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Quinnipiac offers one of only 40 accredited physician assistant programs in the US. Photo by Sven Martson.

What's in a Name Change? It May Symbolize the Continuing Evolution of the New American College.

First Drury College (see September Bulletin) and now Quinnipiac College have announced that they will become Drury University and Quinnipiac University in the year 2000. These are not the marketing gestures of small institutions (1,000-2,000 students) that have sometimes replaced "college" with "university" in their names in recent years. Rather, name changes within the ANAC fold reflect the dynamic evolution of institutions with a comprehensive balance of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs and traditional, nontraditional, and commuting student bodies. Moreover, enrollments at ANAC member institutions are growing (typical range 4,500-6,500). ANAC member student bodies both mirror the demography of their local communities and are regional, national, and international in scope.

Ph.D. level education is not part of the vision, nor will research become the foremost responsibility of faculty, as these institutions focus their primary attention on students and a faculty professional model that integrates scholarship, teaching, and service in complementary ways. In the tradition of the land grant universities, many ANAC colleges and universities have forged impressive joint ventures with their local communities in projects ranging from partnerships with K-12 schools to inner-city tutoring and mentoring, housing and social services, and economic development programs. It's hard to imagine a better model for combining theory and practice in student learning, for applied faculty-student research, and for institutional citizenship capable of renewing higher education's significance in society.

Articles In This Issue:

• Drake Presidential Inaugural Focuses on University-Community Relationships
• Valparaiso University Receives HUD Community Development Grant
• Community Development at Hartford Features Magnet School
• The Sage Colleges Joint Venture with University Heights Association
• The Making of a Name Change at Quinnipiac College
• Upcoming Deadlines - Input Requested
• ANAC Events & Meetings

Next to the October 9 ceremony itself, the event of October 8—"Serving the Common Good: a Forum on the Place of Drake"—was the centerpiece of the inauguration of Drake University's 12th president, David Maxwell, and a fitting symbol of the symbiotic relationship of ANAC member institutions and their local communities. Indeed, in conversation at the ANAC Presidents Council meeting on September 11, President Maxwell spoke of the theme of his upcoming inaugural as a celebration of "Drake: Des Moines' University." Drake's effort to accentuate its interdependence with surrounding Des Moines (and Iowa) is a significant New American College phenomenon in renewing an American higher education tradition of service that originated with the Morrill Act during the American Civil War which established the land grant state college system.

One might expect public institutions, supported with tax dollars, to be responsible for sharing the benefits of research and providing expertise for community well-being. For private colleges and universities to do so, especially contrary to the classical liberal arts credo of "learning for its own sake," sets a new standard of service and accountability that runs counter to the 1990's critique of higher education's self-absorption. In recent years many ANAC members have moved from an enrollment-based market relationship with the local region to one of broad-based economic and social development in collaboration with business, government, and other nonprofit institutions. In part these activities are filling a void government programs used to fill; in part they are responses to long-neglected social problems in areas close to campus. But most of all these undertakings reflect the emerging muscle of integrative institutions looking for places to test classroom theories, to make real higher education's civic mission, and to pursue applied scholarship that perceives the community as a laboratory.

The tagline for ANAC institutions—"regionally committed, nationally connected"— coined at the Presidents Council meeting in September, reflects a self-consciousness able to draw energy from a local identity intertwined with national aspirations. This is a triumph of sorts in an individualistic and entrepreneurial society much more comfortable with "either/or" than "both/and" distinctions. The Drake Forum on October 8, with session titles such as, "Drake in the Public Arena," "Drake in the Business Community," and "Drake in the Community," and with panelists such as former Iowa governors Robert D. Ray and Terry Branstad and Des Moines Mayor Preston Daniels, captures a flavor of the following case studies sampling types of community projects that can be found at many ANAC member institutions.

