Building on a long history of community outreach in higher education, many colleges and universities are taking a more intentional approach to civic engagement. As urban higher education institutions strive to become better neighbors, urban history courses have a valuable role to play in generating research, building connections between the campus and the community, and engaging students in the cities where they study. Using a course-based living-learning community as a case study, this article demonstrates the way an urban history course at the University of Richmond links pedagogy and community engagement. Through “learning out” assignments that include producing a documentary on a local social issue within a national historical context and blogging, students share what they are learning with others outside the class with the aim of urging action for social change.
Kenneth P. Gonzalez and Raymond V. Padilla, "Latina/o Faculty Perspectives on Higher Education for the Public Good ," in Doing the Public Good: Latina/o Scholars Engage Civic Participation (Sterling, VA: Stylus , 2008), 1.
2.
Tony C. Chambers, "The Special Role of Higher Education in Society: As a Public Good for the Public Good," in Higher Education for the Public Good, ed. Adrianna J. Kezar, Tony C. Chambers, John C. Burkhardt, and Associates (San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 2005).
3.
The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration was called the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy when it started in 1908. See http://ssacentennial.uchicago.edu/history/ for more information on the history of the school. In "The Impact of an Urban University on Community Development," George Hampton and David Higham outline the categories of contributions urban universities have made to local communities and discuss the emerging role of urban higher education institutions in community development. See www.umdnj.edu/comreweb/pdf/The_Impact_of_an_Urban%20University.PDF (accessed June 24, 2008). For information on IUPUI, see Ralph D Gray, IUPUI: The Making of an Urban University (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003).
4.
From http://www.upen.edu/campus/westphilly/index.html (accessed on May 15, 2008). The Penn Alexander School, a collaboration between parents, neighborhood organizations, and the university, opened for kindergarteners and first-graders in 2001. In September 2002, the new building for students in grades K-8 opened. For more information on the history behind the Penn-West Philadelphia partnership, see David J. Maurrasse, Beyond the Campus: How Colleges and Universities Form Partnerships with Their Communities (Routledge: New York, 2001), 29-64.
5.
The University College of Citizenship and Public Service launched in 2000. The school became the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service after Tisch gave a $40 million gift to endow the school in 2006. See http://www.tufts.edu/home/feature/?p=tisch_gift (accessed May 2, 2008) for information on the gift and http://activecitizen.tufts.edu/?pid=1 for information on the college.
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Bates announced a $1.7 million endowment to fund the center named in honor of former president Donald Harward and his wife, Ann. David Scobey, the former director of the Arts of Citizenship Program and associate professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan, was named as the first director of the Harward Center in 2005. See http://www.bates.edu/x166253.xml accessed on May 2, 2008.
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Schools are selected for the elective classification through a competitive application process. Audrey Williams June, "Carnegie Foundation Offers Community-Engagement Classification," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2006, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i32/32a03003.htm (accessed on May 2, 2008), and Amy Driscoll, "Carnegie’s Community-Engagement Classification: Intentions and Insights," Change, January/February 2008, http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/files/elibrary/Driscoll. pdf (accessed on May 2, 2008). For more information on the classification and application process, see http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/index.asp?key=1213.
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There are a range of networks including the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (http://www .servicelearning.org/), Campus Compact (http://www.compact.org/), Project Pericles (http://www .projectpericles.org/), Imagining America (http://www.imaginingamerica.org/), and others. Colleges and universities with Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leader programs connect through the Bonner Foundation network (http://www.bonner.org/).
9.
I earned my PhD in American studies from the College of William and Mary, where I focused on twentieth-century cultural, social, and urban history, and film.
10.
From the University of Richmond mission statement; see http://provost.richmond.edu/.
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The founding director of the CCE, Dr. Douglas A. Hicks, ably led the center until August 2009 when he returned to full-time teaching in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. The Bonner Foundation in Princeton University supports the Bonner Scholars Program at twenty-seven colleges and universities across the country. The Foundation seeks to "transform the lives of students . . . campuses, local communities, and the nation by providing access to education and opportunities to serve." To this end, the Foundation provides four-year scholarships to 1,500 students-Bonner Scholars-annually who have "high financial need and a commitment to service." For more information, see http://www .bonner.org/campus/bsp/ home.htm.
12.
See, for example, Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996).
13.
In 2007, the University of Richmond had over $1 billon in endowment funds. In 2007-2008, tuition, room, board, and fees totaled $44,810. The university uses a need-blind admission process for applicants and has a program that offers full tuition, room, and board to admitted Virginia applicants whose parents earn less than $40,000 a year. The new strategic plan focuses on access and affordability, integrated academic and student experiences, community engagement, and diversity and inclusion.
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The University of Richmond apartments are located in Henrico County. The rest of the campus is in the city of Richmond. Chesterfield County also abuts the city.
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The former capital of the Confederacy with a high poverty rate and a majority African American population, Richmond’s political landscape has been further complicated by a unique trio of Virginia state laws. Cities in Virginia are independent from counties, forbidden to annex, and constrained by the Dillon Rule that mandates that all local charter changes must be approved by the General Assembly.
