Policy for Higher Education Engagement
As noted in Maurrasse’s Beyond the Campus in 2001, a movement has been emerging to enhance the depth and quality of the engagement of institutions of higher education in their localities and regions. The advent of the new Administration has brought new opportunities to influence Federal policy to provide greater incentives for colleges and universities to use their resources to solve local problems. Institutions of higher education bring myriad forms of capital to their locales, from knowledge, to people, to legitimacy, to jobs, and on.
The foundation for Marga’s work has been the interdependency between the relative vitality of institutions like colleges and universities and that of communities and society at large. When these mutual interests can be harnessed, the result is stronger institutions of higher education and stronger communities.
Marga’s longtime friend and collaborator, the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center, on the heels of the election of President Obama, convened a group of higher education representatives and supporters, many of whom have been central to this movement, to advise the Department of Housing and Urban Development on how to incorporate anchor institutions, like colleges and universities into their strategies going forward.
Netter Center Director, Ira Harkavy, has kept this advisory Task Force together in order to continue to promote the potential of higher education to address today’s most pressing challenges and advocate for policies that increase incentives for greater external engagement among colleges and universities. On June 9th, Maurrasse testified at a Congressional briefing on these matters along with other members of the Task Force. Marga provides ongoing support for this Task Force, and is in the process of aligning the agendas of those in higher education advocating expanded engagement, the new Federal Administration, and philanthropy.
Overall, the Administration has been predisposed to civic engagement and the associated need to leverage higher education. The Serve America Act demonstrates one aspect of this willingness. Marga has also been – along with longtime client, the New World Foundation – communicating around models for National Service based on the civic engagement of college students. Additionally, the Coalition to Serve Urban Serving Universities has galvanized public institutions of higher education around the need for increased Federal dollars to bolster the public missions of these institutions. Marga has been in communication with this emerging effort as well, opening doors to resources to assist their efforts.
As this movement evolves, Marga’s role is to provide the combination of knowledge, research, guidance, and resources that any such collaborative effort with a policy agenda requires in order to achieve its aims.
Marga President David Maurrasse participates in the June 9, 2009 Congressional Urban Caucus Briefing on Anchor Institutions as Partners in Building Successful Communities and Local Economies (Video)
