The Growing Role of Urban Four-Year Universities in Service-Learning, School Reform, School-to-Work and Community Change

A Forum — May 22, 1998

John Dewey warned that without democratic schooling there cannot be a genuinely democratic society.  Recently a “Dewey revival” has occurred across American education.  In the liberal arts, it has involved a renewed emphasis on problem solving, engagement with society and education for improved citizenship.  Technological competition after World Wars I and II steered universities away from early service approaches towards a narrow scientistic definition of scholarship.  In enshrining methods appropriate to the hard sciences across the university, citizenship, democracy, service and morality were less emphasized.

Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, has noted the power of the research university, and given that American university research is preeminent, one might expect the U.S. to have the best social conditions in the world--yet in many areas this is not the case.  In fact, prestigious urban universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins and Colombia, are often surrounded by severely distressed communities.

The end of the Cold War has drawn more attention to our long forgotten urban domestic crisis.  Given this reality, Dr. Ira Harkavy, Director, Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania, says that universities, particularly urban universities, have moral and intellectual obligations, which some are embracing, to their surrounding communities.

Harkavy observes that urban universities also stand to gain significantly from serving their surrounding communities for the following reasons:

1. Urban universities cannot relocate; their futures are intertwined with their surrounding communities.
2. University funding streams are, at least partially, connected to state and local prosperity and goodwill.
3. Universities will do better academically if they connect research and teaching to real-world problems in their community.  Students learn better through hands-on studies and major changes in thinking are more likely to occur when faculty and students concentrate on solving strategic problems of the time.  For urban universities, studying and trying to solve the problems of cities can provide for in-depth learning.

Harkavy provides an historical account of U.S. University commitments to service.  Land grant colleges formed explicitly to help build democracy, have had a more widely acknowledged commitment to service than many private universities.  For example, Cornell University was formed to improve life in New York State.  The “Wisconsin idea” at the turn of the 19th century emphasized that  “the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state.”

Urban private universities also were founded for service.  In 1876, Johns Hopkins was founded to advance learning to improve society.  Hopkins’ first President saw among its primary missions “ending misery among the poor.”  When the Wharton School of Business was established at the University of Pennsylvania in 1881, it focused on solving the problems of Philadelphia and the nation.  Columbia University was essentially a “third rate” school until its President, Seth Lowe, transformed it by addressing the problems of New York City.  The American Research University was established to advance human knowledge to benefit human life.

Harkavy poses a key question for the future of urban universities, “How do you link the core mission of universities--teaching, research and service--to help urban communities?”  The answer, he says, is through “academically-based community service”: service that is embedded in research and teaching.  Knowledge is advanced through service by tackling and solving large structural issues, not small isolated ones: not just building a house, but dealing with issues of homelessness; not just tutoring, but helping to transform the American school.  To advance knowledge through service means working to improve human welfare.  Service which does not seek to deeply improve the quality of life in the local community can become a hollow activity failing to contribute to citizenship and offering communities false, unfulfilling promises.

The “creative community problem solving curriculum” employed at the University of Pennsylvania since 1985 involves university undergraduate and graduate students in research and activities to assist the local west Philadelphia community.  Community residents--including teachers, parents, and students--are full partners in any plans researched, developed and implemented.  The West Philadelphia Improvement Corps (WEPIC) is one result of community problem solving.  WEPIC is a year-round program that involves approximately 7,000 children, their parents, and community members in educational and cultural programs, recreation, job training, community improvement and a number of service activities.  WEPIC is involved in 13 schools in West Philadelphia.  At Turner Middle School, one of the more intensive WEPIC sites; children teach other children about nutrition and operate a school store that sells fruits and vegetables.  At Turner and other public schools, children develop brochures and teaching materials to educate community members on the dangers of lead poisoning.  The Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1992 on the strength of the WEPIC example, is the university’s primary vehicle for actively attempting to solve the complex, comprehensive and interconnected problems of its historic city.  The Center is based on three core propositions: the future of the university and West Philadelphia are intertwined.  The university can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia; and the university can enhance its overall mission of advancing and transmitting knowledge through academically based community activities in and with West Philadelphia.

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