Fall/Winter 2007

The HUD COPC initiative, funded by the Office of University Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is a long-term effort to build strong and sustainable partnerships between the University of Maine and Bangor.  The three year grant is designed to build and grow opportunities for partnerships between the community and university.  The Bangor-UMaine partnership focuses primarily on three areas: Community Inclusion, Youth Empowerment, and Affordable Housing.  

See our entire diagram exhibit at: http://www.umaine.edu/mcsc/COPC/aboutus.htm

On September 26^th, 2007 over 100 participants gathered at the Morgan Hill Event Center in Hermon to discuss Strengthening Universities and Communities through Engagement.  Representatives from the offices of Senator Susan Collins, Congressman Michael Michaud, the State Board of Education, as well as college and university faculty and staff from across the state shared stories, networked, listened to national experts, and heard from fellow Maine college administrators.  

Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, and many indicated they were  hungry more—tangible, on-the-ground resources about funding opportunities, campus networking, and creating sustainable community- university partnerships.  Through collaboration with several campus partners and Maine Campus Compact, the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center aims to address these topics.  

We extend a thank you to all of the  speakers and panelists for their lively  contributions to the day’s dialogue! 

Please visit “News & Events” section of our website for a detailed profile of the speakers

View 
Conference Slideshow

As an intern for WBRC Architects & Engineers UMaine Engineering student, Andrew Clark gained first-hand experience in urban planning with his walking survey of downtown Bangor.  In an effort to study the walking habits of downtown residents, 1,702 surveys were mailed using the city’s postal carrier routes.  Although the response rate was lower than hoped (7.99%), the findings are useful in obtaining a sampling for the busiest downtown destinations and corresponding crosswalks.  

The two most frequented locations in the downtown were the Post Office and the Public Library, followed by Bagel Central, City Hall, and Shaw’s Supermarket.  Not surprisingly, the findings also indicated that the busiest unregulated crosswalks belonged to Main Street, State Street, Central Street, and to two of the crosswalks on Harlow Street. 

Following the survey, the respondent’s safety concerns were put to the test.  For two days, four times a day (twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon), Andrew counted the vehicle traffic at the intersections of Hammond, State, Central, and Main Streets.  Traffic was also observed at the intersections of Exchange, Harlow, Park, and State Streets. Indeed, these crosswalks are busy—within five minutes, nearly 100 vehicles passed through in the morning, compared to nearly 200 in the afternoon.  Andrew also found that the hardest unregulated crosswalk to traverse was on Main Street , with an average of five cars passing before one would stop.  The study has also documented other safety concerns such as the loose or broken bricks on the sidewalks, missing or broken crosswalk signal buttons, and walkways that are barely visible and in need of repainting. 

Next summer engineering students will build upon these findings by mapping the survey data, sidewalk conditions, centers of activity, and traffic patterns.  They will conclude by identifying needed infrastructure improvements in the downtown.  Additionally, WBRC will be taking a look at the available housing stock and ADA compliance standards to determine where future housing projects are most feasible.  This work will help provide key technical information the community group convened by the UMaine Center on Aging who have also just completed a survey evaluating the housing needs (affordability, availability, and access) in the Bangor area.  See final report  or View a flash movie presentation.

Transitioning from college student to fully integrated citizen takes time, passion, and practice.  This fall the Honors College established an honors tutorial on civic leadership and engagement to do just that—guide UMaine juniors to think about themselves, their interests, and goals, and how they relate to the meaning of leadership and community. 

Through a mix of essay reflections, personal visioning, goal setting, and lively group discussions, seven juniors have been learning important life lessons this fall that will last well beyond their academic career at UMaine.  Kathryn explains that the course is designed to cultivate civic leadership skills, “This tutorial is really about awareness—of themselves and this concept we call leadership.  My hope is that the students will come to have a greater sense of how they see themselves in relation to their own aspirations and in the context of their community.” 

The students also have had the pleasure of learning from an array of the state’s civic and policy leaders, including Danny Williams, Director of Development & President of the EMCC Foundation; Mike Fern, Publisher of The Maine Edge; Chris Winstead and Tanya Pieria of FusionBangor; Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, Glenn Cummings and Emily Cain; Senior Policy Fellow and former state Senator Mary Cathcart; and Deb Neuman, Director of the Target Technology Center.

Project Life, renamed The CYBER Project (Connecting Youth to Bangor and Electronic Resources) has two new partners this fall, one with the City of Bangor at Parkwoods Transitional Housing, and the other with Davis Road Community Center.  

Combining computer technology skills (from the UMaine New Media Department) with life & career planning (from the UMaine Center for Community Inclusion & Disability Studies) is still the main focus, but there are some other changes too.  Last spring “Project Life” was situated at the Shaw House in Bangor, meeting with teenage youth every other week for a few hours.  At Parkwoods, CYBER Project meets with pre-teens every Monday afternoon and with a similar age group on Friday afternoon’s at the Davis Road Community Center.  Although the target age is slightly younger, Janet May of the UMaine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies says that the response from the kids has been very positive: “After the first session they wanted to make sure that we would be there regularly and asked us if we were planning on coming back!” 

