Urban University Blog

Mar 18, 2021

Food Insecurity at Urban Universities: USU’s Collaborative Opportunity Grant

A hallmark of USU’s programming, the Collaborative Opportunity Grant (COG) is a seed funding initiative that leverages the role of urban...

Jul 30, 2020

Wrap-Up: The Road Map to Day 2

How does one summarize the lessons learned over a month of discussions, activities, learning new theories, and sharing promising...

Jul 29, 2020

Navigating Uncertainty: The Urgency of Continuous Improvement

The fourth session in the USU Summer meeting series explored how applying a continuous improvement frame to student success efforts,...

Jul 24, 2020

Designing for Equitable Futures: Respond, Reset, Reinvent

What have urban serving universities learned from the COVID-19 crisis that can inform strategic planning for the future? What inequities...

Jun 9, 2020

Institutional Resilience: Addressing Basic Needs

Leaders in student success know that the number of college students experiencing basic needs insecurity is much higher than the general...

May 26, 2020

I just Graduated; Are you hiring?

As many companies shut down and millions of employees are now without a job, recent graduates from the Class of 2020 fear for their...

May 19, 2020

Academic Advising, Career Services and Social Distancing in a Global Pandemic

Written By: Winston Savoy The global COVID-19 pandemic has shifted higher education through uncharted waters in 2020, and many colleges...

May 8, 2020

Preparing the Class of 2020 for the New Workforce

As students prepare to walk across makeshift stages in their homes for virtual graduation ceremonies, the COVID-19 crisis has interrupted...

May 5, 2020

Universities Strategies to Support Students’ Mental Health Amid the Pandemic

The global pandemic caused by the coronavirus has overturned many lives in just a few months. A rise in mental health issues has occurred...

May 1, 2020

Addressing College Student Food Insecurity during a Pandemic

Many colleges in the United States have launched food pantries in order to combat the growing problem of food insecurity among college...

Apr 24, 2020

Supporting Successful College Admissions and Transitions Amidst COVID-19

As a result of the COVID-19 health crisis, university leaders have had to move to remote learning, and navigate uncertainty around how...

Apr 21, 2020

Covid 19 Issues for the University Enterprise: Crowdsourcing the List

Help us Build the Covid 19 Challenges List! Given the speed of change of the Covid 19 pandemic, university leadership, faculty, staff and...

Apr 15, 2020

Pandemic Modeling: Charting the Course of Covid 19

According to statistical modelers, all models are wrong but some are more useful than others. A pandemic model can help colleges and...

Apr 13, 2020

Campus Communications During Covid 19: Examples by Category (DRAFT PAGE)

Below we have aggregated and organized campus communications to provide examples other universities can use. NOTE: This is a draft for...

Apr 1, 2020

University Maker Space & Medical Center Network Coordination

Calling All USU Innovation and Maker Spaces! Our friends at dpict—a design and facilitation firm— and The Value Web network would...

Mar 26, 2020

Mental Health and Supporting Student Well-being Resources during Covid 19

Well before Covid 19, mental health had already established itself as a major challenge and priority on college campuses. With Covid 19,...

Mar 23, 2020

Resources to Help Meet Students’ Basic Needs During the Covid 19 Pandemic

During the Covid 19 pandemic, many students do not have access to safe housing or any housing at all, face job and/or income losses as...

Mar 21, 2020

Lessons from Hurricane Katrina for Navigating Covid 19: The Case of Tulane

In 2017, in the wake of Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey, Scott Cowen, President Emeritus of Tulane University, spoke with USU leaders...

Mar 20, 2020

A Free Web Chatbot to Keep Students Informed on Covid 19

Managing the pandemic requires providing accurate, up-to-date information that can be communicated in real time. And the ability to ask...