By Steven J. Diner
Public policy discussion regarding the future of older cities has increasingly focused on the role of universities as anchor institutions in urban revitalization.
Urban universities attract large numbers of students. They are major employers and purchasers. They build residential and academic facilities, conduct research that can lead to new product commercialization and educate students for jobs in the local economy. They educate many low-income and first-generation students. And they work actively to improve inner-city schools and to strengthen low-income families and neighborhoods.
Rutgers-Newark, the institution I headed from 2002 to 2011, has been deeply involved in its home city’s revitalization in all these ways. A 12,000-student institution, it awards approximately 65 doctoral degrees a year, has a top research faculty and has been ranked No. 1 in the United States for racial and ethnic diversity by U.S. News & World Report for 14 years. Rutgers-Newark could do much more, but it has been significantly handicapped by the peculiarities of Rutgers governance.
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