Valparaiso University is a second ANAC member (Mercer University featured in the October Bulletin was the first) to receive one of twenty-two HUD Community Outreach Partnership grants. Valparaiso's $400,000 grant will be used to revitalize a low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhood adjacent to campus. The project will be directed by Larry Baas, professor of political science and co-director of VU's Community Research and Service Center. The grant will fund several initiatives for a project called University Neighbors that links VU with community organizations in addressing issues of affordable housing, job training for youth and young adults, and organizational and leadership development in the neighborhood. Specific initiatives include creating a database that connects volunteers with organizations seeking volunteers, developing a mentoring program for fathers, enlisting volunteers to renovate houses, establishing a home-building apprenticeship program for area teens, and providing career guidance for those completing apprenticeships. Working with and assisting the development of indigenous neighborhood organizations is a major goal of the project.

Work has begun on the University of Hartford Magnet School, a collaborative project of the University, the Capitol Region Education Council, the state Department of Education, and six surrounding communities that has been six years in the making. Designed for 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, the school's curriculum will be based on the research of Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner that identifies multiple intelligences (visual, artistic, kinesthetic, and interpersonal as well as traditional verbal and mathematical approaches) in the ways students can learn. Scheduled to open in Fall 2001, the magnet school will benefit from the resources of all nine of the University's colleges and schools and will provide Hartford students in such fields as education, the health professions, psychology, and sociology valuable opportunities to work directly with elementary school students.

University of Hartford President Walter Harrison has taken the lead in creating the Center for Community Service to fulfill a two-fold mission of assisting members of the University to volunteer for community service and to increase opportunities for faculty and students to incorporate service-learning in the classroom. The Center facilitates a remarkable range of volunteer activities and projects from blood drives and distribution of food to the needy to participation in Habitat for Humanity and visits to senior citizen communities. Applied research and service-learning projects include Educational Main Street, a tutor/mentor partnership with all levels of K-12 education in Hartford; a block watch and crime data project involving Hartford's criminal justice program and a high-crime neighborhood near campus; and a nature trail development and environmental education project involving a school, the Boy Scouts, environmental groups, a corporation, and the University.

The Sage Colleges joined with the Albany Medical Center, Albany Law School, and Albany College of Pharmacy to create the University Heights Association (UHA), a nonprofit corporation for purposes of developing a thirty-one acre adjacent site for the benefit of the four institutions. Central to the development plan for the area (known as UHA Commons) are the conversion of a former Christian Brothers high school on the site as a common instructional space and the purchase of the state New Scotland Armory on site as a common bookstore, food court, and commercial mall. In April 1999, a grant from the Teagle Foundation enabled the University Heights Association to hire its first executive director.

In May, New York Governor Pataki announced the sale to UHA of the Armory, clearing the way for development of shared facilities and services that are expected to realize substantial savings for each higher education institution. Sage President Jeanne Neff, Chair of UHA, commenting on the Armory purchase, "The University Heights Commons will not only enhance the richly diverse neighborhoods around us, but also will serve as an important element of economic growth for the City of Albany." In its long term planning, the University Heights Association expects to build on the interrelated programs and expertise of the four institutions in law, medicine, and health services to continue development of shared resources and programs, including a common technology "backbone," and to take advantage of new program opportunities as they arise.

The name change to Quinnipiac University that President John L. Lahey announced to the campus community in September comes after several name changes historically at an institution originally founded as the Connecticut College of Commerce in 1929. The name change reflects the expanding importance of graduate and professional education, Quinnipiac's efforts to increase its presence internationally, and the University's desire to communicate its comprehensive character clearly. In contrast with institutions with long-established national reputations such as Dartmouth College, Boston College, and the College of William and Mary, Quinnipiac College, like some other New American Colleges, has seen its present institutional form take shape more recently and sometimes has found its name confused with community/junior colleges in the region, even with colleges named for Native American tribes.

In his announcement, President Lahey articulated what the name change implies and does not imply: "Quinnipiac is not now, nor has it any plans to become, a research-oriented university with Ph.D. programs. A change in our name will alter absolutely nothing about our current or future operations, nor will it affect our mission. Quinnipiac's main goal in changing its name is to communicate more clearly and effectively to the general public our present and substantial commitment to graduate education at the Master's and first professional degree levels. This change might also enhance student recruitment and faculty activities in the international arena where 'college' is often associated with the U.S. equivalent of high school, and 'university' with postsecondary education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels." Quinnipiac enrolls nearly 6,000 students, more than 2,000 at the graduate level in ten separate programs. The name change takes place officially on July 1, 2000.