Using higher education community partnerships to promote urban sustainability

18 EnvironmEnt www.EnvironmEntmagazinE.org voLUmE 53 nUmBEr 1

The search for greater sus-tainability opportunities must include a focus on cities and the process of global urbanization.1

How cities are built today and the life-style of urban residents will influence the extent to which sustainability goals can be realized. While it is now widely recognized that the world’s popula-tion is more than 50 percent urban, and

that this population accounts for a dis-proportionate share of greenhouse gas emissions, it is the projection of future urban growth that is even more pro-vocative. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, the world’s urban popula-tion is expected to almost double (from 3.45 billion to 6.3 billion as a medium estimate), representing most of the glo-bal population growth over that time.2

Given the role that cities will play in

achieving sustainability goals, a crucial question is: How can sustainability con-cepts, research, and emerging technolo-gies be rapidly integrated into the eve-ryday practice and life of urban places?

In this paper, we argue that institu-tions of higher education (e.g., univer-sities and colleges), especially those located in cities, can help answer the question and invaluably contribute to the attainment of sustainability goals.

by Carina Molnar, Thor Ritz,

Benjamin Heller, and

William Solecki

USES would work as an operationally

reflective initiative whereby curricula and place based learning

opportunities would vary on a year or semester basis. Students and researchers will work with local

stakeholders to identify relevant and timely projects that directly serve community needs, as defined by the USES board.

iSto

ckP

hoto

/Dr.

Hei

nz L

inke

- P

hoto

desi

gn

JanUary/FEBrUary 2011 www.EnvironmEntmagazinE.org EnvironmEnt 19

A central way that this can be achieved is through the development of university/col-lege–community3 partnerships that actively promote the testing and implementation of cutting-edge sustainability approaches and technology in communities and neighbor-hoods via collaborative learning consor-tiums. This type of partnership is defined here as an urban sustainability extension service (USES) program, which we present as a blending of the century-old land-grant

university extension service tradition and the socially transformative com-munity service ideals that began to grow within higher education after the campus protests of the late 1960s.

The USES concept aims to position urban universities and colleges as catalysts for sustainability efforts in the cities in which they are located. This partnership between an institution of higher education and a commu-nity seeks to establish a dynamic and reflexive boundary organization as a foundation for primary research and testing of new technologies, so that best practices can be defined quickly and then efficiently implemented. Po-tential foci could include urban food systems, green infrastructure, ecosys-tem services, and high-performance building design. We argue here that a coordinated USES program will create place-based opportunities for con-fronting global challenges, while creating more resilient and livable cities. This type of partnership will generate prospects for implementing mitiga-tion and adaptation strategies in the face of rapid environmental change through a process of participatory sustainable development that meets com-munity needs, while engaging and training a new generation of urban en-vironmental thinkers and practitioners. It is well recognized that this type of engagement is necessary to respond to current sustainability challenges.4

Background

Institutions of higher education in the United States have often served as catalysts for addressing national needs and societal challenges. The USES concept in many ways represents a blending of two important streams of thought and practice on partnerships between universities and colleges and the communities in which they are located. The first stream is the land-grant/extension service program activities of universities and colleges that initially developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The second stream is the activist ambition of college students during the late 1960s, which was present on campuses across the United States and was eventually institutionalized as a diverse set of community/service learning opportunities or requirements now available for undergraduate students.

To begin with, the extension service program was intended to provide a mechanism for the scientific community, government administrators, and resource managers to flexibly respond to the demands of a dynamic rural economy and opportunities of new and emerging agricultural and resource

USES would work as an operationally

reflective initiative whereby curricula and place based learning

opportunities would vary on a year or semester basis. Students and researchers will work with local

stakeholders to identify relevant and timely projects that directly serve community needs, as defined by the USES board.

Using Higher Education-Community Partnerships to Promote Urban Sustainability


management practices.5,6,7 In practice, the extension service programs were a combination of testing, formal and nonformal knowledge transfers, service provisions, and technology develop-ment. In this way, land-grant institu-tions via the cooperative extension ser-

vice became incubators and laboratories for agricultural and natural resource use advancement in ways that fundamen-tally changed rural America.

