The idea of an urban university - A history and rhetoric of ambivalence and ambiguity

American public and professional attitudes toward the idea of the urban university have always been ambivalent and confused, if not hostile and resistant, in keeping with tendencies toward metrophobia, or fear of the city and its people. Furthermore, definitions of and criteria for the urban university have suffered from ambiguity, thus exacerbating negative attitudes toward it. Uncovering the reasons for these views toward and definitions of the urban university requires analyses that are both rhetorical and historical. Sources of resistance to the urban university are found in the rural and small town traditions of colonial, state, and land grant institutions in the United States. Further indication of ambivalence and ambiguity is the current rhetorical move that poses what used to be called urban problems as metropolitan or human problems and the corresponding reconceptualizations of urban universities as metropolitan or generic, thus deflecting attention from urban institutions and inner cities.