Transcript Building Community from the Ivory Tower to City Hall Kris Cortez Andrew Baalerud Ryan Jackson Grand Valley State University Join the conversation.

Building Community
from the Ivory Tower to City Hall
Kris Cortez
Andrew Baalerud
Ryan Jackson
Grand Valley State University
Join the conversation
The Current Environment
Sunnyvale University and Ambleside are
fundamentally linked.
The University and students have a direct connection
within Ambleside.
Extensive events such as the Sestercentennial present
a significant management issue.
An empowered leadership team is necessary to
address concerns from all stakeholders.
Set a foundation
In order to accomplishing the prevailing mission of building
improved relationships between the university and town a
designated leadership team needs the latitude to have
conversations and present collaborative plans to both governing
boards.
The committee should be comprised a diverse set of
professionals and students to generate robust and
comprehensive recommendations.
To impart a collaborative atmosphere from the start, it is our
recommendation that the respective communities designate
appropriate representatives to meet the committee purpose.
We encourage the integration of both university and high school
students. They can provide insight regarding educational
initiatives and build a sense greater community at an earlier
stage.
Community Engagement Committee
(The CEC)
• Purpose:
o Foster communication between the town and campus communities.
o Provide vision and guidance for initiatives that will promote improved
relations.
o Create opportunities for stakeholders to generate opportunities for town &
gown collaboration.
• Objectives:
o Develop a 5 and 10 year strategic plan incorporating practices and
strategies presented by stakeholders and community relation experts.
o The CEC should consider immediate programming that supports student
develop as well as large partnerships that will enhance both communities
and promote long-term collaboration.
Experiential Learning
• Central to the environment and experience that Sunnyvale is
interested in promoting is opportunities for students to engage
in experiential learning.
• Kolb’s(1984) theory represents an established model by which
community partners and educators can promote a more
robust educational opportunity and encourage students to
make-meaning
By creating rich experiences
students have the
Concrete
opportunity to create
Experience
meaningful relationships
associated with Ambleside
Active
Reflective
partners. These relationships
Experimentation
Observation
will help foster a stronger
civic connection and build
Abstract
a sense a value and
Conceptualization
ownership within the greater
community.
A common experience
“Operation Fall Back”
The university recognizes the disruption from the increased
student presence within the Ambleside community. As a
proactive measure, a community watch organization
partnered with public safety would provide additional
resources to educate students and moderate their impact.
• The university can dedicate additional public safety
resources during events and to locations where
increased student activity is anticipated.
• Establish a volunteer community liaison organization that
can provide a direct line of communication between
students and their neighborhood community members.
o Similar to the Johns Hopkins University, volunteers inform students of
developing issues or complaints empowering students to address
concerns before public safety intervenes.
• Designate a public safety liaison who will report town &
gown related incidents to the community engagement
committee.
o Provide an assessment tool regarding the effectiveness of town & gown
targeted programing.
Explore your community
• Seminars partnered with career services and
residence life can provide a forum for community
members to share their stories/experience with
students.
• Topics include relationship to the university, decision
to remain in Ambleside, their vision for the
community, and opportunities for students to
connect.
• Additionally these seminars provide public safety an
educational program that provides a face to the
community affected by student disruptions.
• As overall program matures, students will have the
opportunity to speak on their experience and the
meaning-making.
Amble through Ambleside
• The Office of Orientation will utilize the social media app,
SCVNGR (www.scvngr.com), to promote better knowledge
and utilization of the greater community
• During New Student Orientation, incoming freshmen will be
divided into teams based on their residence hall floors. Each
participating student will download the app and follow the
supplied instructions.
• The app will direct each team to various hotspots around the
community. The team members will be asked to complete
various challenges that will introduce them to community
leaders, local cuisine, and the history of the town.
• The team to complete the most challenges within the allotted
time will win a prize. The prize will be an assortment of gift
certificates to local businesses, further encouraging
engagement in the community.
Giving Back Day
• The Community Engagement Committee will sponsor an
annual volunteer opportunity for Sunnyvale students that
will directly benefit the greater community.
• Giving Back Day will allow for community leaders and
local non-profits to create YouTube videos sharing their
story and promote their projects and causes. Students
will then vote on which cause they would like to support.
The top vote getters will receive student support.
• The Community Learning & Engagement committee will
work with local businesses to post videos highlighting
local businesses and landmarks. These videos will be kept
together on a “Get in engaged in Ambleside” page.
• Students will be encouraged and rewarded for posting
their own videos about interacting with the Ambleside
community.
Your Story
YourStory
• A powerful tool many programs may utilize is the linear
storytelling strategy of YouTube. This media content is ideal for
personalizing an experience and conveying a content rich
message.
• Within “Explore your community” and “Amble through
Ambleside” students and citizens can creatively share the
stories of how they are interacting/living within the community.
• As the university develops service and civic-learning
opportunities, students can use this portal to share their
reflections, and create meaning out of their experience and
newly formed relationships.
• Additionally, both the town and university can capture
partnerships and promote a healthy living and learning
environment founded on collaborative ventures.
• The university can promote this community-academic
message with direct presence on the homepage and many
general social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Foursquare Amblin’
• Utilizing the social media app, FOURSQUARE,
(www.foursquare.com) Sunnyvale will encourage students to
engage with local businesses and landmarks.
• Featuring less frequented landmarks and businesses of
Ambleside, foursquare will promote increased student
connections within the community while also continuing to
stimulate local businesses.
