Synthesis

The two practitioner-oriented articles, Detroit, Bankrupt, Looks to Colleges as Partners in Recovery and Baltimore’s Colleges Ponder How They Can Help Fix a Broken City provide two different approaches on how college are dealing with local urban schools to provide higher ed access. These articles show the importance of perspective towards the issues in an urban setting, whether it be a top-down approach from a removed perspective or a multi-facted, grassroots approach.

The first article explores the Detroit Scholarship Fund and how its partnership with high school students promotes college preparedness. The Detroit Scholarship Fund has “significant grass-roots support from a Fafsa-completion campaign led by six Local College Access Networks, or LCANs, along with teams of leaders from Detroit schools, higher education, business, government, and nonprofit groups, who strive to ensure that Detroit high-school students are prepared for college.” United under the various economic and social issues tackling Detroit, various community leaders work together with colleges to provide a multifaceted approach in mobilizing resources and leaders. For example, the Semester in Detroit program “brings students to live at Wayne State University and intern in the city with nonprofit community groups, business start-ups, museums, or political officials.” Students are then placed in over 20 community-based organizations to apply their educational experiences and lessons to real world problems. 

The second article explores Baltimore riots after the shooting of Freddie Gray, and how the local colleges, particularly Coppin State, view the city as a “laboratory”. One professor in the article, James Thomas, says “This is an opportunity for the school [Coppin State] to be involved. This is a laboratory for understanding the urban condition.” Samuel Hoi, president of the Maryland Institute College of Art, says, “I’m telling parents that part of the reason I came to Baltimore is because it’s a fertile laboratory of learning and innovation, precisely because of this mixture of opportunities, vibrancy, and urban challenges.” Throughout the article, professors and educators have talked about what they want to do to the city rather than work with the city for its wants and needs.

In discussing the partnership in Detroit with the Detroit Scholarship fund and in Baltimore with the local colleges, the authors brought two varying perspectives and understanding of the city towards higher education. The Detroit article shows both the effort and the long term effect of an initiative with grassroots practices, taking into account varying levels of involvement from the city to the state and input from local community members. The Baltimore article shows a detached, “laboratory” approach towards the dilemmas of a city and a lack of involvement from local community leaders. Both articles show how big of an influence an approach and perspective has towards the organizing and mobilization of resources, players involved, and the results that follow.