Campus-Community Partnerships

Description - ACS institutions recognize the vital role they play in each of their communities, as well as the need to be responsible environmental citizens within the larger communities surrounding them. Therefore, the objective of the Campus-Community Partnerships Alliance (CCP) was to forge mutually beneficial partnerships between the institutions and the community, linking faculty research and teaching with environmental justice, service learning, and community development efforts. The CCP Alliance supported innovative partnerships with community organizations and utilized the human resources of ACS institutions, including campus operations staff, faculty and students.

Foundation - The Campus-Community Partnerships Alliance was founded on a history of successful campus-community partnerships prior to 2001, including the following:

• The Rhodes Environmental Planning Cooperative, which developed partnerships with the Vollintine-Evergreen Community Association (VECA), the Tennessee Super Fund Site along Cypress Creek, and the adjacent Community Park/Greenway, in order to study environmental problems and support the development of green spaces.
  
  
• Wekiva 2020: Conceptual Design Principles for the Wekiva River Protection Project (Rollins College) - The core of this project was the development of sustainable design standards and a curriculum and site plan for the Wekiva Protection Area, one of Florida's most sensitive ecological regions.
  
  
• The Effects of Economic Growth in the Rural South (Sewanee, University of the South) - In this partnership, 6 students joined faculty from Biology, Economics, Forestry, Philosophy and Political Science in an investigation of the causes and consequences of changes in forest cover on the southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. The project involved state and federal agencies (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee Division of Forestry, United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service), non-profit organizations, timber industry companies and lobbying groups to identify cooperative strategies that promoted the sustainability of regional forest resources. One major outgrowth of the project was the establishment of the Landscape Analysis Laboratory at Sewanee. It coordinates outreach efforts such as the FOREST Education Program, a cooperative endeavor engaging University of the South faculty, students and staff with local primary and secondary school students and teachers, with the aim of implementing a hands-on, interdisciplinary education program for regional ecology.
  
  
• The River Basins Research Initiative (Furman University)—This project provided research experiences for undergraduates to study the impact of economic and population growth on river basins. This project leveraged a $20,000 grant from VKRF to secure $94,950 from the National Science Foundation, $103,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency, $52,150 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and $56,390 from Furman University. One major outcome of this Initiative was Furman’s Center for Habitat Earth, which brings together the curricular, research, and campus initiatives that combine to educate students about the environment.

Early CCP Program Areas – prior to 2001, the CCP alliance provided funding to faculty, students, and staff in the following areas:

• Planning and Building Design Grants - Using campus operations as a basis for community cooperation, and funded by small grants, experienced campus operations staff worked with communities in long-range planning, building design and retrofitting, landscape design and maintenance, research, resource management, waste management and in other areas, all against a backdrop of environmental sustainability.
  
  
• Partnership Development Workshops - The CCP Alliance sponsored 2 campus-community partnership development workshops early in the grant period to assist ACS institutions in planning outreach projects, identifying resources and developing strategies and structures for effective Alliances.
  
  
• Circuit Riders - To promote sustainable campus and community development efforts, the CCP Alliance funded environmental circuit riders, composed of ACS faculty and staff members, who visited other campuses, sharing best management practices regarding environmental sustainability. The circuit rider program also incorporated outside advisors on sustainability (e.g., architects, energy specialists and financial specialists).

Program Areas, 2001-2008 - Alliance faculty were encouraged to relate the contents of their discipline and courses to community environmental issues and to engage students in relating course content to the community through project activities. Students might serve in a variety of roles: as planners, teachers, counselors, researchers, recorders and evaluators; in addition to their involvement through academic work.

Through Partnership Grants, CCP supported campus partnerships with organizations and agencies that possessed expertise and special resources in sustainability. Environmental justice projects and service learning projects were especially encouraged. Between 2001 and 2008, CCP encouraged students, faculty, and staff to reach out to their greater communities to create almost 40 campus-community partner-ships that conserved wetlands, create ecoscapes, planted community gardens, implemented urban planning and storm water management, and monitored water quality, to name just a few examples.