CUMU Conference 2019

In 2009, Rita Hodges and Steve Dubb studied ten urban campuses (Cincinnati, Emory, IUPUI, LeMoyne-Owen, Miami-Dade, Minnesota, Penn, Portland State, Syracuse, Yale) to examine the state of community engagement and the anchor institution movement—work that ultimately was published by MSU Press as The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads. Ten years later, the term “anchor institution” is more common, with over thirty CUMU members having joined an anchor collaborative and hundreds of schools in Campus Compact having created civic action plans.

But are communities benefiting? And is the idea of an anchor institution mission that the authors introduced—namely, a university that consciously and strategically applies the institution’s long-term, place-based economic power, in combination with its human and intellectual resources, to better the welfare of the community in which it resides—being realized?

Moderated by Steve Dubb, the panel will begin with lead author Rita Hodges reflecting on key themes and changes over the past decade. Three field leaders—Marisol Morales from Campus Compact, Chris Nayve from the Mulvaney Center at the University of San Diego, and Katie Parker from The Democracy Collaborative—will serve as respondents. We will then open up to the room to discuss the many successes, pitfalls, and surprises inherent in anchor institution and community engagement work. And we will take stock of where we have been, where we are now, and where we need to go if the promise of fully integrated community engagement work by universities is to be realized.