Community Engagement Week Re-cap: Celebrating 150 years of Service and Engagement
The first month of Boulder’s sesquicentennial year was the perfect time to host the campus’s inaugural Community Engagement Week. Produced by the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES),the late-January event brought together a cross-section of faculty, staff and students passionate about partnering with communities beyond campus.
Through panels, workshops and a poster showcase, attendees shared experiences, networked and built their knowledge and skills for conducting community engagement. They also learned about the university’s history and a long-standing charge “to render to the state at large such public service as may lie within its power.”
According to David Meens, assistant vice chancellor for public and community-engaged scholarship, “Events like this give us a chance to see that bigger picture of service and engagement, to see our role within it. It’s great for morale and for making new connections. A lot of folks I spoke with said they learned of activities they weren’t aware of and made connections that might lead to new collaborations.”
Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing set the week’s tone by detailing the historical, current and future priorities for community engagement at Boulder. Schmiesing described the newly instated“hub and spoke” model the campus will follow and emphasized the importance of forming collaborative partnerships across Colorado and within the university. She also celebrated Boulder’s first-time application and attainment of the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement.
Marisol Morales, executive director of Carnegie Elective Classifications, attended to celebrate Boulder’s accomplishment and to speak on a panel alongside Colorado State Senator Iman Jodeh and Diane Doberneck, director for faculty and professional development at the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship at Michigan State University. Moderated by David Humphrey, associate vice chancellor for leadership support and programming, the panel addressed the civic role of universities and what it means to step out and lead.
Attendees reported being deeply inspired by presentations from Max Boykoff, Jota Samper, Valeria Henao, Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke and Karla Trujillo, as well as by the 42 showcase presenters whose work spans from engineering education for rural K-12 students to music research. Workshops were hosted on days two and three, with sessions led by Doberneck and Patti Clayton, senior scholar at the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement at University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The workshops provided a forum for individuals with diverse experiences in community-engaged scholarship specifically to share their work and to reflect on how context shapes approaches to engaged-research, teachingand creative work. Both Doberneck and Clayton emphasized the importance of honoring community partners, co-designing engagement activities and fostering trust and mutual respect. Boulder’s own Michelle Renée Valladares led a workshop about funding community-engaged scholarship and will build on that content with
Community Engagement Week’s closing event punctuated the importance of reflecting on the university's past as we move forward. Meens was joined by Richard B. Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land; Patty Limerick, professor of history; and Gregor McGregor, professor of environmental studies, for a presentation and panel titled Land Grants, Extension Service and Institutional Amnesia: The University of Colorado’s Forgotten Origins and Possible Futures.
“Most of us know that the land the Boulder campus sits upon was made available through the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples. What many do not know is that, through the 1875 Enabling Act that authorized Colorado statehood, "the State University” () also received 72 sections of land that were taken from tribal nations and likely scattered throughout the West. The leasing or sale of these sections provided critical financial support in the early decades of the university. This forgotten aspect of our origins underscores our obligation not just to the residents of Colorado but also the Native Americans whose mistreatment is intertwined with our legacies of transformative research, education and service.”
Community Engagement Week was made possible with support from various partners and sponsors, including Chancellor Justin Schwartz; Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing; Outreach and Community Engagement; Division of Continuing Education; Office of Faculty Affairs; Research and Innovation Office; Center for Teaching and Learning; and Service Learning and Impact in Community Engagement.
PACES is part of Outreach and Community Engagement in the Chancellor’s Office. Visit colorado.edu/paces for more information about resources available for engaged scholars at Boulder.