Dive Brief:
- Baltimore is home to about a dozen colleges, many of which are considering what role to play in the future of a city long-marked by inequality and racial strain, and more recently home to rioting following a particularly gruesome case of police brutality.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that educators are considering ways to get their students into the community, studying issues like lead poisoning, poor nutrition, crime, and housing.
- Johns Hopkins has had that academic engagement for years, students from the Maryland Institute College of Art have taken their art to the city's streets, and Coppin State hosts a charter high school on its grounds, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
Many researchers flock to urban institutions to access a laboratory of pressing issues of poverty and inequality that exist in their cities. However, the unrest in Baltimore certainly could dissuade younger students — and their parents — from choosing preferred schools there. As The Chronicle points out, these are decisions families must make in the coming weeks. The idea of better acquainting current students with the problems that surround them is a good idea, though. Too often, colleges and universities exist as privileged bubbles, insulated from the outside world. Higher ed leaders should work to increase their students’ exposure to the wider community and take a role in improving it.