Learning Resources

Abstract: This article outlines the conception and creation of the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships at Philadelphia’s Drexel University. It details the university’s goal of becoming an academic leader in civic engagement through the transformation of an off-campus site of existing historic structures into a center for outreach services.
The discussion of the center’s implementation is divided into four sections to present a comprehensive description of its planning process, funding, and design:
- Planning for community engagement
- The idea: developing an extension center at a private urban university
- Creating a physical hub for neighborhood engagement
- Planning the facility
The article closes with a report on early outcomes that have been identified: the introduction of community dinners, the creation of a stakeholder advisory council, and the establishment of volunteer committees that are planning to host a visioning event that will feature a creative building process along with an opportunity for participants to review and revise the vision and goals outlined during the original planning process.

Abstract: Four distinct waves can be discerned in the history of American higher education. The 85 years before the Civil War were characterized by the founding of hundreds of liberal arts colleges. The post–Civil War era saw the majority of these small colleges disappear, replaced by public land-grant schools. Around the turn of the last century, the giants of American industry led the founding of the great private research universities. The term "megaversity" entered the American lexicon after World War II, when thousands of returning GIs swelled the ranks of higher education; the second half of the 20th century also witnessed the proliferation of community colleges. The fifth great wave is now breaking, with for-profit competition and revolutionary teaching technologies among its main characteristics.

Abstract: This article reviews how one urban university campus sustained momentum and gained increasing levels of commitment and support from the campus community for its strategic plan. The focus of the article is a discussion of the multi-faceted communication plan used on campus to review progress on the plan, acknowledge successes, identify new challenges, set annual priorities, and link the plan and priorties with resources.