Community involvement lags at Hopkins - Hopkins in the City

This is the first of a two-part comparative investigation that seeks to further explore the role of Johns Hopkins in regard to the issues of service, community development, and civic responsibility in Baltimore City. Part one will compare the initiatives run by the administration at Johns Hopkins and two of its peer institutions, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago. Part two will focus on student-run community service initiatives at Johns Hopkins and its peer institutions.

Last year at the University of Pennsylvania, more than 2,000 students did community service at least once a week, and they got class credit for it. While Hopkins students were sweating through six-hour chem-labs, UPenn students were teaching elementary school kids how to build toothpick bridges and giving nonviolence workshops for at-risk youth. Each year, their university takes the firm stance that reaching out the West Philadephia community is not only their obligation as an institution, but also an opportunity for their students to learn as much in a free health clinic as they can in the classroom.

A community is only as strong as its institutions, and universities have resources at their command that no other type of institution can boast. But how can we be sure that Johns Hopkins is doing its part to improve the Baltimore community? Are we living up to our potential as an elite research institution with a long tradition of excellence and philanthropy? What role does the university play in improving the surrounding community, and how can that role be expanded?

Community Involvement at Hopkins.

Hopkins' work with the "greater Homewood area," -- a large jurisdiction bounded roughly by Northern Parkway on the north, 25th Street to the south, West Hampden to the west, and Greenmount Avenue on the east -- is managed by two University offices.

The Office of Government, Community, and Public Affairs oversees dozens of subsidiary offices, including News & Information and the Office of Real Estate. Nearly everything the University does for the community that the students do not see is done through this office.

Director of Community Affairs Salem Reiner works with the University's divisions on initiatives to improve security and to develop communities in the Greater Homewood area.

The OCA networks with neighborhood associations and with the Charles Village Benefits District (on whose board Reiner sits, and to which the University gives a $70,000 annual grant), as well as the Greater Homewood Community Corporation. The organization also works to fight crime by offering a series of security seminars, and improves the environment by working with the Jones Falls Watershed Association and the Friends of Wyman Park Dell.

Occasionally Reiner will recruit students to help out with community projects, as is the case with a current large-scale street lighting initiative and the cleaning up of Wyman Park Dell. But the Office of Community Affairs has no direct formal connection to the student body.

As far as involving students goes, the Johns Hopkins Center for Social Concern is the organizing body for service and community work on the Homewood campus. "Student groups need to be recognized by the University," says Matt D'Agostino, assistant director of the CSC. His office, he says, helps them utilize University resources.

"We provide closer advising than the [Student Activities Commission]," says D'Agostino. "Most importantly, any work you do with the community depends on your relationship with the community."

The way it works at the CSC is that student groups come to D'Agostino, and he decides whether or not to give them the oversight and the resources they need.

"If you're comparing us with similar organizations at other schools," says D'Agostino, "we're sort of unique. Students come to me, and it's not because of advertising...When I tell people I work at this university, I tell them that I work with the best students at the school."

But the problem that D'Agostino runs into is that it is entirely up to the students to identify the issues that are important to the community, and then to form the groups to address them. This makes it tough for the community to approach the Center for Social Concern with their own petitions for help.

"Getting widespread involvement for things that just come up -- that's one of the ways I'm tied," he says. "If the community comes to me with an initiative and I can't find enough students who are interested in helping, I can't help them."

There are only four full-time staff members at the CSC, and the Office of Community Affairs has only two employees. D'Agostino estimates that about 500 students are involved in CSC activities each semester, but that the main problem is that the University's various communities office lack "a unified vision" for Hopkins' relationship with the community. "On the Homewood side, there's no one who is really interfacing with the community to find a gestalt on issues," he says.

Community Involvement at UPenn

D'Agostino says that his boss Bill Tiefenworth calls UPenn "the Rolls-Royce of service," and after exploring their community outreach apparatus, it seems that he is not far off from the truth.

Under the direction of Ira Harkavy, UPenn's Center for Community Partnerships controls all of the community initiatives that are run by the administration (another group, the Civic House, deals directly with student groups). The CCP's mission is to link the academic life of the university with its community outreach mission. This is done through "service learning" courses, educational programming that is also used by Stanford, Harvard and Brown.

The idea is that students and faculty apply the skills they acquire in academic pursuits to help the community.

According to Joann Weeks, assistant director of the Center for Community Partnerships, 62 service learning courses were offered last semester, with 46 of them in undergraduate divisions, in 19 different departments. Overall, 2,118 undergraduates took service learning courses, through which they received academic credits for doing regular community service work.

The CCP is also guided by a 25-30 member rotating faculty advisory board, as well as a student advisory board, both of which work to identify pertinent issues and problems in West Philadelphia. Hundreds of community groups approach the CCP each year with new ideas and issues, and paid staff provide liaisons between the Center and the community groups, on a project-by-project basis, making sure that the students finish each project that they start.

Last year, the Urban Nutrition Initiative, which is run by the CCP, was recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations as "one of the most promising practices in the country as far as working with children on health issues," says Weeks. "I think the people who know what we are doing have really come to appreciate the work we do. They've developed a sense of trust for the center and for the university...It's always a mutually beneficial relationship."

Community Involvement at UChicago

The mission of the University Community Service Center at the University of Chicago, according to their Web site, is to "foster an active culture of community service and partnership at the University of Chicago."

Assistant Director David Hays says that he wants this culture of service "to permeate everyone's life." He works towards this, the Center's ultimate goal, by coordinating the Volunteer Referral Service, which places undergraduates in internships at about 400 community organizations.

The UCSC also sponsors "days of service" on which students go out into the community and participate in tutoring, trash-collecting and other activities.

"Virtually all of these initiatives come out of student interest," says Hays. "UCSC existed as a student-run organization before it was a University office."

The UCSC also provides substantial monetary support, transportation, and advising for student-run community service groups. In the summer, the UCSC gives 30 "Summerlinks" grants of $4,000 from the university, and discount for students in internship programs at community, nonprofit and public agencies throughout Chicago.

Despite their extensive efforts, Hays says that "the University of Chicago still has a reputation that is very imposing -- that we are elitist and uncaring. They feel like the university is encroaching on the community."

Conclusions

Hopkins is way behind its peer institutions when it comes to administrative support for student-accessible community initiatives. The problem, it seems is that there is a disconnect between what the upper levels of the administration see as Hopkins' roles in the surrounding communities and what offices like the Center for Social Concern are trying to do.

At the same time, the students are left out of the entire decision-making process. As a result, both the students and the community cannot see Hopkins as anything but an institution that is not concerned with improving things and giving back to the people who live near it. Even though this is not the case -- Hopkins actually gives a tremendous amount of support to the community -- it is what we as students see.

Over the next few years, as Hopkins acquires more property and works to dramatically improve student life, the administration should also consider rethinking its role in connecting the student body to the Baltimore community. The University can do a better job of identifying community problems and establishing the groups and initiatives to address them. We could also work towards something like the UPenn model of service learning academics, or at the very least find another way to link Hopkins academics to the community service culture. If institutions are the cornerstones of communities, only be unifying our vision for community involvement can we hone our edges to become a perfect fit in Charles Village and beyond.