Navigating Dynamic Campus-Community Relationships How Colleges and Universities Engage with Demographic Shift

Introduction: The Contexts of Dynamic Practice in Community and Campus Relationships

Suchitra V. Gururaj and Brianna Davis Johnson

Part 1: Navigating Urban Gentrification

1. Place-Keeping Amidst Erasure: Community Engagement in a Changing Atlanta

Jennifer Hirsch, Freddie Stevens III, Darryl Haddock, Sarah Brackmann, Chris Burke, and Ruthie Yow

2. Lessons Learned from Decades of Efforts to Build Bridges Between Yale University and the City of New Haven 1990s to 2020s

Kate Cooney, Andrei S. Harwell, Anne Gatling Haynes, Anika Singh Lemar, and Alan J. Plattus

3. The University Next Door: Growth, Friction, and the Future of Tempe

Meagan M. Ehlenz

4. JoYful Ways of Being: Five Tenets for Anchoring Authentic and Sustainable Community-University Partnerships with JoY

Isaiah L. Lassiter, Kimberly M. Sterin, Tiffani D. Hurst, Haley Kowal, Damaris C. Dunn, Ayana Allen-Handy, Mariaeloisa Carambo, Cianni Williams, and Jahyonna Brown

Part 2: Navigating the Needs of New Communities

5. Leading the Wave: Positioning Portland State University’s Diverse Student Body to Engage a Changing Region

Rowanna Carpenter, Cynthia Carmina Gomez, Seanna Kerrigan, Sheila A. Martin, Harold McNaron, Judith Ramaley, Alma M.O. Trinidad

6. Reimagining Community Engagement: Lessons from Kingsborough Community College's Work with Immigrant Communities

Joanna Maulbeck, Jason Michael Leggett, Helen-Margaret Nasser, and Sharon Warren Cook

7. A Dream Fulfilled

Trent Engbers, Evelyn Rivas, Colleen Rose, and Rossina Sandoval

Part 3: Navigating Avenues for Economic Development

8. Small City, Big Dreams: The Development and Growth of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Rural Georgia

Dominique Halaby and Allen Muldrew

9. Driving Regional Transformation with Strong Local Roots: Equity, Engagement, and Evolution in Eastern North Carolina

Dennis McCunney and Jermaine McNair

10. Engaging with Demographic Changes in the Rural Region: Transformative Power of Place-Based University-Community Partnerships

Hsiu-Tzu Betty Chang, Cheng-Ta Lai, Liu-Tsu Chen, Ling-An Lin, and Jo-Pu Chen

11. Paradox, Purpose, and Perspectives in Rural Higher Education Community Engagement: Institutional Strategic Initiatives in Response to Demographic Change

Roger J. Huston

Part 4: Navigating Presence

12. The University of Nevada, Reno’s Commitment to Indigenous Inclusion, Engagement, and Sovereignty

Daphne Emm Hooper and Sequoyah Pollard

13. Forging Pathways for Veterans and Military Affiliated Students: ECU's Role in Supporting Military Communities

Jennifer E. Jones, Sharon Paynter, Keith Wheeler, Jim Menke, and Samantha Farquhar

14. From Invisibility to Influence: Huston–Tillotson University as a Civic and Institutional Anchor in Austin

Colette Pierce Burnette

Conclusion: Navigating our Collective Future

Suchitra V. Gururaj and Brianna Davis Johnson

Biography

Suchitra V. Gururaj is a scholar-practitioner of university-community engagement. She has served as assistant vice president for community engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, USA for 15 years.

Brianna Davis Johnson is an Assistant Dean at The Ohio State University Graduate School, USA, leading mentoring, recruitment, and retention for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

"We all must share the stories of extraordinary impact resulting from bold community-university engagement. Our public and land-grant colleges and universities serve their institutional purpose through deep engagement with their communities, jointly tackling the thorniest challenges facing their regions.This volume tells higher education institutions' stories of adapting with agility as their communities shift, change, and grow. This book underscores the best of what our sector does to uphold the public’s trust. It serves as a valuable resource for leaders who believe that effective community engagement can support higher education to meet any moment.”

Waded Cruzado, President, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, USA

"Gururaj and Davis Johnson weave together a beautiful tapestry of contemporary perspectives on the complexity of sustaining place-based community engagement in the long term. Their critical theoretical approach across a wide spectrum of institutions and geographies advances our understanding of place-based work in meaningful ways. A must read for new and seasoned professionals, faculty, college students, and community members who want to engage in deep, meaningful university-community partnership work.”

Erica Yamamura, Co-editor of Place-Based Community Engagement in Higher Education and Executive Director, LEAD California, USA

“This timely volume offers an honest and insightful look at the promise, and the responsibility, of higher education in engaging rapidly changing communities. By elevating the voices of both campus leaders and their community partners, the editors show how true place-based engagement is built: through listening, mutual respect, and a long-term commitment to strengthening the neighborhoods we call home. A valuable resource for anyone working to ensure that education and community progress together.”

Lloyd Doggett, U.S. Representative (TX-37)

“Higher education is at an inflection point—and this book refuses to look away. By centering community voices and place-based practice, it offers a compelling roadmap for renewing higher education’s civic mission, showing how institutions can choose engagement over extraction as universities reshape housing markets, neighborhoods, and local power. This is a rare book that speaks simultaneously to scholars, practitioners, and community partners committed to a more accountable university.”

Davarian L. Baldwin, Professor, Trinity College, USA