This article examines how the history of land-grant universities in America shaped the views of higher educators, public officials, and foundations on the role of urban universities in addressing the problems of American cities. Higher education leaders urged the federal government to provide funds that would enable urban universities to do for…

Food access for Maine's growing African refugee population reflects multiple levels of general access to society. To better understand the challenges and opportunities unique to this community, a multidisciplinary team of students, faculty, and community partners integrated the expertise of local residents with the results of a food assessment of…

Over the last two decades the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), has undergone transformation and ignited systemic change across the institution. Its Meyerhoff Scholars Program has made major achievements in recruiting and graduating African American students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at one of the…

Unlike many universities, the historically under-represented (URM) students at California State University, Monterey Bay, typically graduate at a higher rate than non-URM students. Intense efforts have been made by staff and faculty to increase retention and graduation rates of all students. This paper examines the graduation rates in the context…

This paper provides the results of a survey sent to all thirty-two CUMU institutions that have received the Carnegie recognition and specifically examines a) reasons for applying for the elective classification; b) level of pride instilled in campuses; and c) level of impact on institutional identity and culture, institutional commitment,…

Urban African American teens are unprepared to compete for jobs in the global marketplace, but higher education professionals could partner with parents to reverse this trend. After reviewing parent involvement literature, this paper shares findings from a study of urban African American parents involved in their children's outreach programs. It…

Higher education institutions have struggled with the underrepresentation of female students in the STEM majors. The authors investigate the USC-MESA program and the role of women's self-efficacy perceptions in mathematics and science. It is crucial to understand the theory of self-efficacy in examining historically underrepresented populations in…

This article explores the development of the Summer Tools, Information, Motivation, and Education (SummerTIME) Writing Program, the only program of its kind in Los Angeles that conducts self-assessment. The author describes the geographical and political boundaries separating inner-city Los Angeles high school graduates from higher education,…

This 2010 winner of the Ernest A. Lynton Award examines two social justice themes that have emerged in his community-engaged work. He argues that the traditional model of the development of the scholars' research agenda is one that can promote and maintain the academy-community hierarchy and that the scholars' social identities play an important…

College students today watch more content, academic or not, on the Internet than on any other media. Consequently, the authors argue that using any of these media, especially YouTube.com in particular, is an effective way to not only reach students, but also capture their attention and interest while increasing retention of academic content. Using…

The interactive Internet, or Web 2.0, has created opportunities for civic engagement research and information management. This article presents a case describing one university's experience of such research. This article also provides a literature review on the evaluation of civic engagement and a description of the approach used at Widener…

Community-university partnerships are at the heart of much of what institutions of higher education are trying to achieve: build bridges to opportunity, bring research to the solution of social problems, and bring interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on the challenges in contemporary society. Despite the promise of partnerships, they remain…

As community-university partnerships become more common, it is becoming increasingly apparent that challenges emerge whenever groups as different as universities and communities attempt to work together. These challenges are not yet well understood and new analytical approaches are urgently needed that frame the problems and suggest avenues by…

As Indonesian higher education strives to achieve educational excellence, universities with international curricula have become a focus of improvement efforts. Many of these university efforts involve business schools forming partnerships built around internships. Yet, as this focus on internship partnerships becomes more pronounced, many…

Poverty has caused enormous pressures and urgent needs in the city of Fresno. In an effort to incorporate a deep awareness of social, cultural, and environmental needs of the Fresno area in engineering and design education, a pilot design-build program entitled Eco-village at California State University, Fresno, has been established. Students from…