From Metromode: WSU prof talks urban planning, farmers markets

Kami Pothukuchi is a professor of urban planning at Wayne State University. She also runs the WSU Farmers Market. She blogged for Metromode last week, discussing her role in the WSU market and why the urban planning department decided to take it on.

Excerpt from Metromode:

Besides education and research, universities have other social and civic missions. These missions are articulated in different ways and take different forms. Whatever their forms, the missions outline an institutional commitment and a sense of responsibility to the different communities they serve—the local community and the broader region in which the university is located, to disadvantaged groups in society, to alumni and their families, and to future generations.

Wayne State University has an explicit urban mission. This mission recognizes the economic stresses that the city and the state experience and highlights the importance of enhancing the economy, education, and transportation directly as well as indirectly, by cultivating citizenship and civic-mindedness among students. This suggests that the university takes seriously its role in contributing to the improvement of the quality of urban communities (including its own neighborhood) in all its activities—research, teaching, and community engagement.

Not explicitly stated, but implicit in the urban mission, is the role of the university as a civic institution, as a large employer, and as a buyer of resources and services. I would argue that universities need to take a look at their own operations especially as they relate to their facilities, business operations, and the food they serve on campus, and how these connect to the quality of the region.

Read the entire article here.