Today, more than 100 universities and colleges have land-grant status, including most of the major public uni-

versities in the country. Each state has at least one institution, as well as one in the District of Columbia. Many U.S. territories and Native American tribal lands also have land-grant institutions. Offices of each state’s cooperative ex-tension service are located at the land-grant universities, with other local and regional offices also present.

A second stream of university–com-munity partnerships relevant for USES emerged out of the social dynamism and activism of the 1960s. During this period of dramatic social change, uni-versities and colleges became the scene for campus protest and a desire for in-creased opportunities to engage with real-world issues. While universities and colleges in many cases were slow to respond to student demands and in-terests, the next several decades saw a significant shift in institutions of higher education, as education and learning theorists8 challenged university and col-lege administrators to define the provi-sion of opportunities for students to be-come responsible citizens as a primary role of higher education and, in turn, to restructure the connections between

Growth of Service Learning in Universities: Following the social dynamism and activism of the 1960s, American universities and colleges gradually began incorporating service learning models into the fabric of their institutions. Service learning when embedded in curricular activi-ties enables students to participate in an organized activity that meets identified community needs and also advances their educational experience by gaining a further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic re-sponsibility.9 As such, service learning provides additional means for the instructors to help stu-dents reach the course and academic program’s goals. Four elemental constituencies of service learning programs have been identified: institution, faculty, students, and community. To create an effective experience, these groups need to work together through a sequence of activities, including planning and development, resource allocation, faculty and student engagement, imple-mentation, and evaluation.9,10

These calls helped push a dramatic increase in opportunities for student (and faculty) engage-ment in a wide array of social, political, and environmental issues beyond campus borders. In the past decade, many institutions of higher education have developed curricular and extracurricular programs for service learning via student civic engagement, including practica, field experiences, student teaching, project studios, public and community service, and internship requirements as part of their degree demands.9,10,11

The 1887 Hatch Act authorized the development and federal funding of agricultural experiment station programs at land-grant universities and colleges.

iSto

ckP

hoto

/Tur

bopi

xel


their institutions and local communities to help facilitate that goal.

A parallel element of this enhanced partnership between universities and communities has been an explicit cri-tique of the relationship between the two, and terms of engagement.10 A con-scious effort has been made to make the dynamic between the partners more reflexive and interactive. The goal is to overcome the tension of the top-down power structure present within more established agreements between institu-tions of higher education and local com-munities. While the Cooperative Exten-sion Service serves as a positive model in terms of its scope, ambitiousness, and attention to societal challenges, it is fundamentally limited by its primary mode of top-down knowledge transfers. Flows of information were generally set up to move only from research and testing toward communities. For the development of the USES program, as

Growth of Extension Service Partnerships: The land-grant colleges and associated ex-tension programs emerged in the United States during the mid and late nineteenth century when the members of the public sphere including federal, state, and local governments were becoming more active players in the promotion of social and economic development. At the time, the nation was largely rural and agrarian; in 1870 approximately three-quarters of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. Agricultural production in the United States during this time was quite dynamic, as huge swathes of territory in the western part of the country and along the Gulf Coast were being opened for agricultural development, while other farmland, primarily in the eastern United States, was being abandoned as degraded and relatively unproductive sites of rural economic deprivation.

The 1887 Hatch Act authorized the development and federal funding of agricultural experi-ment station programs at land-grant universities and colleges. The Smith–Lever Act of 1914 was passed to encourage the active dissemination of the results of the experiment stations and to facilitate direct interaction with local farmers and managers.12 This act formally created the co-operative extensive service program, extension offices throughout the country, and the position of extension agent. Within the realm of higher education generally, and land-grant institutions specifically, significant attention was given to the expansion of applied and mechanical profes-sions—which, in part, was driven by a desire to apply new scientifically based agricultural and resource conservation knowledge (e.g., new agricultural techniques and materials such as hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and larger scale machinery, and concepts like sustained yield and mul-tiple use). Several major pieces of federal legislation were passed during this time to foster the development of public institutions of higher education.

