Why Do Research? Mapping the futures of Higher Education through the CUNY map of New York City.

City University of New York (CUNY) is a public university system throughout New York City and was established to improve access to quality education for a rapidly growing and diverse population. With campuses spread across a vast metropolitan area, tracking and recording the impact of its research and teaching activities is a big task. The Futures Initiative project is aimed at understanding this complexity and advancing innovation in higher education. Director of the Futures Initiative, Cathy Davidson, explores the research behind the mapping activities. The project articulates that public higher education—really, all higher education—is a tremendous public good. A society invests in its students because it believes in its own future—and strives for the best one possible.