Overview

More Information

Calls for greater public accountability by taxpayers, elected officials, and business and community leaders are challenging research universities throughout the nation to invest more of their institutional influence, resources, and practices to help communities address a broad range of complex issues (e.g. economic, environmental, health, education, and infrastructure) facing our society.

This symposium considers the call for greater investment as an opportunity to recast the "ivory tower" image of research universities by examining its current culture and envisioning engagement as a collaborative process that supports community development through effective town-gown relations. Workshop sessions will showcase successful civic engagement efforts in higher education emphasizing institutional investment and sustainability strategies, and effective service- learning initiatives. Workshops will also provide participants ample opportunities to share their engagement experiences.

The goals of this symposium include:

1. Examining the institutional investments needed to develop and sustain an "engaged" research university.
2. Documenting how research universities have adjusted their institutional cultures to foster successful civic engagement practices.
3. Re-imagining a new "social contract" between research universities and local communities.

Additionally, the UC Asian American Pacific Islander Policy Multi-Campus Research Program at UCLA will offer a workshop examining Service-Learning partnerships between the UC AAPI Policy MRP, Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and UCLA's Asian American Studies Department. The workshop will focus on the connections between neighborhood level data gathering efforts involving students and community based organizations and Asian American and Pacific Islander neighborhood development and empowerment efforts. For more detailed information on this event, please review the AAPI section of this website.

Symposium Keynote:

Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University, will give the keynote address, entitled "Scholarship in Action: 'Remaking America' One Community at a Time."

“Remaking America” will require universities to assume a more expansive role as a public good in their city or region. More than ever before, solving the most complex issues of the world demands the intellectual capital of universities and their cross-sector collaboration with “communities of experts.” Chancellor Cantor will describe how Syracuse University is assuming this role in an older industrial city – Syracuse, NY. She will illustrate how the university is serving as an anchor institution, catalyzing strategic partnerships in key areas such as environmental sustainability, art, technology, and design, and urban school reform – partnerships that have important local impact and strong global resonance. For more information on Dr. Cantor, please see the keynote speaker page.

Other workshop speakers will include:

Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., Dean, UCLA School of Public Affairs

Tania D. Mitchell, Ph.D., Service-Learning Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University

Schedule