Community-University Engagement Focus of New Report

MILWAUKEE — Is higher education ready to commit to community engagement? Is it ready for the hard work of building and sustaining partnerships and the dramatic institutional changes such a commitment requires?

Those questions are at the heart of a new report published by UWM on the results of a gathering which brought national leaders in community-university engagement together at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine , Wisconsin. The conference was sponsored by UWM and the University of Cincinnati with support from the Johnson Foundation.

The report points out that across the country, growing numbers of colleges and universities are strengthening their teaching, research and service missions through active partnerships with their communities. Communities benefit as well: engaged institutions offer access to expertise and resources that can help solve pressing problems in urban education, economic development and community health. They bring students out of the classroom for real-world experiences which prepare them not just for the workplace but for citizenship as well.

The report outlines several critical steps colleges and universities must take to achieve engagement and calls on funders and policy leaders to make engagement a national priority.

It concludes: “University-wide, institutionalized and sustained commitment to engagement is a necessity and a priority if American higher education is to continues its global leadership role. Engagement is higher education’s larger purpose.”

An electronic copy of Calling the Question: Is Higher Education Ready to Commit to Community Engagement? is on the web at www.uwm.edu/MilwaukeeIdea. For a copy of the report, call The Milwaukee Idea Office, 414-229-2585.

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