Dear AITF Members:

Usually at this time of year, we are focused on organizing our Annual Conference.  As we are not holding a conference this year, we are taking a close look at the best ways in which AITF can be a resource to anchor institutions in the midst of so many changes.  

Our strategic plan, which we previously shared, highlights some of our intentions.  Over the months to come, we are continuing to implement our new strategy.  A few items worth noting include:

  • Continuing to capture examples of how anchor institutions are responding to COVID-19 and the pandemic’s consequences in their communities.  We released an initial edition of examples a few months ago.  We are pleased to present you with the second edition (https://www.margainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Edition-2-AITF-COVID-response-8.14.pdf).  The landscape of the pandemic is very complex, as different localities are experiencing vastly varied degrees of the spread of the virus.  Therefore, anchors continue to be involved in a wide range of activities from one place to the next.

  • Developing policy proposals to expand incentives for anchor institutions to deepen local collaboration and engage in democratic partnerships to help their communities rebuild and reimagine in the wake of COVID-19 as well as combat systemic racism.  We are actually in the process of developing our first policy brief in this regard.  We will solicit input from all of you in the coming weeks in order to further inform this document.  Beyond developing policy proposals, we expect to intensify our lines of communication with policymakers and relevant government agencies.

  • Continuing to provide spaces for peer sharing.  In addition to our existing subgroups – Economic Development Executives, Higher Education Presidents, Health Professionals, and Education – we are leveraging technology to open up a forum for sharing open to the entire membership.  If you are interested in joining our new online exchange, please email me your intentions so we can invite you to participate. This new format will allow for continuous communications among members.  We will also consider developing new Subgroups for particular networks of peers.  Traditionally, we would like to see interest from at least four members representing different institutions in order to begin the process of establishing a new dues-paying subgroup.  For those of you already participating in a Subgroup, remember that we will hold annual summits – 3-hour online meetings – for each group on November 5.

  • Developing additional online programming – webinars and panels on relevant topics.  We are not yet sure of the frequency of these sessions.  We will hold a webinar on December 3rd from 1:00pm EST to 2:30pm EST.  Stay tuned for more information, and please save the date.


Best Wishes,
David

*****************************************
Here are some relevant articles and resources from the field. 
EVENTS:

Where do we go from here?
A virtual discussion on anti-racism efforts.
This event was held August 13, 2–3:30 p.m. EDT

 
After the tragic murder of George Floyd, many colleges and universities released strong statements denouncing police brutality and the relentless racism Black Americans face. However, systemic racism has plagued our country for over four hundred years, and it isn’t something that will simply dissipate—it must be met with anti-racism strategies.

Four Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) university presidents and chancellors candidly discussed where we would go from here. This critical dialogue centered on how and why higher education leaders need to go beyond rhetoric to combat systemic racism and inequities towards systematic and lasting change.
We are now experiencing an acceleration of change and a long-overdue acknowledgment of racial inequities and injustices that have remained present for several generations. Looking ahead, foundations could pursue a few approaches in order to develop a lasting commitment to racial equity. These include sustained commitment in grantmaking to anti-racist advocates and organizers, investing in Black communities and other communities of color more broadly, transforming foundations institutionally, yielding power to communities and enabling community-driven and participatory grantmaking, collaborating across philanthropy, and collaborating across sectors. 
Northwestern University and the City of Evanston announced on July 29 that Northwestern will contribute $1 million to the City for a sixth year, and is expanding its commitment with the creation of a new $500,000 community engagement grant program aimed at working with Evanston and Chicago to advance racial equity and social justice. 
Authored by senior leaders at the University of Chicago, King’s College London, and the University of Melbourne, with support from management consultancy Nous Group, the Advancing University Engagement Report says the changes are needed to counteract a “corrosive narrative” that universities are disconnected and elitist, at a moment when holistic engagement underpins significant university efforts to respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and redress economic disruption and societal challenges. The report proposes a new framework to measure and assess university engagement, which could be incorporated into global university league tables. Doing so would recognise university efforts to serve local communities and wider society, while better showcasing the existing benefits they produce, the report argues.

Recent reports indicate that Regional Public Universities (RPUs) in states as diverse as California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Wisconsin are facing budget challenges as a result of COVID-19, with predictions that many more states will join their ranks. While the current crisis is still unfolding and many unknowns remain about the ultimate impacts on state and campus budgets, we can look to prior financial crises to predict what the future might hold for RPUs. This brief shares findings from a case study examining how recessionary budget cuts affected the “anchor institution” mission of four RPUs and offers federal policy recommendations to ensure the financial solvency of RPUs through the current crisis and in the years to come.
Hospitals are usually judged on their quality of care, but a new ranking - the Lown Institute Hospitals Index - aims to also look at how much they contribute to their community with metrics like charity care and pay equity. Using these standards, some hospitals known for providing exemplary care fared worse than normal in rankings, and others that don’t have a national reputation rose to the top. That was the point, said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank that compiled the nationwide ranking of 3,282 hospitals.

New analysis from an economic research firm predicts Aggie Square at the UC Davis Sacramento campus will add nearly $5 billion to the Sacramento region’s economy each year and support 25,000 ongoing jobs. Design for the first stage of the project, a partnership between the University of California, Davis, the city of Sacramento and developer Wexford Science & Technology, has just been completed, as has an economic impact report, developed by Economic & Planning Systems.
Early numbers had shown that Black and Latino people were being harmed by the virus at higher rates. But the new federal data — made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — reveals a clearer and more complete picture: Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, throughout hundreds of counties in urban, suburban and rural areas, and across all age groups.

