Engagement means building trust, enhancing shared belonging, enabling agency, developing capacity, and amplifying dignity. We believe more is always possible and we strive to build it together.
Our Key Commitments
We understand that sustainability requires equity.
Relationships that are not mutually nourishing do not last. We build engagement structures that benefit everyone involved.
We know that non-homogenous teams are more innovative and solve complex problems better and faster than homogenous ones.
Diversity is excellence and our engagement teams are diverse.
We know that people and communities cannot be reduced to one or another limited identity.
Their identities are multiple and impact one another in unique and important ways.
We know that our complex interconnections means that we cannot just think about individuals, or communities, or institutions, or ecosystems.
Responsible citizenship requires us to consider the impacts of our decisions and actions at all of these levels
Through experience and research we have learned a lot about how Engagement is best undertaken and we value evidence-based best practices.
We also know that experience is a great teacher and that the world is a rapidly-changing and complex system, so we value practice-based knowledge production as well.
In the College of Arts and Sciences we take what we have learned and match it to our Key Commitments when thinking about and planning how we engage with partners.
Some things we've earned:
- Large Research-1 Land Grant institutions have a legacy of mixed experiences with community and other partners
- Complexity requires approaches that respond to changing conditions and that center the experiences of people impacted by what we do
- Creating sustained and mutually beneficial relationships is essential to building trust
- Community/Partner concerns must drive the direction of collaborations invested in enhancing the social good
- While there are many kinds of engagement, they are most nourishing when grounded in key commitments
Spotlighting Engagement Excellence
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