A female demonstrator offers a flower to military police during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration.

Wik

imed

ia C

omm

ons/

Nat

iona

l Arc

hive

s


proposed here, a critical issue is that partnerships that include externally (i.e., expert) defined solutions to local problems, without firm and grounded community input, often can result in negative, unintended consequences for the community.13

A reinterpretation of the goals and methods of university-based, commu-nity research derived from this critique has been developed. The resulting re-search approach states that a central objective must be to enhance the lives and conditions of local residents, and community stakeholders should be in-volved at the earliest stages of a proj-ect and throughout its development and implementation. The research also must provide opportunities for community empow-erment and self-deter-mination. At its most transformative, a partic-ipatory action research approach has been initi-ated in many academic disciplines with the core mission to conduct research to provide communities with the analytical and technical skills and background knowl-edge needed to enable residents to ad-dress and resolve their own problems.14 The model of the university/college researcher passing down expert knowl-edge as edicts is no longer deemed vi-able and appropriate.

Existing Urban Sustainability Higher Education Initiatives

The current era of climate change, rapid urban growth, and sustainabil-ity challenges, paired with new green technology and environmental activism in cities, in some ways echoes the turn of the past century and the concerns for land degradation, rapid rural growth, and decline with the promise of new ag-ricultural techniques and scientifically based resource management concepts. A clear and present need is evident for institutions of higher learning—particu-larly those located in metropolitan cen-

ters—to act as seed beds for urban sus-tainability practice development, test-ing, training, and implementation. As cities become the main stage of human settlement, in a rapidly environmentally transforming world, urban universities can play an extremely important role in helping put best practices into place.

With respect to the transition to sus-tainability, institutions of higher educa-tion have four broad opportunities for intervention and impact. These include: (1) education and curriculum develop-ment; (2) promotion of pure research; (3) promotion of applied research and development; and (4) retrofit of uni-versity/college facilities and materials procurement. Using these four points of

intervention, a rigorous, inclusive, and multidisciplinary urban sustainability extension service could be established.

Throughout the country on univer-sity and college campuses, sustainabil-ity-related programs and activities have been developed and are being imple-mented around one or more of these four themes. Additional insight and perspective on the structure of a pro-posed USES program can be gained by reviewing programs in universities and colleges throughout the United States that specifically include partnerships with local communities, partnerships that connect these institutions with lo-cal residents, government institutions, businesses, and nongovernmental orga-nizations. In the following, we highlight four initiatives that have specific com-ponents that should be incorporated into the proposed USES program.15

At the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth, numerous departments, including Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Policy Studies, and the MBA program, have sustainability tracks or certificates already in exis-

tence or planned. One example we draw from is a course offered in The Charlton School of Business MBA program: “In-novation and Creativity in Sustainable Management.” It challenged students to include sustainability values in their business plans for both real and fic-tional enterprises. After looking at local and national market research indicating commuters’ limited preference for car-pooling, a student developed the idea and software for e-Carmony. The initia-tive sets up an online interface where individuals can look for fellow com-muters who are compatible ride-sharing matches based on starting points and destinations, driving styles, and musi-cal tastes. The pilot study group for the

initiative includes com-muters to the university campus.16

The Urban Defense Project at Oberlin Col-lege (Oberlin, Ohio) fo-cuses on urban renewal, resilience, and energy reduction by providing

residents access to institutions and re-sources to encourage system wide re-vitalization efforts. During the summer 2010 pilot run of the program, sixteen students worked on issues surrounding “community energy efficiency, beautifi-cation, food access, and policy accessi-bility.” Students spoke with hundreds of community members, collected surveys for the city’s new weatherization pilot program, installed efficient lightbulbs, and crafted local policy recommenda-tion based on community feedback. The winter 2011 program will work to look at education, job training, and economic opportunities for high school and col-lege students in Cleveland.17

