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Engaging the Local Community: Why Bother? Mary S Intersections Volume 2008 | Number 27 Article 4 2008 Engaging the Local Community: Why Bother? Mary S. Carlsen Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections Augustana Digital Commons Citation Carlsen, Mary S. (2008) "Engaging the Local Community: Why Bother?," Intersections: Vol. 2008: No. 27, Article 4. Available at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections/vol2008/iss27/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intersections by an authorized administrator of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MARY S. CARLSEN Engaging the Local Community: Why Bother? In the late 19th century, British settlement worker and teacher the medieval universities and the host town was, in fact, ofen Margaret Sewell discussed the beginnings of social work education adversarial. Te medieval universities had no investment in a in Britain and around the world stating what was needed was a physical campus. Tey could threaten to move. An excerpt from Wikipedia includes a description of some of these threats: serious, thoughtful and organized efort to tackle social ills not only as part of personal religion, but Because they had no investment in a physical a social obligation; not merely as an expression of campus, they could threaten to migrate to another sympathy but as a recognition of difculties urgently town if their demands weren’t met. Tis wasn’t presenting themselves to be resolved, and demand- an empty threat. Te scholars at the University of ing for their solution gifs of the head as well as of Lisbon in Portugal migrated to Coimbra, and then the heart. (cited in Kendall 75) later back to Lisbon in the 14th century. Scholars would also go on strike, leave the host city, and not Te reformers were not abandoning the religious obligation to return for years. Tis happened at the University of help the poor. Tey were instead wedding it to the emerging Paris afer a riot in 1229 (started by the students). social science understandings of society. What I do in social Te university did not return to Paris for two years. work and what I teach as a social work educator are framed by this marriage of mind and heart, of academic and experiential Can you imagine if St. Olaf decided to up and move to Chicago learning. Both are informed by my religious faith. In this talk, I when neighbors complained about student housing? In addition, will address a series of questions: Why should colleges engage the “students in the medieval universities enjoyed certain exemptions local communities? Who/what is our local community? What from the jurisdiction of the ordinary civil court.… Tis ofen led to should engagement look like? abuses and outright criminal behavior among students who real- My father was a Lutheran pastor, and at his funeral, many ized they enjoyed immunity from civil authorities.” (Wikipedia) people I’d never met from our community made a point to tell me Tis exacerbated tensions between town and gown. At least we how Dad had ministered to them. Tese people were not members know that our students are ticketed and carded! of our church. Several said they were unchurched. Yet, his commit- One of the most famous confrontations between students ment to the whole community made a diference in those lives and and the local community was the Battle of St. Scholastica Day that message has stayed with me. We need to bother, with passion, that occurred on February 10, 1355 at the University of Oxford. integrity and refection. An argument in a tavern—a familiar scenario in contemporary life—escalated into a protracted two-day battle in which local Why Should the College Engage the Local Community? citizens armed with bows attacked the academic village, killing Trough history, some have said “Don’t bother.” In years past, and maiming scores of scholars. For fve hundred years, Oxford universities didn’t bother. Te initial relationship between observed a day of mourning. So the steady encroachment of MARY CARLSEN is Professor and Chair, Department of Social Work and Family Studies, St. Olaf College, Northfeld, Minnesota. 6 | Intersections | Spring 2008 universities upon neighboring areas created contention between opened Hull House, a university-community partnership to help town and gown, continuing from medieval times to the present. the low-income population of Chicago’s West Side. When Seth Lawrence Martin, in an essay entitled “University and Lowe was president of Columbia University, he encouraged faculty Community: A Tale of Two Cultures,” described succinctly the and students to become involved in community work (Harkavy). history of town/gown relationship in more modern times: And in Northfeld, Norwegian immigrant farmers, pastors and others founded St. Olaf as an institution of “higher education In the United States, hostility towards universi- for the practical life” (Farrell). Your institutions no doubt also ties was initially born out of geographical isolation. have important stories. So, if we are not hostile, and are now less Universities were ofen located in rural (frequently indiferent, must we engage? Do we need to bother? Some think remote) areas far removed from the economic and perhaps soon we won’t! social problems of the broader society. [true of most Might the very future of town/gown as a relationship be in in the ELCA—MC] Universities promoted them- doubt? Online programs such as at the University of Phoenix selves as elite bastions of information and knowledge. hardly rely on geographical presence. Many universities have (Martin 3) distance education courses via television and the internet. Despite their beginnings in relative isolation, many became urban Maybe the college student of the future will be sitting at his or universities simply by the expansion of areas around them. Te her personal computer miles from a college campus. Maybe the response of many was to build higher walls and stronger gates traditional commencement ceremony will be gone as students in an attempt to maintain a separation from their surrounding graduate year around. However, many leaders still stress the communities. Tis added to the pejorative use of the term “ivory continuing value of traditional learning and teaching methods tower,” a world or atmosphere where intellectuals engage in pur- at brick and mortar places. So far, ELCA colleges do, too. Are suits that are disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday there some reasons now why we do/should connect with our life or academic elitism that shows condescension to those around geographical communities? I suggest many reasons for college them/us. (Martin) Tey didn’t want to bother. engagement with the community are relevant; reasons can be Consider the entrance(s) to your campus. Ours at St. Olaf are practical, educational, ecological, moral and theological. pretty open and welcoming, but due to a conceal-and-carry law passed recently in Minnesota, we have on major buildings signs Engagement is practical that say “St. Olaf bans guns on these premises.” How welcoming We can give back in response to our large footprints. Tis foot- is that? Ira Harkavy, who directs the Center for Community print concept is described by Ronald Kysiak. “Although universi- Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, shows us that not ties bring great prestige to a community, many citizens perceive only the physical expressions of our campuses separate us from them solely as large, powerful, non-taxpaying entities that soak the community, but also the internal workings. up city services and provide little in return.” (50) A college can generate housing, security, political, and tax issues. Of-campus In the decades afer World Wars I and II, American parties and the excessive noise and public drunkenness associ- higher education increasingly competed, ferociously, ated with them can create town-gown animosity. Student voting egocentrically, narcissistically, for institutional pres- can cause local political conficts. In 2004, students at Hamilton tige and material resources. Almost single-mindedly, College were turned away from the polls by election board pursuing their self-centered goals, they increasingly ofcials in Utica, NY. Ofcials claimed that only permanent concentrated on essentially scholastic, inside-the- residents of the county could register to vote there, and that a academy problems and conficts rather than on the college dorm does not meet this criterion. Te question of juris- very hard, very complex problems involved in help- diction for college security and local law enforcement can be an ing American society realize the democratic promise issue when students live of campus. And, as universities expand, of American life for all Americans. (9) more land is removed from property tax rolls. Our footprints can So, for much of history, universities didn’t bother much. be large and deep. Not all historical relationships between universities and com- Te “engaged university” is a recent term used by Campus munities were hostile or aloof, however. Positive examples abound. Compact to describe community partnerships and joint plan- Te Land Grant College Act (1862) facilitated the development of ning with city ofcials. In the case of St. Olaf and Northfeld, agricultural and mechanical education, as well as other areas, for the college paid for purchase of a tall ladder truck with the fre the middle and working classes. In 1889, the University of Chicago department so it could reach the top foor of our residence hall, 7 the highest building in the community. Both Northfeld col- U. Edwards, said, “Te experience of community at a Lutheran leges contribute money annually to the Northfeld Community college should help students develop a sense of the world’s true Investment Fund. Our Dean of Students meets regularly with interdependence of both people and the rest of creation.” (226) neighbors who want to discuss student housing concerns.
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