Community Engagement News
CO-ORDINATED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AT RHODES
Community Engagement takes place throughout the University in many forms, much as teaching, learning or research does. The majority of initiatives go beyond voluntarism and include community-university research partnerships, experiential learning through community service or the sharing of knowledge resources.
Rhodes University 's community engagement initiatives are co-ordinated through its Community Engagement Office. This centralised function has been in place for two years now, during which rapid growth has taken place.
Institutional structure has been put in place to develop and enhance community engagement at Rhodes :
• Two staff members and a modest budget are in place;
• A community engagement policy was approved by Senate
• Community engagement, in addition to its own subcommittee of Senate, is now represented on the Teaching and Learning Committee to further service learning.
• The University has been represented at national CHE workshops on the growing field of community engagement as well as the first national HEI Community Engagement conference last year.
• Two faculties are now including community engagement in their size and shape planning.
The University has committed itself, where possible, to focus its community engagement activities over the next ten years to:
• Critically support Makana Municipality with respect to social and economic priorities.
• Support secondary school education in East Grahamstown - at different levels: through institutional support, teacher empowerment and learner tuition.
The range of community engagement initiatives at Rhodes University fall into five broad areas:
• Education & educational resources across all levels
• Policy and Governance
• Developmental infrastructure & issues
• Culture and Development through culture
• SMME and industry
The focus for 2007
Two years on, it is appropriate that we take engage in self-assessment and reflection.
This year, the Community Engagement Office is publishing University guidelines on community engagement practice to ensure that the institution adheres to sound principles of reciprocity and mutual benefit in its dealings with communities. In consultation with Kevin Kelly at Cadre, we are also working towards establishing internal and external monitoring and evaluation processes for community engagement at Rhodes.
Discussions are also underway to explore the most effective means of institutional recognition for community engagement activity. The research for the 2007/2008 Community Engagement Review publication, an audit of University community engagement, is under way at present.
The first institution-wide gathering of members of staff and students to conceptualise community engagement for Rhodes University took place on April 21 st, the first of a series of ongoing discussions. Thirty participants engaged in spirited debate around issues of University community engagement policy and strategy.
