The concept of the anchor institution, and its subsequent mission, was first considered in the mid-1990s, a time during which the dominant academic culture of higher education was driven by the "public good regime." The decades since have seen the emergence of the public engagement knowledge regime, and the academic capitalist regime.…

Universities are increasing their efforts to more clearly demonstrate their social value. This article illustrates how higher education administrators can incorporate collective impact partnerships in their community benefit strategies. The article explores two of the more familiar paradigms for community benefit--community engagement and anchor…

Publically engaged scholarship demands new ways of working within and outside of the academy. Systems within the university reward faculty for individual achievements. This approach militates against working on collaborative projects because of the difficulty of explaining and quantifying one's contribution. The culture of academia further…

Equity-minded institutional transformation requires robust faculty learning. Research has shown that the single most important factor in student success is faculty interaction. Positive, supportive, and empowering faculty interaction is particularly important to the success of female students, poor and working class students, and students of…

The literature on the transformation of higher education institutions into engaged institutions identifies the great potential this transformation can have on higher education's ability to address pressing social issues. However, engagement work frequently operates in White racialized spaces and within systems that perpetuate racial oppression. A…

Most analyses of the success and sustainability of community-university engagement initiatives focus on the university environment. We explore the impact of changes in the larger social and political systems on the community as well as those within the university on the meaning and use of a shared community space. The York University-TD Community…

With many potential community partners and a diverse student population, the metropolitan university has many opportunities to operationalize transformative learning, which involves a dramatic shift in one's assumptions that has a lasting change on their perspectives. The challenge of identifying transformative learning initiatives and making…

In this article, a layered conceptual framework for "place-based school reform" is presented as a way to link the concept of school reform and neighborhood development. Because many universities have been involved in community-school-university partnerships, the university community engagement literature will be connected to this…

More than four thousand students engage in the community-based learning capstone program every year by enrolling in one of 240 senior-level courses that culminate their undergraduate education. In this article, the author shares the context and history of the program, its foundational principles and processes, and the nuts-and-bolts details of the…

This case study of Florida State University (FSU) Panama City illustrates the essential importance of strong synergy among a branch campus, its main campus, and its community. The interdependence of the branch campus and its community is highlighted through discussion of the role of the campus administrator, various partnerships, and niche…

Urban and metropolitan areas face unique challenges in serving the multifaceted needs of their communities, but also have advantages that create some of the world's greatest universities. Three scholars opened the 2017 CUMU [Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities] Annual Conference with "Voices from the Field." Each spoke to…

Communities across our nation--whether geographic, ethnic, or issue-based in their composition--are struggling to be healthy, to grow, and thrive. The production of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge by both the community and the higher education institution is the key to helping our communities improve. Retaining and valuing community-engaged…

While universities can play a major role in advancing research-based community development, academic discourses of rigor, quality and ethics often conflict with the participatory and collaborative approaches required by community development principles. While experienced academics often have difficulty negotiating these issues, they present…

Higher education can be a key leader in sustainability efforts, with issues cutting across all areas of functioning and extending into the community. This article examines educational change, which is particularly important because of its far-reaching effects. In particular, this article describes student-led sustainability research at the…

This issue of Metropolitan Universities includes papers emanating from the work of the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative, a three-year (2004-2007) initiative designed to build capacity for community-engaged scholarship (CES) in health professional schools. As the core principles and challenges of CES are similar across…