Our vision for urban higher education is not bounded by our campus borders. Our actions today reach beyond yesterday’s accomplishments and toward tomorrow’s possibilities. We are vital members of our local, regional, and global communities. We expand affordable access for students to participate in postsecondary education and the workforce. We reach above and beyond to create opportunities for engaged citizenship. We explore across disciplinary boundaries to ask and answer our most pressing questions. And we build bridges that span real and perceived boundaries to enhance the well-being of our students, communities, and regions.

Submissions

We welcome your proposal for a conference session that highlights ongoing or completed work that yields data-informed insights for other institutions to learn from and build upon. Conceptual or theoretical proposals that lead to genuinely new understandings or avenues of work, as well as critical perspectives with the potential to shape the field, are considered. We will consider submissions within the following intersecting tracks that illuminate how our campuses and partnerships are redefining what is possible when we reach beyond boundaries. Appropriate topics are not limited to the examples shown.

• Anchor strategies: What are effective strategies to positively contribute to regional well-being? Potential topics include anchor collaboratives; economic inclusion; workforce development; procurement; cross-sector partnerships; emerging local, regional, and national policy issues related to anchor work; and proven efforts to reduce disparities in public health, income, safety, civic engagement, and education.
• Belonging, equity, and justice: How do we move beyond rhetoric to advance belonging, equity, and justice for individuals and groups at the program, department, institutional and community levels? Potential topics include advancing these issues in partnership with community organizations; racial equity; advocacy; student success and well-being; and innovations in faculty recruitment, retention, and governance.
• Democracy: How can higher education play a constructive role in promoting democratic principles and engagement? Potential topics include freedom of speech and free expression; activism and protests on campus; models for civil dialogue; and strategies to increase confidence and participation in electoral processes.
• Impact: How do we know that our efforts with and within communities are having the impact we intend? Potential topics include research methodology, campus and system-wide approaches to tracking and assessing community engagement and regional impact; measures of collective impact and other models for cross-sector partnerships; program evaluation; data utilization to shape policy and practice; and novel or effective communication techniques for telling the story.
• K-16 partnerships: How do campuses initiate and build closer ties with K-16 (primary, secondary, and/or higher education) educational institutions and school systems? Potential topics include regional and state-wide higher education collaborations; articulation agreements between 2-year and 4-year institutions; programs that partner with and invest in schools in the surrounding community; K-12 pipeline and other program models; early college; and college readiness.
• Social and economic mobility: How do campuses increase access for students facing barriers to education and help them succeed through graduation and into greater opportunities? Potential topics include proven strategies to increase access and improve academic and post-graduation outcomes; tracking and assessing impact from pre-admission to post-graduation; and curriculum and service delivery innovations.