16.
From http://buildit.richmond.edu/ (accessed May 5, 2008). Text written by Betsy Kelly.
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The CCE has partnered with the Highland Park community and the following partners since 2005: Overby-Sheppard Elementary School, Chandler Middle School, Hotchkiss Field Community Center, Reach Out and Read Virginia, Boaz and Ruth (a nonprofit dedicated to successful prisoner reentry), and the William Byrd Community House’s youth program in Highland Park. These partnerships were established through asset-mapping, dialogue, and relationship building with the goal of forming sustained partnerships to address community-identified needs while educating students. In 2005-2006 approximately eighty students participated in ongoing service, many through service-learning courses. The numbers increased to 150 participants in 2006-2007. During the 2007-2008 school year, one hundred students participated in the program.
18.
See Christopher Silver, Twentieth-Century Richmond: Planning, Politics, and Race (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984), and Danielle Amarant, "The Redevelopment of Highland Park and the Role of the Residents," undergraduate research paper, http://research.richmond.edu/students/Dani_ Amarant.htm, for more information on Highland Park’s history.
19.
The campus-community fair was held at the Hotchkiss Community Field in April 2007. Over three hundred neighbors came out to the event that included a number of booths with social and legal services information, college admissions information, and other services requested by community members, as well as music, food, games, and readings circles for kids. In 2008, the collaborative efforts of four community partners made possible the building of an affordable house in Highland Park. Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority donated the land for the project; Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity offered supplemental funding and logistical support; Boaz and Ruth catered the lunches for the volunteers and provided some volunteers; and University of Richmond provided significant funding and many volunteers, drawn from the ranks of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the university, for the eight-week build. Two graduates of the Boaz and Ruth program are the owners of the Habitat house.
20.
For more information on these ten-week fellowships, see http://engage.richmond.edu/programs/ fellowships/research.html.
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The University of Richmond has five schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, the T. C. Williams School of Law, the Robins School of Business, and the School of Continuing Studies. Selected faculty fellows receive $1,800 to transform a course and $3,000 to create a new course with a community-based learning component. They also receive a stipend for participating in the faculty learning community during the academic year. Faculty fellows, with the support of their department chair or dean, commit to teach the course within three semesters.
22.
For more information on the RFI program and the University of Richmond Downtown see http://downtown.richmond.edu/.
23.
Thad Williamson , assistant professor of leadership studies, and I have recently begun working on this project. We presented a conference paper at the Urban Affairs Association entitled "Richmond, Doug Wilder, and the Move to a Strong Mayor System: A Report on a Political Experiment in Progress" in April 2008. An excerpt from this paper appeared in the May 14, 2008 edition of Style Weekly, Richmond, Virginia. Christopher Silver, Twentieth-Century Richmond: Planning, Politics, and Race (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984).
24.
Elsa Barkley Brown and Gregg D. Kimball, "Mapping the Terrain of Black Richmond," Journal of Urban History (March 1995): 296-345. Thanks to Kelly Quinn for recommending this article.
25.
My colleague Lee Carlton piloted the first course-based learning community in 2006-2007 called the Outdoor House. Students enrolled in the program lived together, took a course on the environment in literature, and participated in a range of outdoor offerings.
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My course draws from a rich syllabus put together by Joseph Heathcott. Joseph is currently an associate professor of urban studies at the New School and a leader of the school’s civic engagement efforts.
27.
Readers interested in a copy of the syllabus can email the author at ahoward3@richmond.edu.
28.
I have now taught the course three times and I have included the changes I have made-through trial and error-in this article. I would be remiss not to offer special thanks to Andy Gurka and the Richmond College Dean’s Office staff for their support of the Civic Engagement House.
29.
"Learning out" is a phrase I came up with in talking with my students.
30.
Amy L. Howard, Syllabus, "The Urban Crisis in America," University of Richmond, Fall 2006.
31.
Special thanks to Hil Scott in the CTLT.
32.
Over the past two years I have developed a template for students to work off of as they put together their IRB forms. The first year, my students’ requests were expedited. Last year, with a new person running IRB, the students’ requests went to the full committee. I put the IRB deadline on the syllabus and worked with students to submit their forms on time. For an engaging discussion on the debates around IRB in the social sciences and humanities see Zachary Schrag’s blog at http://www.institutionalreviewblog.com. While students have learned about the importance of protecting vulnerable populations through the IRB process, they complain and question it.
33.
See http://www.communityaction.org/Poverty%20Simulation.htm for more information on the simulation.
34.
Kay Holstein, "Homelessness: Behind the Scenes," reflection paper submitted on December 8, 2006.
35.
Lindsey Foss, "Youth, Gangs, and Violence Reflection," reflection paper submitted on December 8, 2006.
36.
Comments from course evaluations, December 2007.
37.
Dominique Thomas, email to author, July 24, 2007.
38.
Lindsey Foss, email to author, September 18, 2007. Lindsey went on to say that her experience working at Camp Bob combined with what she learned in the Civic Engagement House led her to "completely change her career path. . . . from international work, to work with at-risk kids."