At Dillard University (New Orleans, Louisiana), a historically black institu-tion of higher education, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice is an impressive example of connecting the university to locally relevant, region-specific issues and creating a training center around them. Focused on issues of environmental rights, specifically the right to be free from environmental harm and its impacts on “health, jobs,

Ranging from efforts to mobilize students not traditionally engaged in “environmental” issues,

to shedding light on the interconnectivity of urban resilience and vulnerability


housing, education, and general quality of life,” the center provides a place for scientific researchers, decision makers, and community members to collabo-rate. Perhaps its most important charac-teristic is its unique approach to com-munity–university relationships: a com-muniversity exchange, which focuses on “collaborative management,” and a recognition of both local and scientific expertise as vital to the partnership. Initiatives range from hazardous waste worker training to hosting two national symposia on the building of New Or-leans post Hurricane Katrina.18

The Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, New York) Center for Community Develop-ment has developed the Block by Block Project, which works to move sustain-ability agendas forward by building weatherization and retrofitting-for-efficiency initiatives, as well as to in-crease employment opportunities in these fields for low- to middle-income residents within the targeted commu-nity. The center is now working with property owners on a section of blocks to concentrate the necessary work in a cluster within the neighborhood to take advantage of existing social networks. Pratt students work side by side with co-ordinators and engage with the program as community–university liaisons.19

tions as well. Most importantly, a poten-tial USES program should focus on the needs and concerns of cities and urban sustainability generally, but operate within the constraints and opportunities of the specific neighborhood. In order to develop a program that meets these ba-sic criteria, we envision an initial model that includes three critical components.

1. Governing Body and the Extension Service Action Strategy. The suc-cess of this program is ultimately dependent on community engage-ment and institutional commit-ment. The process of developing the Extension Service action strat-egy would include initial planning meetings with community mem-bers and appropriate faculty and university leaders. This would be the first step of a community needs assessment to collaboratively document local priorities and ini-tiative opportunities. It would also establish a governing board tasked with designing a leadership struc-ture, the program mission, and its daily operation. The board would develop schedules for continual dialogue, feedback mechanisms, and monitoring and evaluation plans, and essentially build the structure that the USES initiatives would operate within.

2. Extension Office and Experiment Station. The office and experiment station’s main purpose would be to create an inclusive, educational at-mosphere, which worked to make sustainability science and prac-tice more accessible, inclusive, and relevant to the experience of the particular community. This physical space would serve as the initiative headquarters as well as a hub for teaching, learning, re-search and experimentation, focus groups, workshops, and commu-nity outreach. It would essentially serve as a physical clearinghouse for the initiative. Its function and usage would be organized in part-nership with local neighborhood organizations, allowing for greater

Partnering organizations in a USES program could offer sustainable infrastructure improvements, such as solar installation.

iSto

ckP

hoto

/LL2

8 P

hoto

grap

hy

Ranging from efforts to mobilize stu-dents not traditionally engaged in “envi-ronmental” issues, to shedding light on the interconnectivity of urban resilience and vulnerability, these programs incor-porate important components of com-munity development and sustainability research agendas, while bringing them to the forefront of university–neighbor-hood partnerships. The USES initiative would work to combine these com-ponents in one program with a focus on food systems, ecosystem services, green infrastructure, and building sci-ence and how they pertain to and affect the residents of the particular partner-ing communities. Specifically, USES would work to focus further on research and development in place.

USES in a New York City Neighborhood: Prospects and Proposal

Our objective is to develop a USES program, within a four-year City Uni-versity of New York college (i.e., Hunter College, located on the east side of Manhattan with approximately 20,000), that draws on the strengths of these existing programs and partner-ships while acknowledging their limita-


synergies and cooperative learning between university researchers, students, local decision makers, and stakeholders. On a more logis-tical level, it would also serve as a central information node where people could come in and learn about the initiative and identify opportunities to connect with it. The extension office would also have a robust, interactive online “station” that would include infor-mation about the program, updates and news, community meetings, volunteer opportunities, and indi-vidual blogs for USES initiatives. It would also include information about other existing university–community partnerships and the larger USES network that this ini-tiative is working toward. Oppor-tunities to take advantage of new media platforms that allow for continual and consistent conversa-tion would be utilized as well.

