Community Engagement (May 2016)

Carleton was founded in 1942 with a mandate for community service. Today, “community” remains at the heart of our academic programming, student experience, research endeavours and overall institutional identity. Or does it?

Our Strategic Impact Group takes as its starting point the Strategic Integrated Plan’s mission statement that Carleton University is dedicated to the betterment of its community and its thematic emphasis on the collaborative development of sustainable communities. With so much talk about community engagement, we ask: Are we walking the talk? As Carleton University’s 75^th anniversary approaches, there has never been a more important time to pose this question.

In our presentation, we will survey our efforts to research and assess Carleton’s current community engagement activities and report on our findings. In response, we will make recommendations in four key areas: governance, partnership development, measurement and evaluation, and communications. We will argue that a coordinated and strategic approach to community engagement is not only necessary, it is fundamental to Carleton University’s institutional identity, reputation and ability to build sustainable communities.

• Ryan Davies (Director, Advancement Communications)
• George Duimovich (Head of Systems, Library)
• Sandra Dyck (Director, Carleton University Art Gallery)
• Lorraine Dyke (Associate Dean, MBA, Sprott)
• Tony Lackey (Manager, Risk and Insurance, Finance)
• Sandra Nelson (Manager, Finanical Systems Information, Finance)
• Carol Payne (Associate Professor, Art History)
• Pauline Rankin (Associate VP, Research/International, FASS)