Social Needs and Academic Responses: Closing the Gap

There has been much talk in the last 10 years about the responsibility of higher education to help solve the urban crisis, yet little has been done. There are some measures the university can take to alleviate the educational plight of the urban poor, the major one of which is to do what they have traditionally done best: teach. The universities can accept larger numbers of minority group members in their freshmen classes, and give them the necessary supportive, remedial, and counseling services. They should encourage these students to enter the service fields: medicine, law, education, so that these students in turn can help the people in their communities. Universities could create special day-care facilities through high school experimental education units set up to serve a clientele of poor children; and universities could provide a second chance for those whose education was terminated at the high school level and who are competent and desirous of obtaining a degree. Since the most likely response of the universities will probably be in the direction of urban research, it will behoove them to be aware of two factors: (1) in terms of research that directly involves human beings, such as Moynihan's and Coleman's, they must be aware that the urban poor are tired of being objects of research; (2) in research concerning problems of the ghetto, such as housing, transportation, or pollution, it would be advisable to involve the residents themselves at the outset in any planning effort. (AF)