Can universities save cities?
Chancellor Block, other leaders discuss how colleges benefit communities
Block (right) with moderator Jeffrey Selingo
When 300 people gathered to hear UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, University of Southern California President C.L. Max Nikias and two other university presidents speak on Thursday night about whether universities can save cities, the scholars threw out the question.
The real question, they agreed, is whether universities can make their cities more globally competitive. Their answer was, of course, yes. By filling their cities with educated minds and getting staff, faculty and students involved in the community, universities can give their cities an edge, they said.
Block and Nikias were joined by David Leebron, president of Rice University in Texas, and Arizona State University President Michael Crow in downtown Los Angeles for the Zócalo Public Square panel "Can Universities Save Cities?", which was moderated by Jeffrey Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education. A video of the panel is available online.
Universities obviously have a profound impact, Block said.
"The largest impact they have is, every year, graduation is the largest technology transfer event that occurs in a city, when really well-trained students go out into the workforce," he said.
UCLA, USC and the California Institute of Technology have been mainstays in Los Angeles for a century, Nikias said.
"These three universities had educated the manpower and the womanpower that the city needed to grow," Nikias said. "That was a natural impact that the universities had. There was also intentional impact: that we were very proactive to reach out to the neighbors to build programs. We didn't have to do it, but we did it because it was going to benefit the city and, therefore, all of us at the end."
Selingo asked whether universities should focus on their surrounding neighborhoods or their cities as a whole.
"Our responsibility is to the entire community," Block said, especially considering how affluent much of UCLA's immediate neighborhood is. "Much of our focus has really been at a distance, working throughout Los Angeles, especially in trying to level the playing field in K–12 by assisting with schools ... it serves to make UCLA accessible to a larger group of students."
UCLA is intensely involved in running the UCLA Community School at the former Ambassador Hotel site, which serves students from the Wilshire Center/Koreatown and Pico-Union neighborhoods, Block said. UCLA education faculty trained many of the teachers, helped develop the curriculum, and have a formal partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District school. But UCLA — and USC, Block noted — is also involved in hundreds of other schools across the greater Los Angeles region, helping to make students better prepared for college and demystifying the university for them.
Getting faculty involved in the community is easier than it might sound, Block said.
"Los Angeles provides, in some senses, some of the most complex problems — social problems, economic problems, transportation problems ... This is really a laboratory for some of the very best research that can go on," Block said. "Many of our faculty are actually focused on issues that affect Los Angeles because this is the place. This is ground zero for a lot of these problems ... This particular community offers so many challenges that are interesting research material."
The real question, they agreed, is whether universities can make their cities more globally competitive. Their answer was, of course, yes. By filling their cities with educated minds and getting staff, faculty and students involved in the community, universities can give their cities an edge, they said.
Block and Nikias were joined by David Leebron, president of Rice University in Texas, and Arizona State University President Michael Crow in downtown Los Angeles for the Zócalo Public Square panel "Can Universities Save Cities?", which was moderated by Jeffrey Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education. A video of the panel is available online.
Universities obviously have a profound impact, Block said.
"The largest impact they have is, every year, graduation is the largest technology transfer event that occurs in a city, when really well-trained students go out into the workforce," he said.
UCLA, USC and the California Institute of Technology have been mainstays in Los Angeles for a century, Nikias said.
"These three universities had educated the manpower and the womanpower that the city needed to grow," Nikias said. "That was a natural impact that the universities had. There was also intentional impact: that we were very proactive to reach out to the neighbors to build programs. We didn't have to do it, but we did it because it was going to benefit the city and, therefore, all of us at the end."
Selingo asked whether universities should focus on their surrounding neighborhoods or their cities as a whole.
"Our responsibility is to the entire community," Block said, especially considering how affluent much of UCLA's immediate neighborhood is. "Much of our focus has really been at a distance, working throughout Los Angeles, especially in trying to level the playing field in K–12 by assisting with schools ... it serves to make UCLA accessible to a larger group of students."
UCLA is intensely involved in running the UCLA Community School at the former Ambassador Hotel site, which serves students from the Wilshire Center/Koreatown and Pico-Union neighborhoods, Block said. UCLA education faculty trained many of the teachers, helped develop the curriculum, and have a formal partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District school. But UCLA — and USC, Block noted — is also involved in hundreds of other schools across the greater Los Angeles region, helping to make students better prepared for college and demystifying the university for them.
Getting faculty involved in the community is easier than it might sound, Block said.
"Los Angeles provides, in some senses, some of the most complex problems — social problems, economic problems, transportation problems ... This is really a laboratory for some of the very best research that can go on," Block said. "Many of our faculty are actually focused on issues that affect Los Angeles because this is the place. This is ground zero for a lot of these problems ... This particular community offers so many challenges that are interesting research material."
Media Contacts
Related Images
