Let Knowledge Serve the City and the Nation
Wim Wiewel
President, Portland State University
March 12, 2009

Urban universities and colleges constitute two-thirds of the institutions of higher education in the United States—1,900 out of 3,400. Collectively, these urban universities and colleges spend about $250 billion a year and employ approximately 2 million people and educate 10 million students.

These urban institutions provide a significant range of contributions to the cities of the nation and their constituent communities. In addition, because urban regions are the key competitive units in the global economy and global competitiveness is based on knowledge, urban colleges and universities have become both local anchors and key actors in the global economy. Several associations bring these institutions together. The Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities consists of over 80 members, and its journal has for 19 years contributed experience and insight on how universities can be “stewards of place.” The Urban Serving Universities, the successor organization to the Urban 13, is an increasingly powerful coalition of 40 urban public research universities that advocates for strengthening communities, improving the education pipeline, and increasing the urban health workforce.

Public urban research universities are uniquely positioned with a broad range of skills and resources—intellectual, human, technological, and social—to engage in the many challenges our communities face. As anchor institutions, we will play a leadership role in stimulating economic prosperity in metropolitan areas.

To enhance the work that is already being done on urban campuses, strengthening the federal commitment to urban institutions will be key to making our cities more globally competitive. Several coordinated efforts to achieve this goal are underway. The Urban Serving Universities coalition has crafted a bill, titled the Urban Renaissance Act, which will be introduced during the current session of Congress. The act supports the renewal and extension of current urban programs, and also proposes a range of new ones that will provide additional resources directly to urban research universities, including a major initiative to establish an Urban Grant University program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Other programs would enhance our work with K–12, improve our ability to train health professionals, and increase our capacity to play a key role in community development through local partnerships. All of these programs would contribute to a stronger economy and strengthen our ability to develop human capital where most of our population resides—the nation’s urban centers.

Another related effort, coordinated by the University of Pennsylvania, produced a report that creates a set of recommendations for the new administration, particularly in the area of housing. The report, “Anchor Institutions as Partners in Building Successful Communities and Local Economies,” calls on the new Obama administration to improve the Office of University Partnerships (OUP) in HUD. Those improvements include choosing a director of the OUP from the academic community, restoring support and increasing funding for all current OUP component programs, and establishing an Anchor Institutions Program Division in HUD to house programs that leverage anchor institutions’ economic assets for community economic development.

What would all these programs allow us to do? At my institution, Portland State University (PSU), “Let Knowledge Serve the City” is our motto. The proposed new programs would strengthen our commitment to engagement and economic development. Our students already complete more than 230 community-based research projects each year, contributing about 1.5 million volunteer hours annually. Our business outreach program has assisted more than 500 small and emerging businesses over the last 10 years, and contributed over 5,000 hours of service just this past year. Many of these activities are an integral part of our curriculum, not just a volunteer add-on. But they are not cheap—they require intense staff and faculty involvement to create and maintain partnerships, and academic supervision. Especially with state budget cuts, it is becoming harder and harder to maintain this level of effort.

Programs like the ones proposed would allow the development of more sustainability-oriented projects like PSU’s Watershed Stewardship Program that recently was awarded the National Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award. The Watershed Stewardship Program led over 27,000 community volunteers donating 250,000 hours in a research-based initiative to install 80,000 plants and restore 50 acres of watershed along several miles of river. Sustainability is one of our key themes, and is seen as a key area for Oregon’s future economic growth. PSU is just one of the many urban campuses with projects like these that truly contribute to sustainability and the well-being and economic livelihood of our communities.

With the recommended proposals and goals for HUD and Congress, our institutions could increase our student, faculty, and staff engagement; produce a qualified and trained workforce; and conduct pioneering research that will be the next chapter in our economic future.

In the current economic crisis, all public colleges and universities are affected by state budget shortfalls. While being conscious of these challenges, we must understand urban institutionsare the home of future innovation and urban economic development, and can offer solutions to help the United States compete globally. Urban colleges and universities will continue to be strong anchors in our nation’s cities and metropolitan areas. Investment in these institutions will be an investment in our country’s economic stability.