query: the value of academics in community

[colist at comm-org.wisc.edu]

[ed:  thanks to Richard for replying to Phil's query.  A bit from me at 
the very end.]

From: Richard Layman <rlaymandc at yahoo.com>

An interesting way to think about this question is how can academics 
leverage their positions on boards to link theory to practice, leverage 
the relationship with the university and the community, etc.
 
It could be that "not too much of this is going on" and therefore, the 
service-learning-research link isn't being made or isn't apparent, 
therefore calling into question the relationship.*  Hence, the directive 
in question.
 
To give a similar example, in the commercial district revitalization 
world, often businesses don't like special events in the district, 
believing there is little link between the visitors and sales in their 
stores, plus it is an imposition for current customers, etc.  We would 
respond--"you get new people sampling the commercial district."  But 
that is a distant, deferred grafitication kind of response.  The real 
issue is that we need to sit down with each merchant and strategize with 
them about how to participate and leverage the event in a very specific 
way with their line of business.
 
The same goes with linking university relationships to the community.  
(Or as Jane Jacobs said,  "when you ask why aren't there enough roads, 
you're asking the wrong question, whcih should be 'why are there so many 
cars'?"
 
Then of course there is the other dimension of applied vs. theoretical 
in academic and the relative position/acceptance.
 
E.g., I remember at the U of MIchigan in the early 1980s, when the 
university began downsizing in response to the decline of the auto 
industry and the impact on state funding, that departments and programs 
of a more applied nature, such as geography or the School of Natural 
Resources were either eliminated, or threatened.  At U Michigan, where a 
more traditional research-based academic paradigm holds forth, that was 
predictable (and I pointed it out back then too...)
 
I think about the opportunities presented vis-a-vis my organization and 
local universities and I rue the lack of connection.  We have some, with 
one architecture professor, but the need to link strategically with the 
university financially and programmatically, and the opportunity to link 
with more departments (social work, business, arts programs, etc.) than 
merely the one architecture professor and the developing relationslhip 
with the service learning office.
 
Helping (re)create a great nearby commercial district helps the 
university attract and retain students, increase enrollment yields, 
etc.  This clearly has to be of interest to major local university in 
our neighborhood.  And to the smaller university also in our neighborhood.
 
Other things we need to do is work with the student newspaper, getting 
the arts programs to link up and help us take over an old theater, 
figuring out how to work with work-study programs, interns, developing 
arts learning opportunities, cultural heritage tourism potential (i.e., 
getting the institutions to participate in a greater neighborhood open 
house with tours, etc.).  + a big chunk of funding to our organization + 
getting them to host conferences on universities and revitalization and 
arts related community building and revitalization, the role of the 
university in community,  I say we create a "junior" Main Street program 
that engages the college students in substantive ways.  Etc.
 
And yes, I mentioned the COPC opportunity to the Assoc. VP as well.
 
And this is just a piece of all the stuff in my mind.  And frankly, I'd 
rather have a high level university rep rather than a professor on our 
board...  Professors can work on committees...
 
Richard Layman
Interim Program Manager
Brookland Main Street
Brookland Community Development Corporation
DC
 
* in my own work I apply the theory and analysis I read, ranging from 
Growth Machine (soc.), urban regime (pol. sci), Social Psychology of 
Organizations (Katz & Kahn), all the stuff I remember from the old 
Citizen Involvement Training Project (U Mass) and other items I picked 
up from Social Work reading lists (I didn't study SW but I looked at 
class book lists), and the papers submitted to comm-org (i.e., the 
various papers on community development corporations and community 
organizations).  But I don't find many peers doing this. And I find I am 
the one making the links between various writings when I talk with 
academics.

>>
>>
>> [ed:  please feel welcomed to copy COMM-ORG with responses to Phil's 
>> query.]
>>
>> From: "Olson, Philip G." <OlsonP at umkc.edu>
>>
>> Colleagues: I recently received the following concern from some 
>> administrators and faculty:
>>
>> Community activities and community outreach by faculty are irrelevant 
>> and possibly detrimental to good teaching and research.
>>
>> Examples of activities cited as irrelevant include:  serving on 
>> non-profit  boards of directors; assisting non-profits in grant 
>> writing; and advising neighborhood councils.
>>
>> In other words, they disconnect the concepts of service activity from 
>> teaching and research; thus relegating service activity to a lesser, 
>> even subservient role in the academic community. I would appreciate 
>> some assistance in "educating" them as to the incredible value of 
>> community work in teaching and in research agendas.  Specifically, I 
>> would appreciate references for any books, published articles, etc. 
>> which address this issue.  Additional unpublished research findings 
>> and individual examples would also be welcome and appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you for all your assistance, and after receiving your input, I 
>> will be glad to include it all and post on the listserv.
>>
>> Phil Olson
>>
[ed:  I must admit that I have been pondering Phil's question quite a 
bit, as it is an unusual presentation of the issue in my experience.  I 
don't so much run into comments about how my community work is 
irrelevant, it is just ignored (or at least it was until I moved to 
Wisconsin where it is at least valued in my home department and my 
Extension unit).  No one ever says it is irrelevant, they just didn't 
count it in promotion and tenure.  Even where I am now, at the upper 
levels of tenure cases, the question is what you publish and what your 
teaching evaluations look like.  So community work is ignored by default 
rather than explicitly opposed.  Ultimately, the crucial task is to 
change promotion and tenure decision making, and I'm not sure how much 
that requires educating and how much that requires organizing (some 
people can't be educated, they can only be contained and us academics 
too often make the mistake of assuming that logic and facts are powerful 
in and of themselves).  There are examples of more respectful tenure and 
promotion models at places like the University of Portland, and there 
are alternative draft tenure and promotion guidelines for sociology at 
http://pubsoc.wisc.edu, so it may be possible to create momentum or 
critical mass as we get more places to change their policies (it may be 
possible, for example, to organize to disrupt accreditation processes at 
institutions that oppose community work, since the accrediting bodies 
are really into stuff like service learning these days).  There is also 
an enormous literature on the impacts of service learning on students, 
and relatively new journals (such as the Michigan Journal of Community 
Service Learning, and Action Research) that are quickly growing in 
influence that can help faculty make the link between doing community 
work and producing scholarship about it.  Having said all that, however, 
there are some institutions that are just simply backwards.  In Phil's 
case, however, maybe the explicit reaction is actually good news, since 
I imagine people wouldn't react unless they were scared his position was 
becoming influential.]