2013-05-23T06:18:07-04:00 Paula Allen-Meares http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=paula-allenmeares Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Paula Allen-Meares Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1231111 2012-02-15T14:09:05-05:00 2012-04-16T05:12:01-04:00

Paula Allen-Meares http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-allenmeares/ Recently, a group called CEOs for Cities looked at education and income in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in our country. What they found were that the differences in four-year educational attainment between cities account for three-fifths of the difference of income between those cities. Let me put that more simply: How educated your city is explains 60 percent of how wealthy your city is. According to that analysis, if this city, Chicago, were able to increase the number of residents with four-year degrees by just 1 percent, it would add $7.2 billion to the local economy -- just 1 percent in the number of four-year-college degrees held by city residents.

-- Vice President Joseph Biden, Spoken at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Richard J. Daley Urban Forum, April 27, 2009

As a public institution of higher learning, embedded deeply into our home city Chicago, we bring a full range of research, training and expertise to bear on complex and vexing urban problems, and by doing so better the lives of our fellow citizens. That is my premise: Universities in cities are an excellent investment.

We are one of the key place-based institutions in Chicago. The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) currently supports many excellent programs whose purpose is engagement within our city: the Great Cities Institute, Neighborhood Initiative, the UIC Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion, and the Principal mentoring programs targeted specifically for leadership in Chicago Public Schools. We must, however, remain alert to the constant challenges faced by cities, and continue to improve upon the relationships between our students in the classroom, in the neighborhoods and the larger communities of the city and its region.

I have recently assumed a leadership role with the national group of public research universities, called the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) and co-chair, along with Debra Friedman, chancellor of the University of Washington, Tacoma, the coalition's strengthening community strand.

This notion of urban university engagement with the city is most important in this new century. The twenty-first century is referred to as the "urban century." Not because cities are new forms of settlement, harking back to Jane Addams' era, but rather for the first time in history we are now an urban rather than a rural species. Nowhere is this truer than in the United States. While the population of the entire nation is around 312 million, over 83 percent, or almost 269 million of us live in 363 population density zones on the continent -- or the city/regions of our metropolitan areas.

According to the Brookings Institution, the one hundred largest metropolitan areas in the United States occupy 12 percent of the nation's land-mass; contain two thirds of our population and three quarters of all college graduates.

These same 100 metropolitan areas are responsible for nearly 80 percent of the nation's patents and 94 percent of all venture or investment capital funding. As a result, these top 100 city-regions produce 75 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, making the top thirty five of these metropolitan areas among the top 100 economies in the world.

The importance of urban research universities is clearly manifest in the scale of the impact, the "footprint," of the university in its city. By late in the last decade, urban research universities were among the top employers in every one of their respective cities. Overall, public research universities employed one million full-time staff members and were often viewed as a source of innovation. The last time we counted, we combined to spend over $200 billion in our regions on average, and each one of us spends over $450 million each year on wages and salaries.4

We own an average of almost 600 acres of urban real estate; we are the source of cultural and recreational activities for over 750,000 individuals each year, and we are the 16th largest employer in the Chicago area. Beyond all this direct economic benefit, we are good citizens--expending, as a group, over $6 billion each year in public service programs that, in turn, leverage further investments in our communities. We are also keenly aware of Chicago's priorities and we've made them our own. For example, workforce development in the STEMS, innovation, K-12 education and sustainability in architecture and culture are now hallmarks of UIC.

My colleagues, other university presidents and chancellors, serve on many boards and community leadership commissions involving partners in business, technology, government, education and culture.

4GCI study for USU of the secondary U.S. IPEDS data for those years; Background: Universities Vital to Cities, 2006-07

This "footprint" of the American research university in cities is growing. We are increasingly a significant and preeminent participant. As my colleague Nancy Cantor, the president of Syracuse University put it: "Where we are located is tied inextricably to what we are." The city is the university and university is the city.

The USU plays an important role: building on the increasing importance of universities in cities and establishing a national network of public, urban-based research universities dedicated to improving the economic prosperity and quality of life for all our citizens.

At UIC, the role of university engagement is most directly manifested in our "Great Cities Commitment," which comprises over 1,000 teaching, research and service programs intended to improve the quality of life in Chicago, its metropolitan area and in other "great cities" around the world. This notion of "Great Cities" puts the emphasis on the urban, ensuring that the university is also a key partner with Chicago using its considerable learning and research activities to advance our communities now, and position them to be strong into the future.

Much is made these days of the "value proposition" in any argument when discussing the role of universities, not-for profit organizations, and community foundations in their cities.

