I had the honor of presenting at the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) annual conference in October. The gathering was truly a testament to the robust community of practice and interest around publicly engaged research and scholarship. Through organizations such as CUMU, the Engaged Scholarship Consortium, Imagining America and IARSCLE (the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement), UC Davis is part of a national movement bringing about cultural change in higher education toward greater public and community impact.

Last week marked the end of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a time for recognizing the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture and achievements of the United States.

As you may already know, UC Davis is an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). A HSI is a federally-designated institution of higher learning that has a full-time equivalent enrollment of undergraduate of at least 25% Hispanic students. Currently, UC Davis is at 24.1% Hispanic enrollment. 

One of my favorite elements of public scholarship is engaging with people who inspire me to think differently. That’s why I’m excited to attend the Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s annual conference this month and showcase several programs with the PSE team and our partners.

As mentioned in my message last month, many of us at land-grant universities find comfort and oftentimes inspiration in advancing the public good. As virtuous as our intentions may be, we should consider how it is we define the “public good”, especially at a time nationally and internationally when reparations, rematriation and past injustices are beginning to rise to the surface of public consciousness. 

In public universities, we often believe we are immune from social divisions, especially if we accept the credo that our institutions are committed to “the public good.” However, if we look at disciplinary cultures for example, there are distinctions that, albeit unintentional, create hierarchies within institutions of higher education about what counts as legitimate scholarship, who is to be recognized, and where resource investments are to be made.  

We recently kicked off the first meeting of our inaugural cohort of Public Scholars for the Future—a new program for graduate students who are integrating community engagement into their doctoral research. I am so inspired by their personal commitment to practicing public scholarship.

The rebirth of spring is upon us. 

I am experiencing this at my home with the recent birth of two baby goats on my family’s small farm. We also are experiencing this at PSE, as we emerge from two years of pandemic-induced disruptions, which drastically impacted the manner in which we could connect with one another, with a renewed commitment to the academic integration of community engagement at UC Davis.

Justice is a topic that has been on my mind lately. 

It is the theme for this year’s Principles of Community week, which starts today. I’ve also been doing some writing recently on the topic of just city design as the word “justice” is often invoked by planning and design professionals, but its meaning varies significantly.

As I have reflected on the word justice, I’ve taken pause to contemplate—what does justice really mean and how can we put it into practice? 

Many faculty, researchers and instructors who practice publicly engaged research and scholarship, teaching and learning don’t even realize they are public scholars. When asked, individuals often summarize their work as, “it’s just what I do,” or “I do it because I saw a need.” At a large research university such as UC Davis, it is not surprising that many of us identify with a discipline or field of study, an academic department or program.