Urban University Blog

Apr 21, 2017

Bridge to the Future: CSUN Puts College on the Agenda for Canoga Park High School Students

In Canoga Park, a community in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, many students at Canoga Park High School aren’t planning to attend for...

Apr 14, 2017

Social Justice and Student Success at Georgia State University

Georgia State University (GSU) has demonstrated that students from all backgrounds can succeed. Situated in downtown Atlanta, GSU...

Apr 7, 2017

Supporting Minority Postdocs

Nearly 50 years ago, the National Academies described postdocs as the “invisible university,” because their contributions to cutting-edge...

Mar 31, 2017

A Boot Camp for Innovation in Bioscience: LABioStart

Entrepreneurs play a critical role in our economy. The innovations they develop have a cascading effect on job creation, standards of...

Mar 24, 2017

Community Engaged Learning in the Inland Empire

At UC Riverside, we’ve always had many of our students engaged in service-learning and other volunteer opportunities in the community....

Mar 17, 2017

USU Heads West: The Frontier Set

What does it mean to be a pioneer? For most, this label conjures up an image of intrepid explorers, leaving behind their known world to...

Mar 10, 2017

Spotlight on Success: STEM Learning Communities

Most readers of this blog will be familiar with High-Impact Practices, a set of teaching and learning practices that have been widely...

Mar 3, 2017

Making Change in Urban Serving Universities

Change is in the air at America’s universities. Everyone is talking about institutional change, about transforming higher education to...

Feb 24, 2017

Accessible, Affordable, Attainable: Reinventing Curriculum Delivery in Health Care Education

Adult college students who have made significant progress in their careers don’t have time to go back and start all over from the...

Feb 17, 2017

Breaking Ground: A Wellspring of Civic Energy

The influential 2012 report A Crucible Moment called on higher education to infuse support for civic learning and democratic engagement...

Feb 10, 2017

OPINION: Higher Ed Civic Engagement In The Post-Ferguson Era Means We Get Uncomfortable

Over the last few years the events in Ferguson, Baltimore and Charleston have elevated the need for fresh discussion in the higher...

Feb 3, 2017

VCU Launches New University-Community Partnership: the MLK Jr Collaborative Intervention Project

Like many urban-serving institutions, Virginia Commonwealth University is located in a high-needs community where K-12 students struggle...

Jan 27, 2017

Diverse Faculty Hiring: Promising Practices

A diverse faculty body is essential for excellence in research, teaching, service, and patient care, and contributes to a climate of...

Jan 18, 2017

B-STAR: A Pathway to Success

Transitioning to college life can be a challenge, even for the most talented of students. The first few months are critical – students...

Dec 16, 2016

Addressing Unconscious Bias in Higher Education

Whether you like it or not, everyone has bias. The way we perceive the world is influenced by the environments in which we grew up,...

Dec 9, 2016

Building Shared Spaces for Shared Work

As author Rebecca Solnit once wrote, “In great cities, spaces as well as places are designed and built.” Urban-serving universities have...

Dec 2, 2016

Paving the Way for Student Veteran Success

In the military, everything is about being part of a team. You’re working with your fellow service members all day, every day, and you...

Nov 25, 2016

What’s the Value of Public Higher Education?

In times of uncertainty, it’s helpful to take a step back and reflect upon our core values and mission. Why are we here? What do we do...

Nov 18, 2016

“An Unstoppable Force for Good”

“If you want to build a world class city, build a great university and wait 200 years.” University of Texas at Austin President Gregory...

Nov 11, 2016

How IUPUI Achieved Excellence in Assessment

What does it take for an institution of higher education to be excellent in assessing student learning and using results to drive...