PSU Magazine Spring 1990

The Case for Urban Uni\efsities Decidedly urban , sharply focused on the needs of its city locale , yet offering the broad array of graduate programs often associated with older land grant universities, this is among the fastest growing breed of higher education institutions in the country. By John Kirkland N ear the nation's capital is one of the fastest growing universities in the country, yet it is growing by defying the age-old dictates of what a university is. Rather than having a traditional campus, it is seeking to become "decentralized" - spread out from county to county, each section linked by computers. Although it has a "mother campus," the university is becoming less of a place where students come. Instead , it is going to where the studen.ts are, to the exploding growth areas outside the city's core. And although it is part of the Virginia state system , it is looking increasingly to private dollars as the only practical way to handle its rap id growth . Starting out 20 years ago as a branch campus of the University of Virginia , George Mason University now has 20,000 students, is growing by 1,000 a year, and is building for 32,000 by the tum of the century. "The state is scared to death of us ," said Edward L. Delaney, George Mason's assistant vice president for institutional planning and research. "We're threatening to become the premier uni vers ity in the state." (John R. Kirkland, a Portlandfree-lance writer and photographer, is a frequent contributor to PSU Magazine.) - George Mason University is one example of a new kind of uni versity, one that is becomjng the way of the future . Decidedly urban , sharply focused on the needs of its city locale, yet offering the broad array of graduate programs often associated with older land grant universities , thi s is among the fastest grow ing breed of higher education institutions in the country. At Portland State University, Mary K . Kinnick, associate professor at the School of Education , and Mary F. Ricks, director of Institutional Research and Planning, conducted a JO-year-long study, from 1977 to 1987 , to track this nationwide growth, partially as a way to appraise Portland State's own progress". They found that enrollment in 32 urban universities they studied grew at twice the rate as for all four-year public institutions. One reason, they point out, may be that urban state universities are filling a niche that no one else is. They serve a greater percentage of women, o lder students, minority group members, part-time students, commuters and students enrolled in evening courses than their non-urban counterparts. The need for urban universities is accentuated by the fact that the American economy is becoming more infomiation- based , more high tec h, and that the businesses associated with these trends tend to locate in large urban areas. Employees within those businesses need places for advanced learni ng to maintain their skills. They need universities , and they can't commute two hou rs to the nearest land grant institution. Urban universities are also uniquely situated to study urban problems: homeless– ness, AIDS, drug abuse, transportation , urban planning , economic development , population trends, pollution. The list goes on, and as the United States conti nues the same urbanization trend that it has been on since World War II , the problems - and opportu nities for study - will continue to grow. Administrators at these uni versities are passionate about the need for thi s emergi ng type of institution , and yet recognize that they are trying to define themselves, perhaps even to justify themselves. They are seeking respect for their institutions which are located in physical settings that are often a far cry from the ivy-covered encl aves of older, more traditi onal schools. Donald N. Langenberg , chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago , quoted PSU 3