Watch for more partnerships with the community

Collaborating with the community is nothing new at UW Tacoma, but a new initiative aims to create even more partnerships to benefit students and community members.

Lisa Hoffman, an associate professor of urban studies at UW Tacoma, has taken on an additional role to develop strategic partnerships between the community and campus.

This fall, she became the university’s special assistant to the chancellor for community engagement. Hoffman, an anthropologist at UW Tacoma since 2002, will also continue to teach.

Chancellor Debra Friedman created the part-time community engagement position to help the campus expand its role as an “urban-serving university” — a public research university that uses its intellectual and economic power to improve the surrounding metropolitan area and region.

Internships, research and stronger ties with JBLM

Depending on community needs and the interests of faculty and students, a wide range of projects could result: more student internships with agencies and nonprofit groups, more community experts speaking in classes, more research centers focused on community issues, and the development of strategic relationships with partners such as Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the City of Tacoma.

One possibility is to find more opportunities to use the community as classroom, in the vein of the Zina Linnik Park project. UW Tacoma and University of Puget Sound students worked with nearby McCarver Elementary School students over several years to design and restore two neighborhood parks in memory of Zina Linnik, a 12-year-old McCarver student who was kidnapped and killed.

Urban studies students participated in the park project as part of their coursework. Though the courses included lectures and readings on community development and the individual experience of oppression, the  students also learned about such issues first-hand, working alongside low-income youngsters creating brochures, writing speeches and planning community events. Students young and old learned from each other. 

Unique teaching moments

“Those are teaching moments that you can’t do in the same way when you’re sitting in the classroom,” said Hoffman, who taught one of the UW Tacoma classes that participated. “It helps them understand issues of inequality I’m trying to raise in the coursework, and it helps them become citizens in a different way.”

In her new position, Hoffman is meeting with civic and community representatives to ascertain their interest in partnerships. She’s surveying faculty and staff to learn what university-community partnerships currently exist and what obstacles might get in the way of establishing more.

Though the survey results are still being compiled, Hoffman already knows some of the challenges: Faculty tenure and promotion practices that support other activities over community engagement. Community projects that stretch beyond the traditional 10-week academic quarter. Finding ways to measure the success of community collaborations.

Addressing the challenges will be key. “It requires serious thought about how we do community-engaged learning well,” Hoffman said, “and addressing questions about if and how we might make it a signature element of undergraduate education at UW Tacoma.”

More art on campus

Already, the campus has begun a partnership with the Tacoma Art Museum to display more artwork on campus. In 2012, the museum will curate changing exhibits of local, contemporary artists in the Kopp Gallery in Philip Hall. Hoffman is also investigating how to better serve active military and retired veterans at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

The community engagement position dovetails with Hoffman’s personal belief in the importance of citizen involvement. Hoffman serves on the board of several community organizations, including the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, the Tacoma Art Museum and Greater Metro Parks Foundation.

“I spend a lot of my personal private time on community issues,” she said. “I take it very seriously and think it’s my responsibility to do that.”