Metropolitan Universities: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Metropolitan universities are best understood in the context of major patterns shaping the development of American urban areas, especially since World War II. In a nation now dominated by large, complex urban regions, metropolitan universities are enmeshed in rising public demands, confusion over mission and responsibility, and pressures to focus, reshape, and do more with less". Meeting these challenges, however, may demand the ambitious reassertion of the original conceptto serve all major metropolitan constituencies and needs, and provide a path to bring diverse groups together and restore a sense of civitas to metropolitan communities.