Freeman Hrabowski and "urban universities"

Baltimore Sun photo.

Freeman Hrabowski has been the president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County for a few decades.  

In that time, he has made it one of the nation's pre-eminent institutions in terms of preparing minority students for graduate and professional schools in the sciences and health professions ("Freeman Hrabowski's UMBC legacy grows as he celebrates 20 years as president," Baltimore Sun).

The Washington Post reports his announcement that he is retiring, and mentions in passing that he gave up opportunities to move to more prestigious institutions because he thought he was doing particularly important work at UMBC ("Longtime UMBC president, who turned school into top producer of Black scientists and engineers, to retire").  

Many past pieces discuss leveraging higher education for local economic development, like Elson Floyd, the sadly deceased president of the Washington State University campus in Spokane ("President of Washington State University dies: fostered development of the "University District" adjacent to Downtown Spokane," 2015) and Nohad Toulan at Portland State University ("Universities as elements of urban/downtown revitalization: the Portland State story and more") and how some communities have refocused their economic development policy around better leveraging of local universities ("Better leveraging higher education institutions in cities and counties: Greensboro; Spokane; Mesa; Phoenix; Montgomery County, Maryland; Washington, DC").

And have mentioned in passing in various articles about how some types of higher education institutions are more leverageable than others, engineering and business ("Cornell and Technion institute open high-tech campus in NY," Times of Israel), and medical and health ("University of Incarnate Word expanding its Brooks campus," San Antonio Express News), but not law ("Words of Hope for a troubled community," Washington Post).

Reading about Freeman Hrabowski again -- from the Baltimore Sun article ("UMBC’s Freeman Hrabowski, who turned school into a model for producing minority scientists and engineers, to retire in 2022"):

The campus now educates 14,000 students, up from 10,000, and includes a research park with 130 companies. ... 

UMBC’s graduation rate is now about 70%, up from less than 52% two decades ago. Investment in new construction has increased from $118 million to $1.2 billion over the last decade of his tenure, and the school’s annual spending on research each year — though still a fraction of the Johns Hopkins University or University of Maryland, College Park — has risen to $84 million from $10 million. UMBC now boasts research centers in such areas as computing, space and atmospheric sciences, and the social sciences. 

Between 2010 and 2019, UMBC had more Black graduates receive doctorates in the sciences and engineering — 146, according to federal government data — than any other university in the nation, eclipsing historically Black colleges and universities like Howard University and academic powerhouses like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University.

makes me realize that "all" major urban universities focusing on first generation college student education, especially with minority students, ought to be aiming to develop programs similar to those at UMBC.  

Also see "A prescription for more black doctors" from the New York Times Magazine, about a similar initiative at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Note that this was the foundation of my series of articles about leveraging the United Medical Center rebuilding to seed a biotechnology and medical education initiative at the St. Elizabeths west campus in the Congress Heights neighborhood in East of the River section of DC.

-- "Community Health Improvement Planning," 2019

-- "Ordinary versus Extraordinary Planning around the rebuilding of the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington DC | Part One: Rearticulating the system of health and wellness care East of the River," 2017

-- "Part Two: Creating a graduate health and biotechnology research initiative on the St. Elizabeths campus," 2017

-- "Part three: the potential for donations around an expanded program," 2017

-- "Revisiting East of the River medical care: United Medical Center," 2017

-- "Update on DC's plans to build a new United Medical Center," 2018

Interestingly, I would say that Baltimore County hasn't been particularly stellar in leveraging its universities (UMBC and Towson University primarily) for economic development, the same way that College Park and Prince George's County have not truly leveraged the presence of the University of Maryland.

-- "Revisiting past blog entries: College Park as a college town and economic development | PG County and Amazon," 2018