3. Experiment Station Courses, Syl-labi, and Applied Learning Expe-riences. USES would work as an operationally reflective initiative whereby curricula and place-based learning opportunities would vary

on a year or semester basis. Stu-dents and researchers will work with local stakeholders to identify relevant and timely projects that directly serve community needs, as defined by the USES board. A wide range of disciplines from the physical and social sciences, humanities, and applied sciences could likely formulate relevant syllabi for the USES program. In professional studies, there are op-portunities to incorporate schools of continuing education as well as traditional curriculum in business, legal, and chemical and civil engi-neering arenas. Finally, one of the most important components of the program is hands-on job training and opportunities that lead to eco-nomic opportunities. Partnering CUNY Institutes and community organizations could offer solar in-stallation certification, alternative energy education, HVAC (heat-ing, ventilation, and air condition-ing) maintenance, green building design, and weatherization pro-grams. In Table 1 are examples of study areas that could contribute directly to the pilot program, bro-

ken down by general topics and potential courses of study or foci that could be incorporated into the USES program.

4. The USES program also would encourage and develop informal learning opportunities that would focus specifically on public edu-cation. These initiatives could likely be developed by marketing, communications, and integrated media students and might include the development of public serv-ice announcements, provocative and locally relevant educational posters, podcasts, short films, and traditional print pieces. Addition-ally, community service initiatives could be incorporated into courses that require internships or serv-ice learning. And finally, students from the school of public health and nursing could be involved in community monitoring and epide-miology studies.

Developing a USES program in a city has a set of opportunities and chal-lenges. One opportunity is that urban

Students and researchers will work with local stakeholders to identify relevant and timely projects that directly serve community needs in neighbourhoods like this one in East Harlem.

Wik

imed

ia C

omm

ons/

Moz

art D

iens

thub

er

Experts are developing a USES program at Hunter College in New York, shown here.

Wik

imed

ia C

omm

ons/

Ren

uHun

ter


universities are uniquely positioned to implement such a program because of the often long-standing, close connec-tions between students, researchers, and community stakeholders. In the case of Hunter College, most students attended New York City public schools and grew up in the city’s middle- and working-class neighborhoods. Initiating vital, place-based research at a school like Hunter is a powerful learning tool because it will allow students to link their interests and research to their own neighborhoods. The students them-selves become a crucial contact point between the college and community. Their involvement and actions might significantly enhance the rate of com-munity engagement and new sustain-ability practice adoption.

Significant challenges also must be acknowledged within the USES model that distinguishes it from the existing extension service framework. One chal-lenge is the complexity of the testing, and trial-and-error experimentation in a highly integrated, human system, like a city neighborhood. The USES pro-gram must be sensitive to how project results and findings can have direct bearing on lifestyles and livelihoods of local residents, and must work to ensure that certain groups and individuals are not advantaged or disadvantaged in the process. Human subjects review pro-cedures will need to be implemented, and possibly adapted to consider the elements of the USES protocol and pro-cess. For example, the USES program must be sensitive to the fact that sustain-

ability innovation and practiced cultural norms will not always be compatible.

Another challenge rests in the ques-tion of transferability, and how to trans-late the results and lessons learned from community-level programming in a specific neighborhood to another loca-tion in a distant city. With an end goal of establishing a national urban extension program, a certain element of univer-sality is necessary. Complicating this is the fact that neighborhoods—and entire cities even—are often defined by their unique characteristics and qualities. To address this, focus will need to be on designing experiments and sustainabil-ity tests which ensure the identification of transferable, broader implications. Creating opportunities for collaboration with other USES programs in various

USES programs could focus on urban food systems, green infrastructure, ecosystem services, and high performance building design, such as this solar-powered laundromat.