Beyond the economic, social and demographic importance of universities to their cities, what makes them "unique" aside from their recognized contributions (community real estate and land use, housing and neighborhood development and work force development and job creation) is this: We bring a full range of research, training and expertise to bear on the complex and vexing problems of urbanism in all its many facets.

The same thing is true for many of the city's identified problems -- from K-12 education, health and affordable housing, to work force training, poverty and unemployment. The university has the scale of disciplines and expertise to address the range of complexities that these urban issues represent.

I can think of no more appropriate or singularly place-based entity than the university, to "serve" this list of challenges that face the great cities of the U.S. and the world. The only thing more powerful than one university's contribution to its city is a COALITION of universities banded together with stakeholder communities, businesses and various governmental agencies, etc., to "serve" the city/regions of America and beyond.

As co-chair of the "Strengthening Communities Strand" of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities I suggest we continue to leverage the significant roles we play in our cities as both an undeniable institution of scale and an educational institution of unparalleled place-based range and ability.

I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. David Perry, Professor of Urban Planning and Policy and Associate Chancellor for the Great Cities Commitment at UIC and Shari Garmise, Ph.D., Vice President, USU/APLU Office of Urban Initiatives.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1019768 2011-10-27T12:44:00-04:00 2011-12-27T05:12:02-05:00

Paula Allen-Meares http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-allenmeares/ Co-written by Mrinalini C. Rao

A great deal of attention recently has been focused on an issue of real importance to the future of our nation -- the need to train more undergraduates, especially blacks, Hispanics and women, in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. We cannot envision a sustained U.S. economic recovery in our increasingly competitive world without a steady supply of highly trained professionals in the STEM disciplines, nor can we imagine full economic equality and opportunity unless the diversity of STEM professionals mirrors that of our nation as a whole. We congratulate both the Obama administration and the Association of American Universities (AAU) for highlighting this issue. Given the differential achievement gaps and escalating poverty rates among racial and ethnic minorities: How will the nation respond?

The administration has put STEM education on the front burner through a series of reports, and has emphasized the importance of higher education in eliminating disparities among those in the STEM fields. A Commerce Department report released last month found underrepresentation of blacks and Hispanics in STEM fields. "Educational attainment may affect equality of opportunity in these critical, high‐quality jobs of the future," the report said. "... by increasing the numbers of STEM workers among currently underrepresented groups through education we can help ensure America's future as a global leader in technology and innovation." This puts significant responsibility for solving this problem on the shoulders of higher education, and it is a challenge we are eager to meet.

For example, there is the AAU's announcement, a few months ago, of a five-year initiative to improve STEM education at the undergraduate level. In announcing the initiative, the AAU noted the disturbing fact that more than 40 percent of entering college freshmen who planned to major in STEM-related fields changed to non-STEM majors by graduation. If we are to make progress in producing more professionals in science and technology, it is imperative that we reduce this attrition and support students who want a career in the STEM disciplines so they graduate with a STEM degree. We also need highly trained and inspirational K-12 science and math teachers, which is why initiatives such as the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)'s ongoing efforts to prepare a new generation of top science and math teachers are so important.

Much of the responsibility for making progress rests with individual colleges and universities, as our mission includes recruiting, educating and graduating the STEM professionals of the future. At the University of Illinois at Chicago we have long recognized these issues and have many initiatives in place with proven results. We want to share some highlights in hopes that they will stimulate a deep interest in the topic and a sharing of ideas and solutions.

We were greatly honored earlier this year when UIC's Women in Science and Engineering program was one of only four organizations and 11 individuals across the U.S. to receive the 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The awards, administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF), recognize the role mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science or engineering -- particularly students in groups underrepresented in those fields. The WISE program founded in 2002, works to increase participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

UIC's WISE program has built a strong network with community organizations and local businesses to attract grade school girls to math and science. A peer mentoring program supports undergraduate women majoring in math and the sciences. We've reached out to literally thousands of girls and young women -- from grade school through college -- to spark their interest in the STEM fields.

And we're seeing results. For example, at UIC our most recent six-year graduation rates for female STEM majors rose in two years to 50 percent from 43 percent among African Americans, to 48 percent from 46 percent among Latinas, and to 66 percent from 53 percent among whites. More than 1,300 students in grades 6-12 received online mentoring from 225 science, technology, engineering and math professionals.

Other programs extend to faculty. Women in Science and Engineering System Transformation (WISEST), was established to increase the number and leadership status of women and underrepresented minority faculty members in science and engineering at UIC. Since 2006, the number of female tenure-system faculty members in the 11 STEM disciplines has increased to 51 from 33. The number of underrepresented minority women has risen to eight from four. WISEST has supported start-up costs for 14 new faculty members and a 15th starts in January. In an effort to ensure that the transition from graduate student to faculty is robust, UIC WISEST completed a highly successful postdoctoral program for underrepresented STEM women, for one cohort. Resources to make such programs widely available should be an important priority.

