Students! The College of Fine Arts needs your input.

We are working on crafting a statement expressing our shared values around community engagement and community engaged learning. What do we believe is the value of the arts and creativity in our communities? How does community engagement shape our learning and creative practice here at the CFA? We’re hoping that by sharing your own experiences and thoughts, we can discover the foundational elements that guide how we work with our communities in the coming years.

But let’s back up.

What is the difference between community engagement and community engaged learning?  

• Community engagement often connects the University with the regional community where we are geographically located. For example, there are diabetes prevention programs run by the U in various clinics across the valley.  Air quality research projects on campus are developing technology that benefits residents. Arts programming connects students and local audiences as patrons.  
  
  
• Community engaged learning is similar, in that we are connecting beyond our campus to improve the quality of life of the folks we are working alongside. But in this scenario, it is often within a classroom environment where students’ learning outcomes are directly tied to the fact that they are working in a community

Why do we need a shared valued statement?

As you know, the College of Fine Arts recently put together a 5-year strategic plan. The 4 goals within the plan are:  

1. Develop and transfer new knowledge
2. Promote student success to transform lives
3. Engage communities to improve health and quality of life
4. Ensure long term viability of the University

While working on plans for #3, we realized that we had quite a few different ideas of how best to reach our goals. So, we are turning to you. 
Gathering your input about these ideas is one of our primary initiatives for this year.  Getting this done will help us better communicate, both internally and externally, our values and beliefs as one College.

The survey is short -- only 3 questions! You can access it at the link below.
TAKE THE SURVEY

We so appreciate you taking the time and we will keep you updated on what we discover!