John Stephens and I are documenting connections CfA brigades have with local universities. Here’s a starting point: various initiatives brigades and universities have done in Buffalo, Chapel Hill, Delaware, and Bryan/College Station.
We’d like to hear your stories.
Please add to this thread with projects and initiatives your brigade has done with some kind of college or university connection. This could involve a specific project, financial or in-kind support, partnering on an event, or something else.
If you are willing, I’d love to talk with you to hear about how these projects and initiatives developed. Thanks so much for contributing.
We’re currently partnering closely with Georgia Tech’s Savannah Campus for a broad initiative on sea level rise and climate justice: http://sealevelsensors.org
But we have been by and large turned away by the well-known local art school with 8,000 students that takes up most of the historic district of Savannah. The school discourages community engagement. That said, many of said art school’s students have gotten involved in Brigade work; we’ve just had to reach them by going around the institution, which frowns upon student involvement in work that isn’t part of its own programming. We’re working to change this, but habits die hard.
We had in the past met at the university and the space was extremely useful in many aspects - doors didn’t lock all the time, plenty of foot traffic from inquisitive professors and students (although it resulted in very few new members because students had class that same day as hack nights and since it was at night, most students were already professionals with full-time jobs). We ended up leaving because all of the classrooms were being used and we missed not having a projector, chalkboard, white board to use…
For the students that we’ve had come, it’s a mixed bag - great in that they have great ideas, are very bright but nearly all of them; their schedule changes every semester and aren’t able to attend meetups any more because of class conflicts; end up being gone for a few months because of completing a thesis, study abroad, or an internship, and are used to work on working on projects very intensely for a short amount of time which usually not how many projects work in our brigades. I perceive, not as invested in the area locally if they are not already from around there.
Best to make partnerships with the professors which I need to do more of!