ABSTRACT
Across the nation, institutions of higher education serve as major contributors to local economies. These anchor institutions develop and implement strategies intended to harness their economic power and support local communities. This practice of community engagement comes in many forms and focuses on creating and sustaining mutually beneficial collaborations between these institutions and their surrounding communities. For public post-secondary education institutions, these forms of community engagement present ethical dilemmas and opportunities for perpetuating or preventing administrative racism, which occurs when administrators rely on technical rationality to avoid making difficult decisions about race. Since public higher education has a commitment to the public good and receives public funding, its strategies and partnerships ought to promote fairness and justice for all people. In Part I of this volume, this chapter will clearly define the tenets of administrative racism as part of the Lilliberation framework. We use this baseline to present the hypothetical case of a higher education administrator tasked with developing equitable community engagement strategies in a large urban environment riddled with institutional racism and overrun with racial disparities. Students will navigate public administration ethics, including administrative discretion, public good/interest, and social equity.