While progress is being made at UIC and at many other universities, we have much work ahead of us. A 2010 study by the American Association of University Women, citing NSF statistics, said that in 2007, colleges and universities awarded 138,874 STEM bachelor's degrees to men and just 88,371 to women, even though women made up the majority of U.S. undergraduates.

Elementary, middle and high schools are critically important because that is where students' career paths are often identified, their ambitions are nurtured, and they obtain fundamental knowledge necessary for success at the university level. At UIC and many other universities, colleagues are working to improve the quality of instruction and create opportunities in the STEM fields for young students.

Vicki Chou, dean of the UIC College of Education, is principal investigator for a four-university, $16 million Teacher Quality Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The five-year project, now in its third year, will reform teacher training to ensure deep, relevant knowledge in math, science and reading. Maria Varelas, professor of curriculum and instruction, has co-led National Science Foundation grants totaling more than $6 million with colleagues from biology, chemistry, earth science, environmental science and physics for teacher preparation. Donald Wink, professor of chemistry, is a leader of the NSF-funded Chicago Transformation Teacher Institutes. In partnership with four other Chicago-area universities and in conjunction with Chicago Public Schools, Dr. Wink and UIC colleagues are developing programs to improve high school math and science education. Programs such as the Science Olympiad, based in suburban Chicago, have had a profound influence on thousands of young people in all 50 states.

To help increase representation of blacks and Hispanics in STEM fields, student groups in UIC's College of Engineering, such as the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), are active in trying to attract and retain students in engineering programs. NSBE is working with the city of Chicago's community college system to encourage transfer students to consider engineering programs. This past April, UIC-SHPE co-hosted the society's regional conference, attracting almost 400 Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students and more than 75 Hispanic high school students from the Chicago Public Schools.

In 2008, UIC partnered with the Noble Network of Charter Schools to create UIC College Prep near our campus. UIC faculty members help develop the curriculum, with a focus on the health sciences (UIC has a full complement of health science colleges including medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, applied health sciences, public health, and social work).

The school has gotten off to a tremendous start. For example, all public school students in Chicago take an ACT-developed assessment test in eighth grade, called EXPLORE, and then take the PLAN test at the beginning of their sophomore year. The increase in scores for UIC College Prep students from the EXPLORE to the PLAN test were the highest in the city. Last year, UIC College Prep had the lowest student attrition among Chicago Public Schools. Each year in the City of Chicago Math League, more than two dozen Chicago public high schools spread over three divisions compete in algebra, geometry and pre-calculus. The schedule features four division-only contests and a citywide final. Fielding a rookie team with no seniors, UIC College Prep's "Mathletes" completed a successful inaugural campaign by winning Division C for the 2010-11 academic year.

Each of UIC's health science colleges helps develop curriculum and hosts the school's students on campus. When the students visited the College of Nursing this year, they learned how to use an automated external defibrillator. UIC faculty and students visit the high school to present case studies and lessons. Our faculty members and students, including students in the WISE program, serve as mentors and offer after-school tutoring.

What this leads to are students who are not only well-prepared academically, but who have an idea of the career opportunities available in the sciences and mathematics and what it takes to succeed at the university level. It's a formula for our shorthand definition of UIC's mission: "Access to excellence and success." Across the nation and especially in the STEM disciplines, we need more of these innovative approaches and we need to evaluate their effectiveness in realizing the goal.

Paula Allen-Meares is Vice President of the University of Illinois and Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Mrinalini (Meena) Rao is former Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of Illinois and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at UIC.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.922752 2011-08-09T18:05:00-04:00 2011-10-09T05:12:01-04:00

Paula Allen-Meares http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-allenmeares/
I was awed by this young man and how hard he was willing to work to achieve his goal. At the same time, I felt a huge sense of responsibility as chancellor, as I realized that an essential part of my job leading a university campus during the Great Recession of the 21st century would be keeping the doors of opportunity open for this young man and thousands like him at UIC. Many of our students hold down one or more jobs to finance their educations to realize their dreams.

I am very grateful to Sheila Johnson for her invitation to join the ranks of contributors to HuffPost BlackVoices, an exciting new addition to the world of online news and commentary. As head of Chicago's largest public research university (with 27,300 students), a member of the board of directors of the Coalition of Urban-Serving Universities, and a member of the Institute of Medicine and the New York Academy of Medicine, my goal is to use this important new forum to share my perspectives about access to higher education, health care, and economic opportunity for our nation's young people.

