Community Engagement News March 7, 2022
Nationally Known Community Engagement Scholars Slated as Presenters at Community Engagement Symposium
The presenters, clockwise from top, will be Dr. John Saltmarsh, Dr. Melissa Quan, Dr. Timothy Eatman, and Dr. April Khadijah Inniss.
Two nationally known community engagement scholars will be among the presenters at Barry University’s Eighth Annual Community Engagement Symposium on the last Wednesday of March.
They are Dr. John Saltmarsh, professor of higher education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Dr. Timothy Eatman, dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University, Newark.
Dr. Saltmarsh served as director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) from 2005 to 2016. Previously, he was director of the national program on Integrating Service with Academic Study at Campus Compact.
From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Eatman was the faculty co-director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. He has served as chair of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).
Other presenters will include Dr. Melissa Quan, director of the Center for Social Impact at Fairfield University, and Dr. April Khadijah Inniss, director of community-engaged research at King Boston.
A nonprofit organization, King Boston is working closely with the City of Boston to create a memorial and programs about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Drs. Saltmarsh and Quan will conduct a morning workshop titled “Epistemic Justice in Practice: Implications for Community Partnerships and Student Learning.”
Drs. Eatman, Inniss, and Saltmarsh will make an afternoon presentation on “Orienting Campus–Community Engagement Towards Reparations.”
The theme of this year’s Community Engagement Symposium is “Effectively Balancing Community Impact with Student Learning Outcomes.” The virtual event on March 30 will consist of four sessions, the first beginning at 9 a.m. and the fourth ending at 3 p.m.
Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the symposium was held virtually for the first time last year.
Two Forums Remain on Campus Democracy Project Schedule for This Semester
Campus Democracy Project (CDP) events for the remainder of this semester include two forums—a Legislative Forum and a Democracy Forum.
The Legislative Forum will take place on March 23 and will feature an update from the Village of Miami Shores.
Scheduled for April 12, the Democracy Forum is titled “Preparing for the August Primary Election: Know the Schedule, Candidates, and Issues.”
The most recent Legislative Forum, on January 26, considered “What to Expect in the 2022 Florida Legislative Session.” State Senator Jason Pizzo (District 38) and Antonio “Toni” Rodriquez, a legislative assistant to Senator Annette Taddeo (District 40), participated in the virtual event.
Cosponsored by the CCSI and the Department of History and Political Science, the CDP is organized by a university-wide committee.
Barry Hosts Students from Robert Renick Education Center on ‘Spread the Word Day’
Barry University hosted a group of Miami-Dade County Public Schools students from Robert Renick Education Center, with Special Olympics Florida representatives, for “Spread the Word Day.”
About 20 Robert Renick students were paired with Barry students to enjoy time on campus as they took part in art (painting) activities as well ss volleyball, basketball, and football.
The Barry students were from the School of Business and the School of Social Work. Faculty members from both schools provided assistance.
March 2 was “Spread the Word Day”—part of a campaign led by youth along with Special Olympics athletes and Best Buddies participants across the country and around the world.
“We are very proud to promote inclusive words and actions to end discrimination of individuals with intellectual disabilities,” said University President Dr. Mike Allen after the event.
In a comment before the day of the event, Dr. Allen noted: “At Barry, fostering truly inclusive communities is one of our guiding core commitments, and working to end the exclusion of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is a goal that we all embrace. We are very proud to bring awareness to the importance of inclusion.”
For information on the Student Poster Competition and Exhibition, contact Dr. Heather Johnson Desiral in the CCSI at qep@barry.edu.
Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities Offers Opportunity for Presentations at National Conference
The Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) has called for proposals for its 27th Annual Conference, which is scheduled for the fall.
Focused on “The Essential Role of Urban and Metropolitan Universities,” the 2022 conference will be held October 23–26 in San Diego, California.
The conference organizers said: “As our institutions and communities continue to navigate a global pandemic, wrestle with a long-overdue racial reckoning, face environmental challenges, and witness the great inequality in how communities are able to respond to these challenges, we recognize that we are still in the midst of crisis.”
The organizers added: “Our conference offers an opportunity to pause and reflect on how we are responding to our current moment while also looking forward as we begin to articulate how we emerge from crisis.”
Two of the eight conference themes are “Place-Based Hyperlocal Community Engagement” and “Regional Collaborations and Partnerships.” Presentation formats include mini workshop, panel presentation, poster session, and roundtable.
The deadline for the submission of presentation proposals is March 25.
GivePulse is the community engagement platform that supports service-learning courses at Barry.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM: Additional details of the March 30 event are announced as registration gets underway.
SUPPORT FOR RESETTLED REFUGEES: Students taking an English for Speakers of Other Languages course begin an experiential learning project to support resettled refugees from Afghanistan.
Community Engagement News is a publication of the Center for Community Service Initiatives.
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