Chapter 6: Urban-Serving Institutions: Serving Students, Serving Cities

The urban-serving institution (USI) is an institution of American higher education that uniquely centers its urban residency within how it creates knowledge, disseminates knowledge, and serves the local community. Representing 68% of colleges and universities in the United States and serving over 20 million students (Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities, n.d.), USIs were founded to serve as a resource for not only the residents within the region seeking a postsecondary credential but to also serve as a conduit to help improve the economic and social health of the city in which the institution is located (Davis & Walker, 2019; Friedman et al., 2014). With a history of exclusion in U.S. institutions of higher education, USIs for several decades have operated with a mission to extend access to populations that have historically experienced barriers to higher education, specifically, low-income, racial/ethnic minority, and first-generation students (Zerquera, 2016).