The severity and complexity of the crises we face as a society -- economic, social, environmental -- can be solved only with the help of a highly educated, trained, motivated and informed workforce. Developing a more robust and resilient economy, new clean energy, new technologies and new ways to alleviate human suffering will only be achieved by harnessing our collective energies and talents and giving everyone who wants to make a meaningful contribution to society the education and training to do so.

America's colleges and universities drive economic and workforce development, catalyze technological advancement, produce the nation's health professionals and anchor communities. It is hard to imagine what our society would be like without our world-renowned system of higher education, both public and private. Yet we live in a time of dwindling resources, severe unemployment and disinvestment in public education, which threaten to create still-wider gaps between rich and poor. Millions of citizens are facing the future with fear: they have no homes, no jobs and no access to proper health care.

It is vital that young people with high aspirations, like the student who came to visit me, have the chance to complete their educations and pursue careers that take full advantage of their drive and talents. But hardly a day goes by that we don't read about state budget cuts to higher education, lack of reinvestment in critical infrastructure, and colleges and universities being forced to increase tuition to compensate for declining public support. Thus, many students from low- or middle-income families abandon higher education, take longer to earn degrees or leave school with staggering debt loads.

What are some of the consequences? Some students decide that they cannot attend college, or drop out for financial reasons and never return. But sometimes the effects are more subtle. Take a medical student who wants to work in primary care medicine, an area of great need in both urban and rural communities. Graduating from medical school with debt exceeding $200,000, she finds herself forced to choose higher-paying specialties rather than family medicine. Repeated over and over, this leaves populations most in need with less access to basic-quality health care. We cannot maintain, much less advance, our progress as a nation if we do not reinvest in our people and our infrastructure and support those most in need.

Historically, America's colleges and universities have been the great equalizers in our society, giving wave after wave of newcomers the chance at opportunity and intellectual advancement. The Morrill Act of 1862 created land-grant colleges for the purpose of teaching agriculture and innovations that promoted a liberal and practical education for the average citizen. When I was in college, higher education meant a higher standard of living: a better-educated citizenry meant a higher tax-based community, which led to a better overall quality of life. Public higher education was designed for the common good. It is America's research universities, including public institutions such as UIC, that have led the way toward discoveries that have revolutionized society and kept the United States at the forefront of the world's economy. Public universities, and urban ones in particular, have a special role to play in supporting our cities and in building their states' economic base.

As Chicago's largest public research university and the city's 14th-largest employer, UIC exemplifies the mission of the Coalition of Urban-Serving Universities (USU). We have a unique opportunity and responsibility to contribute to the vitality of urban life, and we have embraced it. We have the nation's largest college of medicine, and one of the most diverse. Operating one of only two colleges of dentistry remaining in Illinois, we are the state's largest provider of Medicaid dental services. We are a major producer of teachers for the Chicago public schools. I've had the great pleasure of meeting many UIC alumni over the years; a resounding echo in many of their stories is how transformative their education was, how UIC changed their lives, and how they feel forever indebted.

Our undergraduate students come mostly from Chicago and its collar counties. Many of these students are the first in their families to attend college, and a substantial number are recent immigrants. The student body is so diverse that no racial or ethnic group constitutes a majority. UIC has long been a gateway to the American dream, as befits its location on Chicago's near west side, where Jane Addams' historic Hull-House -- located on our campus -- so nobly aided earlier generations of the newly arrived and disadvantaged. Building on this legacy, we play a critical role in providing high-quality health care to our state. UIC's health sciences colleges are the principal educator of physicians, dentists, pharmacists and other health professionals in Illinois. Our academic research is centered on community disparities, biomedical discovery, urban resilience and the global environment.

UIC's profile mirrors the mission of the USU. Every USU member institution works to support its own community through specific initiatives reflecting regional needs and that institution's academic and research strengths. In so many ways, USU institutions are a key to the nation's future -- for example, collectively we train more than a fifth of future urban teachers in the United States, and 14 USU institutions have colleges of medicine that educate an urban health workforce. USU institutions actively partner with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to explore how we can better meet local, state and regional needs to improve health care and develop stronger economies.

When the nation and individual states set funding priorities, remember that every dollar allocated to a university is an investment in the future, often paid back many times over in tangible returns alone. USU's almost 50 member universities have a combined economic impact of more than $54 billion in their communities. Short-sighted policies will deprive our children and grandchildren of opportunities we took for granted. We cannot afford to let this happen. And so, in the months ahead, I will use this space to talk about issues of vital importance to higher education and those we serve.

Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." One of the great rewards of running a college or university is that every day I see countless faculty, staff and students working to bring about change -- transmitting knowledge, making new discoveries, serving communities, caring for the sick. It is our responsibility to ensure that current and future generations of students have the same opportunities, in ways large or small, to help shape history.]]>