Abstract
Higher education is relentlessly challenged to change and align its roles to respond proactively to the needs of students, communities and society as a whole. Economic relationships with the community and neighboring families are part of this challenge. Every college and university serves to some extent as an economic “anchor” in its respective community. They create jobs and many offer training and education for local residents; most support local businesses through the procurement of goods and services; some advance community development through real estate projects; others facilitate community service projects that have an economic component; and nearly all partner with government and civic groups to strengthen the economic health of the community. Occasionally, genuine issues arise through economic practices that can lead to strained relationships and destabilizing effects for all concerned. With a little
planning and dedication however, colleges and universities can be tremendous economic and social assets for families and neighborhoods. This report highlights some of these “best practices” in the hopes of fostering such relationships.
Our report has rather modest goals, namely to encourage institutions of higher education to begin to think about these economic anchor roles in a cohesive and coordinated manner, that is, as an integrated cluster of activities and practices, and not as piecemeal and separate phenomena. The report advises that colleges and universities consider economic roles as an organizing theme in and of itself for planning, monitoring, fine-tuning, and ultimately institutionalization. Economic roles should not be something that are merely documented every so often in economic impact reports in lieu of taxes.