Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies researches and analyzes complex issues facing urban areas, primarily metropolitan Newark and northern New Jersey Cornwall Center strives to be:
A key resource in the production of “usable” knowledge for the public, private and nonprofit sector development in Newark, the northern region of New Jersey and beyond. Using a variety of research methods and tools
, the Cornwall Center is committed to producing timely reports, briefing papers, and books that document innovative strategies, programs and policies. We say “usable” because our written work aims to meet the highest research standard that time and resources will allow, but we also maintain that the research must fit the problem. Our goal, then, is to produce important research that encourages thought, questions, and ultimately action by all stakeholders working in a specific issue area and those in the general public. A central force convening key civil society individuals and institutions as they engage in and pursue the economic, political and cultural revitalization of Newark. Convening without strategy frustrates people—even those who understand that change is a complicated process. The Cornwall Center uses large- and small-scale meetings to bring together key actors for any given issue area with the goal of encouraging collaboration and progress. A secondary goal of our convening work is to document key learning to share with a wide audience. Much of our convening is conducted under the auspices and support of a requesting institution such as a foundation, local or regional public sector organization, or civil society group. A forceful agent for the economic and administrative coordination and cooperation of Newark and its surrounding communities. Economic and political trends have sometimes strengthened suburbs and outlying communities in a region at the expense of cities. While there are powerful market forces underlying these trends, the Cornwall Center holds that the result need not be a net negative for all concerned. Other regions and places have found opportunities to exercise mutual self-interest between cities and their surrounding communities. The need to find common ground is increasingly supported by shifting problems and challenges traditionally identified with cities to suburbs. The Cornwall Center, through our research and convening function, will take serious any opportunity to build ties between Newark and its region. A national model for what a university-based center can accomplish working with regional, local and community partners. Though universities have always played a significant role in social and economic development in their proximate communities, that role has been less recognized given the university’s unique mission to seek objective truth and educate citizens broadly. That universities should be recognized and encouraged to play a social and economic development role is less argued today than the extent and richness of that role. University-based centers, such as Cornwall, often act as a portal to link the university and its community. We at Cornwall are in a continual search to make the Center a valuable asset to our university colleagues and community partners.