University-Community Engagement during a Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major disruption in higher education, challenging universities to engage with community partners in unprecedented ways. Among them, was an accelerated challenge to ways of engaging with surrounding communities and the resulting importance this holds for social change. A common approach has been for the university to offer mutually beneficial “help” to communities through top-down directives and strategies. Another approach prioritizes co-constructed knowledge generation and political action where the university is part of a larger ecosystem engaged in public problem solving and deeply sustained, ways of collaborating (Saltmarsh & Hartley, 2011). Moments of economic and social crises put into stark view higher education’s intentions: are we playing at community involvement, or are we committed partners, leveraging our unique missions to join our communities in solving the problems facing us? This article will discuss how a university’s response to the pandemic illustrates democratic community-engagement, including ways in which the university partnered with community organizations to alleviate the dire impacts of the pandemic on peoples’ basic needs and equity. Lessons learned and implications for university-community engagement during both “normal” times and times of crisis will be shared, including ways to foster social change that addresses the inequities illuminated by the pandemic.

Power of community in “Engage for Equity PLUS” for strengthening equity-centered patient and community engaged research in academic health centers

“…The inadequacy of institutional support has resulted in continued patient and community distrust of research, producing a pervasive lack of institutional trustworthiness and lack of commitment of communities to research, especially in the willingness of minority populations to participate in studies or in capacities of a research team to develop culture-centered interventions (Anderson and Griffiths, 2022;Freeman;2014;Wilkins, 2018;Wallerstein et al, 2019). With years of COVID-19 and increasing recognition of structural racism that minority communities have experienced, the urgency to connect diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in engaging under-represented communities in research has never been more critical (Fleming et al, 2023;Shelton et al, 2021;Ohmer et al, 2022).…”

Beckoning a new post- Covid higher education engagement agenda: Lessons from Nelson Mandela University Covid-19 responses

“…remains elusive. (Ohmer et al, 2022;Benhayoun, 2020;Hedding et al, 2020;Phakeng, Kupe & Habib, 2020;Schalkwyk, 2020;Witze, 2020;Muthwa, 2018). This paper conceptualises Nelson Mandela University's positioning as a "transformative, responsive university; in service of society" (HoC, 2022: 6).…”

A program evaluation of an international, intercultural e-community-engagement initiative

“…While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted disciplines and units across HEIs, community engagement programs faced especially complex challenges of protecting students and community members while continuing to function. Community engagement scholars were pushed to deepen their engagement and re-envision their purpose and approaches (Ohmer et al., 2022).…”