Wik

imed

ia C

omm

ons/

Ala

n M

ak


Table 1. Potential Points of Entry for USES Partnerships

locales will facilitate cross-validation of programming activities and help build transferability into each site’s operation at its earliest stages.

University as Catalyst—City as Laboratory

Through theoretical and applied re-search, groundbreaking effort has been done to advance knowledge of best

practices for promoting urban sustain-ability. These advances have all contrib-uted to making cities more livable, sus-tainable, and resilient in the face of cli-mate change and rapid urban expansion.

Progress, however, has lacked co-ordination and a consensus has not yet developed around how sustainability is to be defined or how different initiatives are to be implemented in cities. Further-more, a significant disconnect remains between the places where cutting-edge

research is moving forward and the communities in which new approaches and technologies must be applied. What is more, the rate at which new findings are synthesized in a traditional univer-sity laboratory setting is far outpaced by the rapid rate of urban transforma-tion and the pressing need for sustain-ability as dictated by current projections of climate change and other forms of ongoing climate change. Together, both urbanization and the process of environ-

Topic Course of Study and Foci

Food/urban agricultureCarbon calories, ecosystem strain, soil remediation, food waste

Measuring sustainability Research design, metrics, indicators, and trends

Ecological servicesEcosystem services, bio-remediation, environmental engineering, urban forestry, estuary restoration

Mapping sustainabilityGIS (geographic information systems), spatial analysis, land use reviews, brownfields remediation

Public healthUrban epidemiology, open space benefits and valuation, environmental psychology

Waterfront access and shoreline resources

Transformation in access and conditions, estuary ecosystems and history

Resource availability Climate change and water supply

Climate change and energyDiversifying energy options, renewable applications in the urban environment, solar installation training

Economic development The green collar movement, natural capital

Art and sustainability Nature writing, photography, visual arts, and communication

Humanities and sustainability Philosophy, environmental ethics

Retrofitting for sustainability Building science, architecture, HVAC


mental change create a highly dynamic situation in cities in the United States. Urban sustainability best practice de-velopment and implementation must re-spond to this challenge, and in this way universities can serves as a catalyst, and cities as laboratories.

Many municipal governments have already designed plans to make their cities more sustainable, as colleges and universities have taken on the call to promote sustainability through teach-ing and research. Together these ef-forts represent an ambitious attempt to highlight the need for sustainability and illustrate potential pathways for its re-alization. The opportunity to test ideas and solutions for sustainable urban de-velopment in cities themselves is excit-ing and timely, but ultimately demands a further expansion of initiatives and greater coordination between institu-tions of higher learning and their home communities.

To achieve this, the functions of in-stitutions of higher education as they relate to sustainability practices must be formalized, coordinated, and maxi-mized if the goal of achieving greater urban sustainability is to be achieved. In the USES model, evaluation of best practices comes through exploring and testing real world applications that en-gage students, researchers, and urban residents simultaneously. It promotes place-based research—and learning—that benefits and serves those most di-rectly involved and in need.

Based on our review, existing uni-versity–community, sustainability-fo-cused partnerships are responding to lo-cally relevant, critical issues. However, they are not part of an extended network that focuses on prevailing trends and the

larger issues. The equivalent of the Land Grant initiative and its subsequent ex-tension programs have yet to be devel-oped for the contemporary urban age. An obvious need is present to develop a larger scale national program that

can capitalize on these already existing programs, creating further synergy and coordination, which could potentially lead to a movement not dissimilar to the changes that transformed rural and agricultural society in the early twenti-eth century. It is ultimately our goal that this program and the associated uni-versity–community partnerships will provide cutting-edge research and in-novation as we face this set of new and growing, and ever more dynamic, urban environmental challenges.

