Earlier this month, CUMU and the Health Anchor Network hosted the Anchor Learning Network (ALN) Virtual Action Summit. Over 30 ALN members from 17 CUMU member institutions joined us for the summit to advance the anchor mission within our institutions, in home communities, and across the higher education sector while shaping the future of our network.
To mark a threshold in the collective learning and progress of ALN, the summit invited member institutions to reflect on individual and organizational imperatives of our shared anchor work and interrogate to what extent the anchor mission is transforming our institutions and our communities.
This two-day event featured workshops, interactive discussions, and a keynote focused on the radical and transformative potential of the anchor mission delivered by John Loggins, director of community engaged learning, University of San Diego, and Esteban del Río, professor of communication studies, University of San Diego.
Together, they reflected on the concept of “joining,” or the process through which “communities co-construct the purpose and conditions of cultural, economic, and political coordinated action–and that colleges and universities are within communities, not outside of them.” Their keynote was inspired by a 2019 article, Aligning Equity, Engagement, and Social Innovation in Anchor Initiatives, published by Metropolitan Universities journal. View the keynote below.