Community Investment by Colleges and Universities
As colleges and universities pay increasing attention to issues of poverty, minority and non-traditional students, preK-12 education, housing, transportation, and urban affairs generally, we are awakening to the fact that we need to encourage business and economic development in our neighboring communities. As nicely stated on the web site of Community-Wealth.org:
Institutions of higher education have an obvious vested interest in building strong relationships with the communities that surround their campuses. They do not have the option of relocating and thus are of necessity place-based anchors. While corporations, businesses, and residents often flee from economically depressed low-income urban and suburban edge-city neighborhoods, universities remain. At a time when foundations which help establish community-based projects are commonly unable to continue with ongoing involvement over long periods of time, universities are inherently an important potential institutional base for helping community-based economic development in general, and civically-engaged development in particular. The question is how to tap this potential in a major way.
John Hamerlinck, of Minnesota Campus Compact, has compiled a list of examples of community investing by colleges and universities. I think this list is a valuable resource, so I'm putting up links to web sites that describe the programs he has found.
- An overview of nine community investment programs (Clark University, Duke University, Harvard University, Marquette University, Stetson University, Trinity College, Union College, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University) is on the web site of The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
- Clark University's University Park Partnership
- Colgate University's Partnership for Community Development
- Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative
- Howard University's partnership with Fannie Mae on the Howard University-LeDroit Park Initiative
- Ohio State's Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment
- Trinity College's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative
- University of Pennsylvania's West Philadelphia Partnership, including a report on its success to date.
- Williams College's Social Choice Fund