The Geography of Community: Understanding the Role of a Regional Comprehensive University as an Anchor Institution in Los Angeles

This qualitative study explored one Los Angeles regional comprehensive university’s role as an anchor institution in its physical context. Departing from the well-researched perspective of universities and their administrators, it investigated the perspective of community members with an Organizational Place-Building Theory lens. The research sought to find how the university serves as an anchor institution in the personal lives and neighborhoods of the participants given the specific social and economic conditions of Los Angeles. Ten alumni from the university who continue to reside in the surrounding neighborhoods shared their relationship to the university as a space participated in an artifact-based mapping interview and education journey mapping. This data was supplemented by document analysis, and analyzed to identify areas in which the university’s plans in the community were or were not perceived by participants. Participants indicated the ways in which lived experiences drove their decisions to attend a nearby regional comprehensive university, and how the place shapes their interactions with the world. Interviews also included reflection on the school’s relationship to the Latinx student body, neighborhood poverty, and neighborhood physicality, ultimately indicating that they perceive the university’s efforts to be contributive, yet identified areas for improvement. Implications and recommendations based on findings share directions for future research and university-community partnership