Call for chapters: Navigating Campus-Community Relationships: How Colleges and Universities Engage with Demographic Change – Oct 15

Posted by Campus Compact on September 17, 2024

Campus Compact is currently seeking contributors to Navigating Campus-Community Relationships: How Colleges and Universities Engage with Demographic Change, edited by Suchitra Gururaj, University of Texas at Austin & Brianna Johnson, The Ohio State University.

Colleges and universities committed to forging meaningful relationships with surrounding communities become bridges between the institution and the community even as the cultures, demographics, and character of the community evolve.

As scholars and practitioners, the editors of this forthcoming publication have observed that some institutions are drivers of change in the community—attracting college-educated, tech savvy individuals looking for diversity, entertainment, and opportunity in a location. One result is that communities surrounding higher education institutions (HEIs) may begin to shift demographically, subsequently changing access to community identity and leadership, as well as resources. The most frequent version of this change, of course, is gentrification and subsequent displacement. While these shifts are difficult for municipalities and individuals to manage, they also pose challenges for those in charge of operationalizing the public service mission of an HEI to offer programming, help clarify community priorities, or envision and create long-term and sustained strategies for engagement.

The purpose of this edited volume is to explore the challenges of undertaking effective community-higher education engagement in locales that have experienced dynamic changes in population or demographics; highlight the lived experience of institutional and community members as they experienced these changes; record best practices and “what worked” in community engagement in such locales; and to present thoughtfully the picture of change in these places.

Learn more.