‘Urban and Metropolitan Universities: The Transformative Power of Anchor Institutions’ focuses on the role of urban and metropolitan universities as anchor institutions in their community to address long standing inequities. Anchor institutions are nonprofit or public institutions that are rooted in place. These institutions have a mission to serve and are the largest employers and purchaser of goods and services in many communities. Also, they have other assets and capacities that can be leveraged to support reciprocal community development, including local hiring, procurement, and investment practices. Anchor mission strategies involve the entire university, including the business, community partnership, administrative, research and academic divisions.
Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ) is the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities’ quarterly online journal. This special issue, guest edited by The Democracy Collaborative's Emily Sladek, is an initiative of TDC and CUMU's Higher Education Anchor Mission Initiative.
Issue contents:
The Transformative Power of Anchor Institutions
Emily Sladek
Developing the Student Anchor Engagement Framework
Jennifer Johnson Kebea
Philadelphia Anchors for Growth and Equity: Applying the Lean Startup Methodology to Build a Financially Sustainable Anchor Collaborative
Mariya Khandros
Aligning Equity, Engagement, and Social Innovation in Anchor Initiatives
Esteban del Rio, John Loggins
Building Capacity as Anchor Institutions: Infrastructure, Structure, and Strategy
Kristin Elise Norris, H. Anne Weiss
Considering the Anchor Mission Strategy within the Competing “Regimes” of Higher Education Community Engagement
Daniel Bergen, Emily Sladek
Purpose-Driven Partnerships That Transform People and Places: Cal State LA’s Anchor Mission
Jose Gomez, Zuhey Espinoza, Raphael Sonenshein, Henry Fuhrmann