To move forward with this discussion and action, there are critical questions that need to be addressed with respect to a USES program within a specific city, and across a set of cities. Three promi-nent questions are presented next:

1. Leadership and Decision Making: Who will lead this initiative and guide its development from initial concept development to strategic

advancement and finally, to its suc-cessful application? True to the call for a multisector partnership, an ideal directorate would consist of leadership from a federal agency, and a selection of local leaders ranging from community organiza-tions to university departmental fig-ures, and administrators for specific local initiatives of the larger USES program. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is an agency that organizationally would have the capacity to lead such a USES initiative, especially given its recent increased focus on urban sustainability issues through its Choice Community program and other related initiatives.

2. Structure and Organization: How can the program be crafted to in-corporate the best of the classic extension service model and the community participatory engage-ment approach? Are their examples of other movements and their insti-tutional formalization that might serve as recent successful examples of blending these two elements? The development and institutional-ization of the environmental justice movement could be seen as one example. As an effort that began simultaneously in many communi-ties in the United States, the issue has become integrated into the for-mal operations of local, state, and federal agencies while at the same time retaining its grass-roots, ac-tivist foundation. The relationship between the two is constantly re-newed through ongoing dialogue and collaboration.

iSto

ckP

hoto

/Chr

is P

aryp

a

Many municipal governments have already designed

plans to make their cities more sustainable, as colleges and universities have taken

on the call to promote sustainability through teaching and research.


3. Metrics of Success and Funding: How might a USES program mea-sure its success? What are the spe-cific benchmarks that will help us assess strengths and weaknesses? Is it by measuring the capacity of a larger USES structure to facilitate existing initiatives? And further-more, how can this initiative take shape, given the financial realities of the current era? Ideally, moni-toring and evaluation opportuni-ties should be built into the initial program timeline, and securing funding is a critical component of the implementation process. New strategies for fundraising, includ-ing federal sponsorship, university contribution, and other revenue streams, must be explored. Poten-tial funding opportunities should be evaluated within evolving federal legislation on climate change and alternative energy.

In summary, this is a fantastically in-teresting time to focus on the issue of urban sustainability. In the past decade, localities and their institutions have be-come quite entrepreneurial with respect to the issue. While the progress that in-dividual cities can make is significant, much work remains to be done. This paper and the USES concept in part embody a step to take stock, assess, and bring the work to the next level. To get there, systematic evaluation and coordi-nation need to take place to understand existing university–community partner-ships, with the final goal of creating a generic framework that affords the best opportunities for success and replicabil-ity in as many towns and cities as pos-sible. This work will require input and leadership from all quarters including researchers, university/college adminis-trators and members of their campuses, government officials at local, state, and federal levels, and most importantly the residents of the nation’s communities.

Carina Molnar is at the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities (CISC), Thor Ritz is in the Department of Geog-raphy and CISC at CUNY, Benjamin Heller is at CISC, and William Solecki is at the Department of Geography and CISC at CUNY.

NOTES

1. Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, S. Hammer, and S. Mehrotra. 2011. First assessment report on climate change and cities. New York: Cambridge University Press. In press.

2. UN Habitat. 2008. State of the world’s cities: Harmonious cities. http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=2562

3. Community in this context is defined as a specific geographic location, its buildings, and all of the residents, social networks, civic organizations, schools, businesses and other locally relevant nodes of exchange and interaction that exist within it. Numerous other types of communities can be defined including individuals or entities with similar essential common characteristics—e.g., members of an organization, fraternity, or association, as well as social media and virtual communities

4. Stafford, S. G., D. M. Bartels, S. Begay-Campbell, J. L. Bubier, J. C. Crittenden, S. L. Cutter, J. R. Delaney, T. E. Jordan, A. C. Kay, G. D. Libecap, J. C. Moore, N. N. Rabalais, D. Rejeski, O. E. Sala, J. M. Shepherd, and J. Travis. 2009. Now is the time for action: Transitions and tipping points in complex environmental systems. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 52 (1): 38–45.

5. Rasmussen, W. D. 2002. Taking the university to the people: Seventy-five years of cooperative extension. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press

6. Grudens-Schuk, N., and B. A. Kramer. 2001. Land-grant universities and extension into the 21st century: Renegotiating or abandoning a social contract. Ames: Iowa State University.

