Towards Realizing Anchor Institution Ideals Within Higher Education: An Exploration of One Urban Research University’s Efforts to Advance a Comprehensive, Democratic, Mutually Transformative Anchor Strategy

Abstract

A growing number of colleges and universities have come to recognize the role and responsibilities they have in the economic and social fabric of their surrounding communities and regions as anchor institutions. Yet, the conditions of urban communities surrounding even the most engaged universities—including under-resourced public schools, inadequate healthcare, and deep poverty—demonstrate that much more needs to be done. If a primary goal of anchor engagement is more equitable, inclusive communities, as much of the rhetoric suggests, scholars and practitioners need to better understand the policies and practices through which democratic, mutually transformative anchor-community partnerships are built and sustained. This qualitative study explores Rutgers University – Newark’s efforts to advance an anchor institution mission. The guiding research question of this study was: How is one university attempting to realize the ideals of an anchor institution strategy with its local community—including comprehensive engagement of academic and economic resources for mutual benefit, institutionalization of engagement, and a democratic process that centers community voice and co-creation—and what kind of institutional changes have facilitated these goals? Thirty-one representatives from the university and the greater Newark community were interviewed, including senior administrators, staff, faculty, and advisory board members, as well as leaders of local nonprofits, community development organizations, and corporate partners. Findings demonstrate the ways in which the internal- and external-facing change efforts—that is, changing institutional policy, practice, and culture and building trusted democratic partnerships with the community and other anchor partners—have been inextricably linked at Rutgers-Newark as part of the institutionalization and mutual transformation process. The findings also highlight key animating features of the Rutgers-Newark experience, which include a clear and compelling anchor vision for the institution that was consonant with its longstanding values, an outside-in framework that guided institutional transformation based on what the public needed from the university, and the building of diverse, inclusive, internal and external coalitions to advance and sustain the anchor agenda.