Clair Bolduc who oversees the Parkwoods development, echoes the kids’ sentiment by pointing out that the UMaine graduate students have been great because they have been able to engage kids who are otherwise reticent to opening up: “Abby and Scott have been fabulous!  They’ve been able to expose them to what it is like to be in college while getting them to let their guard down and learn new skills.”

Getting these young kids to open up can be challenging, since Parkwoods is a housing development designed to help previously homeless families get back on their feet.  In the past, Parkwoods has had some programs for the kids, but none that have brought the University and the Bangor community together.  Over time and with the help of community partners, the CYBER Project hopes to sustain these types of relationships and develop a model than can be applied anywhere, to any community organization.    

New Book from the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland
Linking Colleges to Communities: Engaging the University for Community Development (August 2007) is a new report that outlines a strategy for how universities can leverage their resources for community benefit. 
http://www.community-wealth.org/
_pdfs/news/recent-articles/07-07/report-linking.pdf  

Service-Learning Course Design for Community Colleges
Campus Compact's latest book, Service-Learning Course Design for Community Colleges, is available.  The sale price will be $19 for Campus Compact members and $27 for non-members; after November 9, the price will be $24 for members and $32 for non-members. http://www.compact.org/publications/detail/
service-learning_course_design_for_ community_colleges  

The 2007 Campus Compact Annual Members Survey is now available to complete
This survey will collect data from the 2006 - 2007 academic year. The 2006 annual survey results revealed that students at Campus Compact member campuses provide $7.1 billion in service to their communities each year. These findings generated high interest and discussion among higher education and the media this year. We urge you to complete this survey so that your college or university is represented in the 2007 results. The deadline for completing the survey is Friday, December 7. http://www.compact.org/surveys/2007/  

The Future We Create: Science Education for a Scientifically Literate Future
January 8-9th, 2008: 3rd Annual SENCER Symposium, Southern Connecticut State University.  www.sencer.net/Meetings/regionalnetworks.cfm

Problem-Based Service-Learning Institute
January 10-11, 2008 Middlebury College.
www.vtcampuscompact.org/downloadable_documents/
PBSL_Brochure_2008.pdf

Mentoring Symposium 
Friday, January 11, 2008 Kennebec Valley Community College
Registration deadline December 28, 2007(download pdf brochure)

Campus Compact Awards
Nomination packets for Maine Campus Compact’s Heart and Soul Award and Donald Harward Award for Faculty Service Learning Excellence, along with information on the national Frank Newman Award and Ehrlich Awards will be sent out to Presidents, Chief Academic Officers, and Steering Committee members on Nov. 26^th.  
Nominations due January 15, 2008 
www.mainecompact.org  

Community College Collaboration Award 
Deadline January 15, 2008
The Community College National Center for Community Engagement is accepting Collaboration Award nominations in the categories of Collaboration with Business & Industry, Collaboration with Universities, Collaboration with Social Agencies, Collaboration with K-12, and International Service-Learning. For complete information, http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001lRIfnh0P2bDCUaM61huiS496vr
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Call for Proposals --American Democracy Project
June 12-14, 2008, Snowbird Utah.  
The deadline for submissions is January 21, 2008. However, proposals submitted earlier will be considered in a rolling process of acceptance beginning December 1, 2007. All proposals will be reviewed and notification will be sent out no later than February 18, 2008. http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB226ZNJV7XJY 

National Urban Initiatives Competition Announced

Proposal abstracts are being sought for each of the following categories: 1) affordable and sustainable housing, 2) neighborhood based economic development, and 3) financial services to low-income communities. An award of $20,000 will be given to winners in each of the three categories.  There will also be three $2,500 cash awards given to the second place winners of each category. Total awards will amount to over $65,000. The two-step process will begin with the RFP/Call for Papers issued in September 2007 and the submission of Step I Proposal Abstracts will be due January 25, 2008. Step I of judging will be from February 1, 2008 to March 14, 2008 and all applicants will be notified of Step I decisions by March 15, 2008. The Step II Papers for the finalists will be due by June 30, 2008. For more information please contact Dr. Mark Tigan or Megan Reagon at: mtigan@clarku.edu or mreagon@larp.umass.edu

Nov. 30^th: Engaged Department Initiative: First proposal deadline.
Jan. 3-4^th: Engaged Department Institute (Maine)  

Call for Proposals --CCNCCE 17th Annual Conference
Recipes for Student Retention through Service Learning and Civic Engagement held May 21-23, 2008.  Submission deadline February 4, 2008.
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/engagement/2008Conf/CallForProposals.jsp 

AACC Regional Workshop on Service Learning
May 15, 2008 Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA
Lisa Mahon, Service Learning Faculty Coordinator (413) 552-2369 Imahon@hcc.mass.edu

How Higher Education is Integrating Diversity and Service Learning: Findings from Four Case Studies by Lori J. Vogelgesang, Ph.D with research support from Marcy Drummond and Shannon K. Gilmartin.  California Campus Compact conducted this research study exploring how independent colleges and universities were integrating service-learning and diversity and identified some "best practices." The study was funded by the James Irvine Foundation.  http://www.cacampuscompact.org/
cacc_publications/ideas