The Memphis Maps program, a collaborative effort of Memphis (Tennessee) educational institutions, public agencies, a bank, and community programs, trains local students in Geographic Information Systems technology and provides the community with valuable demographic and assessment information. The program is described, and factors contributing to…

The freshman seminar at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis is taught by a team that includes faculty, an academic advisor, librarians, and student mentors and is often linked to a disciplinary course. Faculty serve as instructors in the linked course, and student mentors lead supplemental instruction groups. Challenges…

Research shows that learning communities are an effective way to improve student performance and persistence, but the success of any particular implementation is not guaranteed. Each program should be evaluated with regard to the likelihood that better-prepared students tend to participate. The protocol used for evaluation at Indiana…

This paper presents a study designed to determine the reason first and post-first year students (N=61) chose to leave Chicago Urban University (CUU) prior to graduation. Data were sought from a random sample of 100 students via either a mailed or a telephone survey, with a 61% response rate. The 54-question interview/survey instrument examined the…

Argues that a strong case can be made for supporting outreach as a value-added function in a university. Specific strategies for positioning outreach within the university by developing a power base are outlined. The case of the University of Michigan-Flint is offered as an example of this approach. Seven lessons learned in the process are noted.…

An institutional model to measure effect of student financial aid on matriculation and persistence was found to be both workable and potentially useful for college planning. It examines first-time attendance, within-year persistence, and year-to-year persistence of the entering class at an urban, public university, factoring in student background,…

Argues for college learning communities as vehicles for high school reform, and by extension, for reform of K-12 instruction. Such learning communities can model sound academic practices that all students should master in their last year of high school and first year of college. Programs at Temple University (Pennsylvania) and Portland State…

Urban and metropolitan college students often experience a traditionally organized curriculum as a series of disconnected course requirements. Portland State University (Oregon) has found that integrating attention to community-building as a central element of the core curriculum strengthened student and faculty affiliations and improved…

Discusses processes used to develop faculty workload policy at 13 campuses of the University of Maryland, unique in that it incorporates a report providing clear evidence of faculty productivity and increases in teaching productivity following implementation of the policy. A case study shows both the policy and the workload reporting method…

Factors that affect the attainment of a bachelor's degree by urban students are outlined. The demographic profile of American school children makes it clear that problems for urban colleges and universities will grow in the years ahead. There is a correlation between income and education achievement; low income students do not achieve, persist, or…

Development of community outreach partnership centers (COPCs) requires adaptations in the university environment. Institutions must reexamine and reinterpret the roles and responsibilities of faculty, design of the undergraduate curriculum, structures of the university that create the capacity to support and sustain different working relationships…

Describes the four-year process by which the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater redefined its faculty evaluation, promotion, and tenure system to link faculty rewards to student learning outcomes and to promote faculty priorities more consistent with the institution's mission. At the outset, two-thirds of the faculty were tenured. Topics discussed…

This report argues that many higher education institutions in metropolitan areas, in order to fulfill their mission of enhancing the utilization of research knowledge, must develop appropriate internal and external bridging mechanisms between scholarship and utilization. It further argues for the development of appropriate adaptations in the…

Ten personal accounts by successful leaders of colleges and universities in the United Kingdom describe how these individuals are reshaping their roles to respond to and shape the rapid and profound changes in higher education today. The opening and closing papers are by the editor and review current changes in education, and the importance of…

Describes the process of redesigning faculty roles and reward structures at Towson State University (Maryland) and in the University of Maryland System from 1988-95, noting the pressures and outcomes it created. Topics addressed include workload; alignment of roles, policy, mission, and values system; clarification of roles and workload; faculty…