But what about the role of Washington State University Vancouver, that bastion of higher education that sits about nine miles north of downtown?

There appears to be no connection at first glance.

David Perry, director of the Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, argues otherwise. He contends universities are undergoing a cultural shift as institutions stop acting like enclaves, reconnect with communities and in the process acknowledge and promote the ability to drive urban development.

“It’s a movement that sees a university as a wholly vested urban institution,” Perry said.

Perry’s comments came Friday as he spoke to 40 people attending WSUV’s inaugural Chancellor’s Seminar Series. He considers WSUV a leader in the movement and cited the seminar as one of many examples.

Hal Dengerink, WSUV’s chancellor, acknowledged the university’s influence extends beyond its Salmon Creek campus and that the institution encourages and cultivates its role as a driver of the local economy.

That starts with the school’s physical presence and bold expansion plans that extend out to 2025. A $14.6 million student center and its companion Firstenburg Student Commons opened last fall. Construction on a $30 million applied technology building for electrical engineering and technology classes is expected to start next year.

Clark College has an office on the campus. The school is working with the state Legislature and local technology companies to fund new electrical engineering and semiconductor labs.

“All of those things that kind of take us beyond our old standard … approach to higher education,” Dengerink said.

Historic connection

Perry said universities have historically had a connection to cities, a link that continues today as 81 percent of expenditures by colleges occur in urban cores. That amounted to $136 billion to $174 billion in 1996 dollars.

The intellectual connection, however, eroded over time, as evidenced by the language of academia, Perry said. Universities provided “outreach” and “extension services” to talk to the community and viewed cities as “laboratories” or “experiments.”

Those words and the attitude behind them are disappearing.

For example, Morehouse College in Atlanta shed its insular ways to work with the city to help rebuild surrounding neighborhoods.

Georgia Tech, which is also in Atlanta, propped up a struggling part of downtown by partnering with private businesses to erect two buildings. One houses traditional university functions while the second is used for research and development conducted by private businesses matched with university researchers.

In Chicago, DePaul University restored a former department store. The school uses the top three floors, leases the middle four floors to the city and brought retail outlets to the ground floor.

Nearby, three universities teamed up to build student housing for 1,680 students.

Perry cited those examples not to discourage, but for Vancouver to think about the possibilities.

“Don’t compare, just relate to the ways in which universities are weaving within their communities,” Perry said.

Jonathan Nelson can be reached at 360-735-4543 or via e-mail at jonathan.nelson@columbian.com.