I was invited to a community meeting at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth this morning, to brainstorm ideas for community-university collaboration on sustainability initiatives. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to meet with a family about a memorial service. But I have to admit, what I heard in the first part of the meeting did not sound like there was much room for the university to collaborate with an individual collaboration. The university was looking for sites to place service-learning students, and they were looking for community partners to apply for grants. But it’s hard to imagine placing a service-learning student in a church, and if our church was going to apply for a grant I can’t quite imagine how we would benefit from having the university as a partner. And I also have to admit that I’m wary because academia in the United States does not have the reputation of being friendly or respectful towards organized religion.
But after all, they did invite me and maybe I’m missing some potential for good collaboration. Maybe you can help me out — I’m wondering if any of my readers knows of a successful collaboration between a local congregation and a university. What would such a collaboration look like?
I think we have one here, in Richmond, Indiana. One of our faculty works with a local congregation to provide after school activities. Our university students volunteer to do various activities; the church provides the space. This project provides a safe place for kids to go after school, and also runs a pantry and clothes bank, offers various workshops for kids and parents on things like fire safety, healthy eating, study habits, etc etc. It works. And our students love it. It provides them a way to make a meaningful contribution (that’s the service part) and in the classroom — this is a philosophy class, ethics I believe — the students can analyze their work from varius perspectives.
If you’re interested, I can find out more about how they negotiate the intersection of religion and academia.
My own collaboration with a local elementary school has shown me that the university, or academia, should partner with local institutions. We are, as academics, too often too sheltered from what is happening in the real world. Books are brilliant partners, but not enough.
Jean — Thanks for the idea, I might be emailing you!!