In Barbara Rolleston’s classes, economic theory becomes urban action.
Economics takes on a very human face for Baldwin-Wallace College students involved in Dr. Rolleston’s community-based learning projects. The metropolitan region is their lab for case studies of Urban Economics.
“My goal, in teaching urban economics, is to connect policy and practice to theory,” she said. “Textbook presentations involve a great deal of theory on how, why and where cities develop. This theory needs to be linked in meaningful ways with real-world issues and/or problems facing our cities.”
With these community-based projects, Rolleston links the classroom with the real world.
“We are integrating academic education with experiential learning and finding ways to build a student body that is more aware of real-life problems that exist in the urban setting,” she said.
In Spring 2003, Rolleston’s students took an up-close-and-personal look at:
- innovation as a means to increase the urban manufacturing base
- international investment in Northeast Ohio’s industries
- housing issues in the Hispanic community
- small business satisfaction with city services
This semester, projects include hands-on research related to:
- the redevelopment of urban “brownfields” - environmentally contaminated former manufacturing and industrial sites that contribute to urban blight, urban sprawl and regional fiscal disparities
- the revitalization of inner-city neighborhoods designated as part of the City of Cleveland’s federally funded Empowerment Zone
- school funding reform and regional disparities in access to quality education
- strategies for attracting new business development in Northeast Ohio through regional economic cooperation
Rolleston’s emphasis on student-centered, hands-on application of classroom learning is just one of the many learner-centered teaching initiatives at B-W.
Rolleston, who is also B-W’s Director of Core Curriculum, assisted in writing the grant that earned Baldwin-Wallace College a three-year, $270,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation to provide seed money for a campus Center for Transformational Learning. A part-time director is being sought.
“With this center, the faculty will have the opportunity to develop new teaching methods that are more learner centered, and to become even better, more effective facilitators of learning,” she said.
Part of B-W’s existing learner-centered initiatives involve building connections to the community so B-W students develop not just academic understanding, but also a practical grasp of real-world issues and practices. The goal is to graduate students who can be part of an effective workforce in the region - a workforce with an entrepreneurial mindset that focuses on problem solving and finding new ways to address the issues that challenge Northeast Ohio.
Baldwin-Wallace has long encouraged civic engagement and strived to develop “global citizens” and “citizen leaders.” Many B-W faculty members, including Rolleston, have already begun to provide their students with holistic, “the world as classroom” opportunities.
Rolleston’s students, who participate in these “service learning” projects, are already applying to real-world community service projects the theoretical constructs they study in the classroom.
They have the chance to work on real-world problems with experts from organizations such as Team NEO, the regional economic development organization charged with promoting and enhancing Northeast Ohio as a site for business expansion and relocation. Other students have worked with experts from the City of Cleveland Office of Economic Development, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association (now part of the Greater Cleveland Partnership), the Hispanic-American Committee, and WIRE-Net.
They have the opportunity to make a contribution to the region while still in school.
“Working with these kinds of organizations, my students have the opportunity to learn more about the activities of the public sector, the private for-profit sector and the non-profit sector in Northeast Ohio,” she said. “These community-based learning projects give students a bird’s-eye view of efforts under way to enhance the economic vitality of Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio region and to address the problems that arise in an urban economy.”
WIRE-Net, the West Side Industrial Retention and Expansion Network, is a city-supported, non-profit economic development organization with 160 small- to mid-size manufacturing company members. In 2003, four students worked with WIRE-Net to interview business owners about innovation, and found that small manufacturers often focus on cutting costs rather than growing revenues. They studied how small businesses could better utilize innovation to build revenues and preserve and expand an irreplaceable source of jobs for inner-city residents through new product designs and improved marketing, packaging and distribution.
Another group of students surveyed city businesses to determine the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with city services and whether companies found Cleveland an attractive business location. Others learned how macro-economics and the global economy affect local business activity. Still another group studied why Cleveland lags behind some other cities in funding for housing in the Latino community. ?
This semester, several students are looking at Cleveland’s Fairfax, Glenville, Hough and MidTown neighborhoods and the federal Empowerment Zone (EZ) programs there. EZs direct resources for business expansion, business property acquisition, workforce development and community development to enhance the quality of life in target neighborhoods. Students are studying the economic theory behind Empowerment Zone strategy while they work with community development corporations (CDCs) that implement the theory at ground-level.
Other students are working with the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign to learn the real-life local ramifications of the landmark Ohio Supreme Court ruling that over-reliance on property taxes has left some schools holding the short straw.
Students working with Team NEO are helping to research what types of indicators should be highlighted in a new regional quarterly economic review targeted at site developers and others interested in considering Northeast Ohio as a business location. Students will research “best practices” of chambers of commerce and economic development organizations in other cities and regions, will analyze their strategies and will make recommendations to Team NEO. These students will also learn how the development of business and wealth spurs local entrepreneurship, generating further business activity.
This semester’s brownfields project has students looking at urban eyesores with new eyes. Blighted, abandoned or contaminated industrial properties, no longer suited for modern manufacturing, are generally in neighborhoods where crime thrives, unemployment is high and infrastructure and housing are crumbling. These sites damage the tax base and contribute to urban sprawl and “leapfrog development,” as households and businesses move away, leaving those who remain with little access to goods, services and jobs.
Yet these properties hold some promise.
Students are visiting both abandoned and redeveloped brownfield sites. They will research “best practice” cities that have made good progress in redeveloping brownfield properties. They will also study economic tools available for redevelopment. At semester’s end, this group of students will present to the City of Cleveland’s Department of Economic Development a report that will integrate their own nitty-gritty experience with scholarly literature on the causes of and solutions to urban blight.
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