The Daily Bulletin Archive

From the Coordinator of Community Engagement
In the SUNY Strategic Plan, community engagement is identified as one of five Core Values. “SUNY and the Vibrant Community” is one of Chancellor Zimpher’s Six Big Ideas, where the “Citizen SUNY” section talks about the goal of positioning SUNY as “a national model for higher education citizenship.” Much of what Chancellor Zimpher is proposing we are already doing at Buffalo State—taking service learning and volunteerism to scale; collaborating with community representatives to identify pressing problems and create solutions; and ensuring long-term commitment by building our involvement into courses and degree programs. Buffalo State is ahead of the game and has the potential, I believe, to be a systemwide model. 

From the beginning of his tenure, President Podolefsky has made clear his support for a more fully engaged campus. The Deans Council and Provost Ponton have established the position of coordinator of community engagement, making a very important statement of the administrative commitment to community engagement. They offered the title to me, which I have accepted with humility, pride, and enthusiasm. I hope to be able to contribute to Buffalo State’s maturing as an engaged campus. We have a very firm foundation on which to build.

Buffalo State has a rich history and culture of engagement that dates back to its early days as a normal school. Our urban location has contributed to a growing commitment to applied scholarship and active, experiential pedagogies. While many area colleges and universities pride themselves as “think tanks,” places where knowledge is generated, Buffalo State has a reputation for taking the additional step of transforming that knowledge into practice. Many in the surrounding community have come to think of Buffalo State as an “action tank” for the city and region.

The foundation of community engagement at Buffalo State is anchored in the extremely varied and extensive work that faculty, staff, and students carry out in cooperation with community partners—from the Great Lakes Center to the Professional Development Schools Consortium, from service-learning courses across campus to the art conservation program, from the Center for Health and Social Research to the Small Business Development Center, to mention just a few; my apologies to the many, many others not listed here. Our ties to the community are robust and complex; they represent a key component of what is distinctive about Buffalo State.

The Volunteer and Service-Learning Center has developed a high-quality service-learning program that involves many courses and hundreds of students each semester in the life of the community. Service-learning is woven into the pedagogical fabric of the college as a core component of active learning. It complements the many vibrant internship programs across campus. A strong core of faculty and staff members, dedicated to working closely with Buffalo State’s many community partners, has developed around these programs.

In my estimation, these factors, when taken together, constitute a “perfect storm” in terms of Buffalo State’s taking a critical step forward in institutionalizing community engagement. A large and growing group of faculty and staff members have stepped up to contribute their time and energy to this project.

I hope to use this space in the Daily Bulletin to regularly communicate to the campus community about our progress. If you would like to become involved in Buffalo State’s community engagement initiatives or simply want to learn more, please contact me. Together we can make a vibrant community for all.

Sincerely,

Gary Welborn, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology