbors to help solve locally manifested universal problems.” They hope that the white paper stimulates discussion and action.

Across the eight case studies, key takeaways include:

Develop democratic partnerships

Place-based engagement provides opportunity for deep, sustained partnerships. Engaging and empowering community residents as partners ensures that the work is based on shared values and benefits all participants. A centralized infrastructure on campus can help develop and nurture such partnerships, as well as effectively coordinate college/university resources to work democratically with the community.

Leverage leadership and resources

Presidential support and leadership can elevate and embed community engagement as a core value across the institution and dedicated university dollars can leverage external funding, critical for growth and sustainability.

Focus on mutual benefit 

Embedding community-engaged scholarship into the curriculum can contribute to meaningful neighborhood change while advancing research, teaching, and learning. Working with local K-12 students and with community-based organizations can serve as a successful strategy to leverage university resources and provide educational access to the local community. Programs that thoughtfully involve university students through coursework, work-study, internships, and volunteer opportunities can be mutually beneficial, making a positive impact on the community and preparing students to be civically engaged leaders now and into the future.

Involve the entire institution

A democratic anchor institution approach can help engage and integrate a university’s full range of resources –academic, human, cultural, economic—in significant, sustained, mutually transformative community partnerships.