At a time when the national conversation is focused on narrowing the gap of racial equity, two of Cleveland's anchor institutions have been awarded grant funding that will help them turn words into action. Cleveland State University and Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute received a five-year, $1.2 million T32 training award from the National Institutes of Health to recruit underrepresented minority Ph.D. students and students underrepresented in the science and technology workforce.
Efforts to stem the pandemic have squeezed local economies across the nation, but the threat is starting to look existential in college towns. Reliant on institutions that once seemed impervious to recession, “town and gown” communities that have evolved around rural campuses — Cornell, Amherst College, Penn State — are confronting not only Covid-19 but also major losses in population, revenue and jobs.
The Students Learn Students Vote Coalition is the largest nonpartisan network in the country dedicated to increasing college student democratic engagement with nearly 400 nonpartisan partners and a reach of over 1,800 campuses. While social distancing is in effect, some of SLSV’s partners have shared their most innovative strategies to transition to digital and relational organizing and to keep staff, volunteers, and students engaged. Their suggestions include: 1. Get creative online (Penn Leads the Vote); 2. Encourage students to be poll workers (Georgia State University, Andrew Goodman Foundation); 3. Organize the people you know — and the people they know (Eastern Michigan University, Student PIRGs); 4. 4. Send digital care packages (TX Votes); 5. Address the roots of the problem instead of just immediate need (NAACP Youth & College); 6. Build community (Feminist Majority Foundation).

Academic Journal Articles:
Abstract: This analysis of the supplier relationship between Drexel University and Aramark offers a demonstration of the potential for intensifying an anchor institution’s local economic inclusion strategies by leveraging the economic power of supplier partnerships. The operation of a major food service contract represents a substantial set of campus jobs and procurement, but this economic activity often remains outside the remit of economic inclusion efforts when the institution has no contractual influence over it. When an anchor institution can partner with a major supplier that shares a commitment to community impact, it offers opportunities to strengthen an anchor strategy. This article describes how Drexel University and Aramark used their campus food service relationship to deepen Drexel’s anchor mission and core strategic priorities and Aramark’s enterprise sustainability agenda, including the value of the negotiation process, and a set of outcomes in the form of initiatives in food insecurity, local economic inclusion and community engagement, research and technology transfer, and student co-op employment. Both the relationship building process and its outcomes offer a model for other institutions as they look to leverage the untapped economic activity of the major service suppliers.  
 
The most recent issue of the journal Metropolitan Universities published by Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) includes articles from featured authors who presented at the 2019 CUMU conference in Philadelphia, and several articles detail various anchor strategies. This is a link to the full issue.

Reference: Britton, J., Leveen, J., Liberati, D., & D'Isidoro, A. (2020). From Transactional to Transformational: Drexel University and Aramark Collaborate on Mission. Metropolitan Universities, 31(2), 92-110.

Abstract: The University of Pretoria (UP) in South Africa adopted an anchor institution strategy and designated the Mamelodi Campus as a faculty with a focus on community engagement with the primary goal of broadening educational pathways to post-secondary school attainment. As a conceptual shift from the community engagement literature, the Mamelodi Campus identifies the role that it plays and its relationship with the Mamelodi community as part of its “anchor” institution strategy. This paper provides an overview of how two strategic goals of the university, namely widening access and success and strengthening social responsiveness, have manifested over a decade through designating STEM access programs to a campus located in the impoverished township of Mamelodi. The anchor mission entails improvement of the access programs through incorporating the student voice, as well the improvement of the after-school programs (ASPs) by formalizing a Pre-University Academy (PUA). The PUA is a signature academic program geared towards fostering articulation between the high school initiatives, access programs, and the mainstream programs to ensure a seamless transition from secondary school to graduation. A case study methodology was followed to highlight the lessons drawn from the provision of the programs which resulted in forward and backward articulation to close the school-university gap while addressing systemic educational problems left by the legacy of apartheid. The paper further elaborates on the process followed to cement the anchor mission through the PUA as well as make recommendations to strengthen anchor institution strategy efforts in similar contexts.

Reference: Ogude, N. A., Mathabathe, K. C., Mthethwa, N., & White, R. (2020). Mamelodi Pre-University Academy: Aligning Campus Strategic Goals to Achieve a University’s Anchor Institution Strategy Mandate. Metropolitan Universities, 31(2), 33-52.

Spring of 2015, students in the Senior Capstone course of the interdisciplinary Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies program at University of Cincinnati, Blue Ash College began applying their knowledge in an active, applied, service project titled 15-Hour-Project. The goal of this final capstone project, was to enable students to apply their learning, gain real world engagement experience, and become more socially aware of the community in which they live, work, and attend school. Between spring semester 2015 - fall semester 2018, over 1700 volunteer hours have been completed by 115 students within the Capstone class. The purpose of this article is to describe how this project developed into a learning achievement where students demonstrate their skills, knowledge and abilities through service learning and community engagement, thus providing an example for college and university faculty and administrators to develop their own similar types of capstone projects.
Reference: Kegley, M. Service learning in an interdisciplinary capstone: Engaging students in community. AURCO Journal, 26, (56-70).