Civic engagement part of higher education’s mission

by Michael D. Pitman, Ohio Journal News

BUTLER COUNTY – Institutions of higher education, such as Miami University in Oxford, its regional campus in Hamilton, Middletown and West Chester Twp., and Cincinnati State Middletown, are charged with educating students, which in turn develops the skills of a communityÕs workforce. But officials at local colleges and universities say they have a greater goal than education: growing the community. ÒI truly believe that it is important to have civic responsibilities and civic duties to have an engaged university and both its students facility and staff as well as an interactive community,Ó said Oxford Twp. Trustee President Larry Frimerman. Oxford Twp. used Miami UniversityÕs Center for Public Management and Regional Affairs to help gather data before deciding to place police and fire levies on the November 2014 general election ballot. Both levies passed by wide margins. ÒBasically, the role of public institutions in communities should be a symbiotic one where each grows and gains from the other,Ó Frimerman said. ÒThe communities gain from the study and the research and the labor, and usually in the case of unpaid volunteers (students/interns) or faculty members and their efforts.Ó Put more succinctly: ÒIt takes a village and weÕre a part of that village,Ó said Perry Richardson, spokesman for Miami UniversityÕs regional campuses. ÒCommunity engagement, volunteerism, civic engagement, service learning, they are very important to us,Ó he said. ÒThey are in fact an integral part of our mission. It involves administration, faculty, staff and students. All of us together are involved in community support in one way or another.Ó Miami University HamiltonÕs Center for Civic Engagement and the National Conference on Citizenship released the most recent Ohio Civic Health Index this past fall. That report called for the stateÕs higher education communities to Òactively seek outÓ new ways to be involved with the community. ~1@BODYURL[id=114jbcurl1235]@