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Assessing the Role of Universities as Place-Based Institutions: Developing Uniform Metrics of Engagement

Dissertation School: The University of Illinois at Chicago

Abstract:

Universities are increasingly involved in numerous urban development practices, including economic, community, social, knowledge-producing, and physical land development. Empirical and narrative evidence continues to be produced to describe the crucial role that universities play in the economic vitality and competitiveness of their cities. The current federal administration, private corporations, and foundations have all shown interest in such “place-based” institutions, such as universities, by funding and partnering with them to improve their communities. Thus, it is increasingly important that more precise information is collected and disseminated regarding the impact universities have on the communities they serve.

University-community partnerships have been widely acknowledged and studied on a case-by-case basis. To date, very few studies have focused on the university’s involvement in larger urban planning context or compared how the partnerships succeed at the national level. Efforts by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) program; the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, via its formation of the “Engaged University” classification; and the U.S. Department of Education, through its extensive IPEDS data collection and dissemination, have limited comprehensive data or impact analysis of the role of universities in their nearby communities. There is a gap in this research that needs to be filled in order to help universities, policymakers, communities, and cities decide how, when, and what to invest in university-community urban development partnerships.

This two-phased, sequential mixed-method study will examine the university’s current role in urban development in the United States. In the first phase, quantitative research, based on a foundational national survey that I have created, distributed, and collected in the previous 2 years addresses the breadth and types of urban development that universities across the country are involved in. The previously funded survey research comes from two studies—a national survey examining university-community partnerships and engagement of the members of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and from a revised version of the survey that was distributed to the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. The data collected from this survey will be complemented by secondary data collected from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. In this phase, I will determine whether or not the original metrics created and questions asked in the survey instrument are valid and robust enough to more fully understand the university’s role in urban development. This first phase will also generate categories unfolding the different ways in which universities (or different types of universities) are involved in urban development—leading to a typology of distinctive types of institutional partnerships and engagement.

In the second phase I will complete in-depth studies of four universities utilizing qualitative case studies to probe the categories created in the first phase and to continue to find new ways to define, describe, and typologize university involvement in urban development. Holding constant the limitations of the data, I will assess the typologies and categories and their relevance and value in understanding the role of the university in urban development. Lastly, the results will inform theoretical discussions on collaborative inter-institutional development and how these partnerships enhance a urban governance.

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