Tuesday, February 8, 2005
Sustainable regional vitality. I ran across an advertisement today for the Center for Sustainable Regional Vitality at Indiana University Northwest. The website is sparse, but the concept of a school, university or otherwise, aiming its programs not only to attract and serve the students from the region but also aiming to teach to the challenges faced by the region, seems wonderful to me.
Why, after all, should a good regional university or a good public high school be pretty much like another such institution across the state or half-way across the country? If knowledge serves us as we live the particular lives we are leading, then we should start to imagine schools that are distinctive rather than generic...schools that respond to the particulars of their setting.
For example, a regional state university in a farming and manufacturing region like ours could be a center for research and discussion of the work and social lives of people who live in small towns, who work in automobile parts plants, and so forth. We start to make and use knowledge together for our own purposes, then, in schools that are shaped for our needs.
What exactly would those schools look like? I don't know for sure, but consider this social fact: Indiana loses more college graduates than it gains -- a brain drain. Perhaps a state like that should create programs aimed at starting small businesses and other operations that would allow college graduates to make a space for themselves here? Maybe that's not the best example, but I only mean to show that we could respond to our context.
And we can do that culturally or socially, too. Whatever social conflicts challenge our community, we can teach to them and research about them. Our school can have the character of our community. They go about it this way in the mission statement at IU Northwest:
Indiana University Northwest's commitment to the seven counties it serves has led it to identify Sustainable Regional Vitality as a Strategic Area of Excellence. In doing this, Indiana University Northwest recognizes its responsibility to make Sustainable Regional Vitality an essential aspect of the University's academic mission. Faculty will be encouraged, where appropriate, to incorporate issues related to Sustainable Regional Vitality in their research and creative activities, in order to produce high-quality, professionally-recognized research and creative products. Faculty will be encouraged, where appropriate, to find ways to bring regional issues into the classroom in academically sound, challenging, and pedagogically stimulating ways. Faculty will be encouraged, where appropriate, to see Northwest Indiana as a location in which they can use their professional skills in service to our communities. In encouraging faculty to incorporate Sustainable Regional Vitality into their activities, Indiana University retains its commitment to academic freedom...Collectively, these activities enable faculty, staff, students, and the broader community to explore the past, respond to the present, and build for a shared future. [0 & P]
Why, after all, should a good regional university or a good public high school be pretty much like another such institution across the state or half-way across the country? If knowledge serves us as we live the particular lives we are leading, then we should start to imagine schools that are distinctive rather than generic...schools that respond to the particulars of their setting.
For example, a regional state university in a farming and manufacturing region like ours could be a center for research and discussion of the work and social lives of people who live in small towns, who work in automobile parts plants, and so forth. We start to make and use knowledge together for our own purposes, then, in schools that are shaped for our needs.
What exactly would those schools look like? I don't know for sure, but consider this social fact: Indiana loses more college graduates than it gains -- a brain drain. Perhaps a state like that should create programs aimed at starting small businesses and other operations that would allow college graduates to make a space for themselves here? Maybe that's not the best example, but I only mean to show that we could respond to our context.
And we can do that culturally or socially, too. Whatever social conflicts challenge our community, we can teach to them and research about them. Our school can have the character of our community. They go about it this way in the mission statement at IU Northwest:
Indiana University Northwest's commitment to the seven counties it serves has led it to identify Sustainable Regional Vitality as a Strategic Area of Excellence. In doing this, Indiana University Northwest recognizes its responsibility to make Sustainable Regional Vitality an essential aspect of the University's academic mission. Faculty will be encouraged, where appropriate, to incorporate issues related to Sustainable Regional Vitality in their research and creative activities, in order to produce high-quality, professionally-recognized research and creative products. Faculty will be encouraged, where appropriate, to find ways to bring regional issues into the classroom in academically sound, challenging, and pedagogically stimulating ways. Faculty will be encouraged, where appropriate, to see Northwest Indiana as a location in which they can use their professional skills in service to our communities. In encouraging faculty to incorporate Sustainable Regional Vitality into their activities, Indiana University retains its commitment to academic freedom...Collectively, these activities enable faculty, staff, students, and the broader community to explore the past, respond to the present, and build for a shared future. [0 & P]