Deepening Campus-Community Relationships Through STEM Outreach
Role
Project Co-Lead & Design Researcher
Client
In 2020, the Chancellor’s Office at the University of Illinois was investing in a new initiative – STEM Illinois – to serve as a STEM + Arts pathway to participants in Central Illinois and Chicago. STEM Illinois centered on the experiences of students from historically under-invested minority communities. Communiversity was one of STEM Illinois’ four programs and was intended to serve as a physical and virtual space to bridge the community's needs with University resources.
Topic Area
Education & Community Engagement
Project Type
Research & Strategy
Examining the history of campus-community collaborations in Champaign-Urbana, I conducted research on the past successes and enduring failures in the University of Illinois’ community engagement efforts. Together with community members and campus faculty and staff, my team shaped a new engagement framework for Communiversity to amplify and unify disparate engagement efforts present across campus.
Our Process
This project focused on the fundamental dynamics of trust, reciprocity, and coexistence between the University of Illinois campus and the broader Champaign-Urbana community of which it is a part. We conducted 18 in-depth, semi-structured virtual interviews with both community and campus leaders. We focused on individuals who often crossed the campus-community boundary: community journalists, the Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Champaign County, the Director of the Education Justice Project, etc.
Some of our questions included:
What assumptions do you feel the University makes about the community at large? What about assumptions the community makes about the University?
Can you tell us about a time when you’ve seen campus-community interactions go beyond an outreach event or a traditional research interaction into a truly integrated effort where both sides benefit equally?
We know that Campus likely reaches out to you often for your perspective and expertise. How do you determine when it’s worth spending time providing input?
What local infrastructure or communities of the University have you seen as particularly resilient in response to the COVID-19 epidemic?
In addition to one on one interviews, we conducted co-creation sessions with key community leaders, faculty conducting community-based research, and campus-based outreach staff. This co-creation focused on brainstorming ideas for how campus-community engagement could evolve to foster greater mutuality.
Outputs
I. Design Principles
1. IDENTIFY: Act in service of identified community needs. Put public engagement first, and position all research in collaboration with and in service of the community.
2. CONNECT: Unify a disparate landscape of initiatives. Elevate and bring together cross-campus efforts in order to better maintain community relationships.
3. INCLUDE: Inform the community of the resources available to them. Invite the surrounding community to accessible experiences and validate their presence.
4. EMPOWER: Build ownership through welcoming engagements. Embed community members into all levels of programming.
5. ENACT: Create sustainable programming. Structure engagements that withstand transition and grow with an evolving community.
II. Personas
We identified 6 personas representing behavioral segments of the individuals who intentionally engage as intermediaries between the University and the Community. These personas tended to be mission-driven (e.g. highly motivated by the larger “why” of their work) or results driven (e.g. more interested in the tangible impacts they have on individuals) and were in positions that focused on either building up existing programs and initiatives or were responsible for breaking ground on new programs and initiatives to fill a gap.
In addition to covering the strengths and attributes of each persona, our final report included common disruptions for each persona and methods for investing in their success.
III. Journey Mapping
Our research mapped a 3-stage journey for trailblazing between the community and University. For each stage, we expanded upon key moments that mattered and highlighted opportunities and barriers in each moment. This provided a fertile foundation for STEM Illinois to anchor a number of programs and initiatives. These journeys provided the rationale for Communiversity as the answer to the question of “How might we create a sustainable engagement structure to connect with people on their journey to partnership & programming?”
This project laid the groundwork for follow-up work to move from foundational research into the generative design of programs and policies. We proposed further engagement with additional stakeholders outside the scope of our initial research: primarily working with K-12 students. Additionally, we suggested developing a tool to assist individuals to self-identify with one of the 6 personas and creating mechanisms to facilitate connections between personas of complementary skills. Anticipating STEM Illinois’ eventual influx of proposed projects, we encouraged them to translate the design principles into a “gut check” (inspired by Greater Good Studio’s Gut Check method) to prioritize which partnerships to pursue. Our final proposal was to reimagine the role of tenure and its impact on Community-University interactions as this was a common challenge raised by faculty who were striving to be more community-centric in their work.
As a foundational research project, our final report synthesized the emergent themes with three methods:
Design Principles to guide the development of all programs within Communiversity.
Personas that articulate behavioral segments of individuals traversing the metaphorical border of campus and community.
A programmatic journey mapping a meaningful framework for amplifying and unifying the University’s community engagement efforts.
