In the recent blizzard of press over the cost of higher education, the impact of technology and the continued relevancy of the curriculum, much of the ongoing effort by colleges and universities to improve their environment has been lost.
For much of their history, most colleges and universities stood as well-defended “cities upon a hill,” isolated by perceived images of wide green lawns, brick walls and massive gates sending an unwelcome and exclusionary message to outsiders.
By concentrating on the academic enterprise, colleges and universities failed to develop an organic, systemic relationship with their environment. As urban environments changed — and many older urban centers declined — local pressure to increase tax revenue set higher education institutions against their communities.
Reactions differed depending upon the circumstances encountered. Almost every educational institution produced an economic impact brochure that included an indirect economic benefits calculator to maximize the impact of the college on the local community. These are useful exercises because they create research from which talking points can be drawn to defend higher education institutions against charges of decades of perceived neglect and indifference toward their environment.
Some university leaders moved quickly to address local environmental concerns. The best example is the University of Pennsylvania, where leadership took an aggressive position to open engagement with the citizens of West Philadelphia to spur significant redevelopment. The result is an improved environment driven practically by safety concerns, politics, investment opportunities and the curb appeal necessary to attract students and their families. Happily, at places like Penn, there was also a growing sense that it was “the right thing to do.”
The Penn example illustrates the importance of the partnerships made possible by the size and complexity of large universities, whether public or private. Large budgets, burgeoning student populations and sophisticated investment and development counsel create the complexity and scale necessary to affect transformative physical changes within the region. When open community-based dialogue infuses decision-making, drawn from grassroots, long-term discussions of meaning and substance, good stuff happens.
