The tension between "urban" and "research" in an urban research university has led to the creation of a small, service- and community-oriented honors program that serves the needs of academically talented students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Another hallmark of the program is its constantly evolving…

Describes the origins, design, and students of the honors program at the University of California at Irvine. Over half the honors program students are foreign born and over half use English as a second language. The program encourages development of leadership skills and provides a supportive academic community within a growing research university…

At the University of Minnesota, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs was established as an all-university unit with resources to establish community connections, facilitate and support faculty and graduate student urban research and outreach, and help integrate urban concerns into a large, urban-located land-grant university. Its structure,…

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…

A thorough review and revision of curriculum at San Jose State University (California) illustrates that the modern university can achieve major internal academic reforms when two important conditions are met: legitimacy and energy. These two concepts are defined and practical illustrations are drawn from the institution's recent experience in…

Georgia State's minority retention program provides academic and social support for black freshmen by referral to appropriate campus personnel or resources for assistance with academic, financial, personal, social, and career planning problems. It uses peer counseling, faculty mentors, nonacademic staff participation, and social events to…

This article argues that metropolitan universities are well suited to respond to workforce development and maintenance needs, and ways in which institutions can gather the information needed to target their response are examined. A Northern Illinois University study is offered as an example of such an effort. The role of metropolitan universities…

Recognizing the needs of women as entrepreneurs, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga created an outreach program, the Institute for Women as Entrepreneurs. Using talents of business students, faculty, and volunteer consultants, the institute has assisted 150 women. Strategic considerations of the outreach approach and possible applications…

Describes distance learning at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The system uses a hybrid model involving face-to-face, mediated, synchronous, and asynchronous communication at on- and off-campus sites to create flexible and adaptable patterns. Asserts that the hybrid model offers advantages over a single mode, since…

A highly individualized admissions process allows Essex Community College (Maryland) to identify talented and motivated students whose prior academic work might make them ineligible for honors at other institutions. The curriculum is designed around innovative honors sections of regular courses that challenge students intellectually and help…

The Center for California Studies, a unit of California State University, Sacramento, focuses on governance issues and depends on state funds for administering four fellowship programs. It exists in a borderland between academe and state government, public policy think tanks and interdisciplinary studies, graduate education and career training.…

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…

This report presents a description of University College, Memphis State University (MSU). Created in 1975, this small, nontraditional college has prospered in the context of a large, state, urban university. It offers nontraditional students a way to create and finish individualized and interdisciplinary degree programs. Faculty can develop new…

Capital fund-raising campaigns of metropolitan universities must be based on relationships that can generate resources to position the institution in the community. At the University of New Orleans (Louisiana), a successful capital campaign resulted in a welcome increase in external gift resources to support endowed professorships, centers of…