7. Fiske, E. P. 1989. From Rolling Stones to cornerstones: Anchoring land-grant education in the counties through the Smith–Lever Act of 1914. Rural Sociologist 9 (4): 7–14.

8. Boyer, E. 1994. Creating the New American College. Chronicle of Higher Education March 9, A48.

9. Bringle, R. G., and J. A. Hatcher. 1996. Implementing service learning in higher education. Journal Higher Education. 67 (2): 221–39.

10. Bringle, R. G., and J. A. Hatcher. 2002. Campus-community partnerships: Terms of engagement. Journal of Social Issues 58 (3): 503 –16.

11. Bringle, R. G., and J. A. Hatcher. 2000. Institutionalization of service learning in higher education. Journal of Higher Education 71 (3): 273–90.

12. Gusto n, D. H., et al. 2000. Report of the Workshop on Boundary Organizations in Environmental Policy and Science. Discussion Paper 2000-32. Piscataway, NJ: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University and UMDNJ-RWJMS; Cambridge: Global Environmental Assessment Project, Environment and Natural Resources Program. Environment and Natural Resources Program, Kenne.

13. Vanclay, F., and B. Lawrence. 1994. Farmer rationality and the adoption of environmentally sound practices: A critique of the assumptions of traditional agricultural extension. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension 1 (1): 59–90.

14. Baum, F., C. MacDougall, and D. Smith. 2006. Participatory action research. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 60:854–57.

15. The following is a list of university and college programs we reviewed for this paper that currently maintain community partnerships that explicitly include at least three of the following elements: urban-focused, sustainability, extension service, and service learning. We do not consider this an exhaustive list of such programs: Arizona State University: School of Sustainability; Alabama A&M University: The Urban Environmental Science Education Program (UESEP); University of Colorado at Boulder: Earth Education; Cornell University: Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE); University of Houston–Clear Lake: Environmental Institution of Houston; University of Illinois–Chicago: Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement; University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth: Office of Campus and Community Sustainability; Michigan State University: Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED); Oberlin College: The Urban Defense Project; Occidental College: Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI); University of Pennsylvania: The Netter Center for Community Partnerships; Portland State University: Institution for Portland Metropolitan Studies; Pratt Institute: Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment; Tulane University: Center for Public Service; and University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee: Center for Urban Initiatives Research. Recent references for urban/community focused sustainability and service learning campus programs include the following: Glasser;20 Pearce;21 Riley et al.;22 Allen-Gil et al.;23 Keen and Baldwin;24 Milton and Guevin.25

16. University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth: Sustainability studies. n.d. http://www1.umassd.edu/sustainability/studies/welcome.cfm

17. Urban Defense Project. n.d. http://www.urbandefenseproject.org

18. Dillard University, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. n.d. http://www.dscej.org

19. Pratt Institute, The Pratt Center for Community Development. n.d. http://prattcenter.net/news/retrofit-block-block-inspires-new-citywide-program

20. Glasser, H. 2010. An early look at building a social learning for sustainability community of practice. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 4 (1): 61–72.

21. Pearce, J. M. 2009. Appropedia as a tool for service learning in sustainable development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 3:45–53.

22. Riley, D. R., C. E. Thatcher, and E. A. Workman. 2006. Developing and applying green building technology in an indigenous community: An engaged approach to sustainability education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 7 (2): 142–57.

23. Allen-Gil, S., L. Walker, G. Thomas, T. Shevory, and S. Elan. 2005. Forming a community partnership to enhance education in sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 6 (4): 392–402.

24. Keen, C., and E. Baldwin. 2004. Students promoting economic development and environmental sustainability: An analysis of the impact of involvement in a community-based research and service-learning program. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 5 (4): 384–94.

25. Milton, C. J., and T. G. Guevin. 2003. Building commitment to sustainability through habitat restoration: A case study of the Valley Forge Christian College. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 4 (3): 250–56.

Copyright of Environment is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed

to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However,

users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Documents

Using higher education community partnerships to promote urban sustainability