From the Editor's Desk Ernest A. Lynton One of the characterizing dimensions of urban and metropolitan universities is their commitment to outreach. Our statement of self-definition ''Who Are We?" states that ''We are strongly interactive. We are dedicated to serve as an intellectual and cultural resources to our metropolitan regions .... " Hence metropolitan univer- sities are all interested in bringing about greater attention to and better recognition of faculty professional service. In that ongoing struggle, there is good news, and there is bad news. The bad news is that "struggle" continues to be an appropriate term. Professional service is still far from being widely recognized as an important component of faculty work, and is seen even less as a key element of institutional mission and collective respon- sibility. At the recent Phoenix meeting of the AAHE Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards, the President of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), an organization that should be strongly oriented to- ward outreach, spoke of the need to balance a focus on research with more attention to teaching - and never mentioned institutional obligation to make its intellectual resources available to its regional constituencies. And the forthcoming National Meeting of AAHE, with its splendid theme "The Engaged Campus," doesn't have a single session explicitly devoted to professional service. There is still a lot of work to be done. Fortunately, there is good news as well. Our own urban and metropolitan institutions are forging ahead in placing increasing emphasis on professional service and outreach. In addition, a number of traditional state universities are making seri- ous moves to include such activities into their institutional mission and to recognize them as important faculty activities. A very recent development of particular interest is the beginning of a con- vergence between two "movements" that, to date, have been quite unrelated. One is the push for greater emphasis on professional service in which some of us have been involved for many years. The other is the growing interest in what has come to be called "service learning," involvement by students in external activities in ways which not only "do good" but which also contribute to student learning. Some initial con- tacts and conversations among individuals from both camps have taken place, and it is likely that in the near future a more formal convocation of interested parties will jointly explore how the two complementary goals can be pursued together. The connection is an obvious one. Faculty involvement in professional ser- vice often provides excellent opportunities for student participation. To work with faculty members as part of a team in a joint undertaking gives an extra dimension to service learning. In addition, personal experience in the field makes faculty mem- bers far better qualified to mentor and guide student projects, even if unrelated to their own. The way in which one thinks about faculty professional service is being changed in a very basic way by the gradual recognition that it can enhance student service learning. For the first time, attention is being paid to the potential internal advantages of professional service. It continues to be a necessary and appropriate response to external, societal needs: coping with the accelerating pace of change, with increasingly complex problems, with the demands of a knowledge-intensive economy. But we are beginning to understand that there are substantial benefits, as 4 Metropolitan Universities/Spring 1995 well, to the institution that makes professional service an important and valued com- ponent of its collective mission. These benefits go beyond the potential impact on service learning. Widespread faculty engagement in outreach changes the campus environment and the teaching and learning process in important ways. Greater fac- ulty understanding of the uses of their discipline or profession helps to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the classroom. This is of particular importance for urban and metropolitan universities. Their professional schools are committed to the preparation and continuing educa- tion of practicing professionals, and their students in all fields are preoccupied with career concerns. But the potential internal impact of an emphasis on professional outreach goes beyond its benefits to better preparation for effective practice. Under- standing the uses of the disciplines in the arts and sciences contributes greatly to one's ability to analyze complex issues and thus to be an effective citizen. There- fore, as urban and metropolitan universities, we must make outreach a high priority in order to meet the needs of our external constituencies: but to enhance the quality of our education, we should do so even if these needs were absent. Outreach benefits us as much as it benefits others. A final, very self-serving note in the "good news" column (at least it's good news for me): The AAHE Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards is about to publish a monograph I have written on "Making the Case for Professional Service." I hope that it will help to spread the word. The theme of this issue is very pertinent to the topic of professional service. Mark Lapping as guest editor has done a splendid job in assembling a cluster of contributions illustrating a number of substantial institutional outreach activities and discussing, as well, the closely related question of the role of urban studies programs in urban and metropolitan universities. He has performed his task of guest editing in spite of a transition from being the founding dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers to the even more demanding job of Provost of the University of Southern Maine. We are grateful to him, and wish him well in his new position. University/community relationships constitute one of the challenges shared by metropolitan universities in different countries. Metropolitan Universities is pur- suing its role as an "International Forum" by carrying a British contribution to the issue theme. The issue also contains an interesting article on entry assessment by Clark Taylor from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, a Forum piece by the President of Washburn University, Hugh Thompson, and two book reviews.