YUFA
External
Communities and Universities: Partners in Education
Simon Fraser University
October 22- 23, 2006
By: Deena Yanofsky, Reference Librarian, Scott Library
15 Nov 06 – I attended this conference because I believe, as an academic librarian, that libraries have a significant role to play in finding new means to connect citizens and boost civic participation. Most literature about the ways in which universities are attempting to meet the challenges and responsibilities of building ongoing ties with targeted community organizations has focused on teaching faculty; the work of academic librarians, whether part of their institutions' tenured faculty or not, has largely been absent from the university's agenda and planning process of community-building initiatives. While academic librarians have a wealth of opportunities and the potential to exert influence in the community-building process, the reality is that college and university librarians have not yet incorporated civic and community engagement into their positions. In attending this conference on the engaged university, I sought to find examples and suggestions for developing strategies for York's academic librarians to align themselves closer with their campuses and communities, building a civil society through collaboration.
My report will review the Communities and Universities conference at SFU from an academic librarian's perspective as Sheila Lewis, Stephanie Baker Collins and David T. McNab have already provided excellent reports, giving detailed and in-depth accounts of the two-day event.
For most librarians, the concept of the engaged university is closely tied to volunteer activities in the community. Libraries and librarians (especially in the academic sector) become involved in service projects that are of benefit to others and their communities, but there is no explicit focus on any sustained educational benefits. Projects are designed and enacted with little thought given to the role of libraries in community building. This stance is clearly insufficient, as variously stated by each of the conference's keynote speakers, for promoting active citizenship within a democratic society. As Debbie Bell, Program Director of the Community Education Program in Continuing Studies at SFU, firmly pointed out, volunteer service simply does not provide sufficient opportunities for these communities to effect their own long-term change. Volunteer service efforts tend to be short-term and skills-based and, consequently, fail to support the full inclusion of community partners in educational opportunities, especially those to develop leadership in the community. Full, sustainable community partnerships, according to Bell, can only succeed if universities move beyond simply fulfilling the conditions of human need to creating the conditions for human flourishing.
As a counterpart to Debbie Bell’s argument, Ira Harkavy, Founding Director and Associate Vice President of the Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania, argued that in order for partnerships to lead to real change within communities universities must stand on a platform of democracy; that is, the university's purpose in building partnerships with communities must be democratic, promoting mutual learning between community members and university faculty. The underlying purpose of the university is to create change through education. According to Harkavy, by including outreach formally through research, education and service-learning universities can, and are forging dynamic partnerships with external community organizations to advance knowledge while building community through collaboration.
The lessons for college and university librarians, in particular, and academic faculty, in general, are clear:
-
outreach activities must be designed, enacted, supervised and evaluated with the educational benefits consciously held as a primary goal.
-
collaboration between the university and community must be closely tied to a process of mutual learning.
-
partnerships must become part of the institution’s mandate, otherwise they are just “hobbies” for members of the university.
Other Reports from this Conference:
Joan Allen's Report
Stephanie Baker Collins' Report
Don Dippo's Report
Sheila Lewis' Report
David McNab's Report