• The CEC can sponsor a “Who’s the Mayor?” competition
encouraging students to regularly check-in at municipal
events or landmarks. The student who can successfully
become the “mayor” of the most locations in the greater
community will win a prize pack of gift certificates from local
businesses.
• Locations on campus will also be registered onto
FOURSQUARE. This will allow the greater community to
become more informed about what services are offered by
the campus.
International Town & Gown Platform
• Short Term:
o Webinars to educate and introduce Community Engagement Committee
to Town and Gown initiatives and best practices.
o Encourage community and university members to join the professional
organization and cultivate a network of knowledge and expertise.
o Implement small scale conference initiatives with regional institutions and
community experts , to discuss sustainable town and gown practices.
• Long term:
o Sunnyvale will eventually host ITGA to promote linking campus climate
with outside community.
o “The conference will provide three primary tracks, each focused around
issues critical to fostering reasonable expectations: create, collaborate
and communicate. Plenary sessions will highlight the interplay between
these three areas and the power and promise of collaboration within
vibrant town-gown communities. (International Town and Gown
Association, 2013)
The 3 C’s of the ITGA
Conference
• Create
o The create track provides training to help integrate Town and Gown
Relationships into the academic curricula and university mission, vision
and values.
• Collaborate
o This track can help Sunnyvale learn to build better connections with the
local community in terms of internship and networking with local business
leaders.
o Build relationships with regional higher education institutions to insource
and outsource new opportunities.
• Communicate
o Sunnyvale will focus on this track to help continue promoting Town and
Gown Relations through social media and conducting collaborative
meetings with Ambleside community representatives.
o Sunnyvale will also have the opportunity to showcase their social media
initiatives to help attract prospective students to the academic programs.
Join the conversation
• The Town & Gown Conference presents an
excellent opportunity for university and town to
extend the conversation beyond the physical
conference and event through ongoing Google+
Hangouts.
• Through Hangouts Sunnyvale and Ambleside can
continue to invite experts to engage in
conversations on specific topics with a large virtual
audience.
• This media permits live streaming of many events
sponsored by the
community, promoting increased
access to knowledge and
current best practices.
Community Learning & Engagement Center
• A central hub providing resources and opportunities to
connect the students to the greater community.
• Programs will focus on supporting service-learning and
civic engagement learning outcomes.
o Students will be able to apply curriculum in real world settings and reflect
on new experiences (Kuh, 2012).
• Provide a space for community members to engage
and network with students and citizens in collaborative
project
o Collaborative projects will align with LEAP goals promoting learning to
solve problems in the company of others and listening to others
particularly of different backgrounds (Kuh, 2012).
• The AACU specifically addresses the concept that giving
something back to the community is an important
college learning outcome and will develop civic and
professional skills.
Academic Integration
• The members of the Community Engagement Committee will
pursue the Town and Gown certification through the
International Town and Gown Association (ITGA) to help
educate peers and create effective strategic planning.
o The certification and formal learning process can act as
supplement to drive Sunnyvale’s long-term goal of integrating
service learning and community-building into the academic
curriculum.
• The creation or modification of Public Administration
undergraduate and graduate programs can help facilitate
this initiative such as the University of Clemson’s Master’s of
Public Administration with an emphasis on Town-Gown
Relations (http://www.grad.clemson.edu/mpa/).
o This will help foster faculty, graduate and undergraduate
collaboration initiatives.
o Develop research opportunities for undergraduate students as a
High Impact Practice.
• A Town and Gown program presents the opportunity to
promote increased interdisciplinary work integrating work from
public administration to geographic information systems
Sustainable Living
• The Community Engagement Committee is tasked
with exploring the alignment of university and town
strategic plans beyond 10 years.
o Open conversations on goals and projections will assist
leaders in creating cooperative plans that continue to
acknowledge the needs and goals of respective
communities.
o Associated goals can be unified towards projects that serve
all community members such as municipal academic building
and centers, business ventures and co-ops, or open space
planning.
• A collaborative environment provides the medium
for new academic partnerships, stronger
community identity, and successful enduring
projects.
Let’s talk
The rationale for the Sunnyvale and Ambleside Town and Gown
Relation initiatives are primarily grounded in Leap Goals and
experiential learning. Theory was put to practice by
incorporating modern social media such as Foursquare,
expertise in Town and Gown Relations and international
conferences to help promote sustainability and effective
student development.
The short-term goals such as “Operation Fallback” and initial use
of Foursquare were implemented to confront the negative
image of the university within the community and promote a
quick, yet effective means of addressing the disturbances in
the community. The University of Clemson helped mold many
of the initiatives because of their large role in developing and
promoting the ITGA Conference and creating other
sustainable Town and Gown Relation programs.
The proposals for Sunnyvale and Ambleside represent programs
that have been implemented at other institutions as well as
new, assessable programs molded to meet the needs of this
community.
References
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Alexander, W. A. (1999). Student involvement: A developmental theory
for higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 40(5),
518-518.
Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2004). Making their own way: Narratives for
transforming higher education to promote self-development. Sterling, VA:
Stylus.
International Town and Gown Association. (2013, February 13). ITGA Call
for Conference Papers. Retrieved from www.itgau.org.
Kuh, G. (2008). High-impact education practices: What they are, who
has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: AAC&U.
Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as a source of
learning and development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Seidman, A. (2005). Minority student retention: Resources for
practitioners. New Directions for Institutional Research, 125, 7-24. doi:
10.1002/ir.136
Super, D. E. (1980). A life-span, life-space approach to career
development. Journal of Vocational Behavior 16(3), 282-298.