IV. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

A. Strengthen the Ties between Wesleyan and the Middletown Community

We believe that our engagement in the community is important for the social good and the quality of life in our community. We also believe that as Middletown thrives, so will Wesleyan. A vibrant community is a key variable in attracting the best faculty, staff and students. Wesleyan faculty, staff, students and local alumni/ae and parents are important contributors to the educational, cultural, social and economic fabric of Middletown. In 2004 we formalized our outreach through the creation of the Center for Community Partnership, which houses our Office of Community Relations, the Office of Community Service and Volunteerism, and the Center for Service Learning. We can further strengthen our ties with the community. These are some the most important ways:

Expand Volunteerism

Use the Office of Community Service and Volunteerism, which works in partnership with the Career Resource Center and the Chaplain’s Office, to expand our high level of volunteerism and develop additional long-term relationships with community agencies that can benefit from our help. Volunteer activities help students to become engaged in the community and to learn a variety of skills. They can also help them explore career paths, particularly in the public sector.

Continue Collaboration in Main Street Initiatives

Continue to seek ways that are consistent with our core mission to become involved the revitalization of downtown Middletown. Wesleyan collaborated with the city and local merchants as one of the seven partners that financed the development of the Middletown Main Street program – an effort to market the development of retail space along the length of the street. This effort also led to the creation of a Downtown Business District, a self taxing district, to continue to fund the program. Partly as a result of these initiatives, the downtown has been re-energized through the infusion of new restaurants and shops. Wesleyan was also a lead participant and significant local investor in the building of the Inn at Middletown. This hotel provides the university with quality accommodations within walking distance of campus and is an important anchor to the south end of Main Street. We will continue to welcome similar opportunities that will benefit the university and its surrounding community in the future.

Continue Collaboration in Green Street Arts Center

In collaboration with the City of Middletown and many local community organizations, Wesleyan converted a former school on Green Street into a cultural and educational resource for the community, particularly for children and families with low and moderate incomes. This project was based on a study showing that a university-associated community arts center would promote economic and community development in the North End, an area characterized by a high level of poverty, unemployment, and substandard housing. The Green Street Arts Center opened its doors in January 2005 and is becoming a cornerstone of the revitalization of the North End.

While serving as an anchor for the neighborhood, the classes offered at the Center will extend Wesleyan’s world arts curriculum into the community. Many faculty at the Center are Wesleyan-affiliated artists who live in the region. Wesleyan arts students, under the supervision of master teachers, offer private music lessons and serve as teaching apprentices. We will seek ways to expand these opportunities, which offer Wesleyan students both volunteer and learning opportunities while helping the community.

B. Expand Wesleyan’s Presence in the Region through Continuing Studies

The goal of Continuing Studies at Wesleyan is “to provide a variety of lifelong learning opportunities to multiple constituencies that reflect Wesleyan’s curricular and academic excellence.” Continuing Studies coordinates programs that fall outside the traditional undergraduate and M.A./Ph.D. programs, including the Graduate Liberal Studies Program (GLSP), the Project to Improve Mastery in Mathematics and Science (PIMMS), Upward Bound, and more.

Continuing Studies can help Wesleyan make better use of its campus facilities during the evening, on weekends and, particularly, in the summer; it can take advantage of some of Wesleyan’s strengths, most notably its faculty, to offer courses that are of interest to the community outside of Wesleyan but that are not offered via the regular Wesleyan course offerings, and it can support connections between Wesleyan and the local and regional communities.

Over the last several years, the programs under Continuing Studies have grown and become financially stronger. Enrollments and participation from Wesleyan faculty and the academic rigor of the programs have increased. The next step is to establish new options, which might include undergraduate summer credit courses, non-credit courses, certificate programs, and institutes. We might also expand summer programs and conferences with an eye towards the opening of the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan University Center. Our goal is to continue to strengthen the financial base and the quality of our activities and to increase the visibility of Continuing Studies at Wesleyan, in Middletown, and throughout Connecticut.

C. Strengthen Wesleyan’s Presence in State and Federal Educational Matters

Important opportunities exist at the state and national levels for Wesleyan to influence policy agendas related to higher education and to raise Wesleyan’s visibility significantly as a leader in the public sphere. From time to time, we have made our presence felt, but to do more will require both staff time and targeted efforts by individual faculty, administrators, and the president.

Wesleyan maintains effective outreach within the Middletown community and with city authorities. Like other universities, Wesleyan has a direct interest in strong relations with the state and federal governments but we have not yet developed routine mechanisms for outreach to those entities. Wesleyan must concern itself with governmental policies that affect funding for student aid, scientific research, and the arts; access to visas for international students and faculty; and the availability of charitable dollars. Wesleyan's response to such issues has been mostly ad hoc, relying on higher education associations to make any given case. This is expedient and usually safe, but it cannot work in every instance, and it does little for Wesleyan's visibility or prestige.

Like other prominent colleges and universities in Connecticut, Wesleyan can and should be represented on boards and committees framing such projects as the state science center and promoting technology development. It should have a plan for effective communication with key elected officials at the state and federal levels.

Wesleyan should develop a plan that encompasses all aspects of the university's involvement with its publics. The plan should:

• specify the mechanisms for ongoing dialog about priorities, agendas and resources related to Wesleyan's public affairs interests;
• apportion administrative responsibility for state and federal outreach activities and ensure that state efforts, in particular, are well coordinated with city and community efforts;
• delineate the role of the president in state and federal spheres;
• establish criteria for deciding which issues and projects to address at each level, as well as for measuring the success of our efforts;
• describe mechanisms for communication among the various members of the community undertaking outreach on Wesleyan's behalf, as well as for communication with the larger campus community about issues and projects.

The university should create a working group comprised of some of the administrators who are currently engaged in outreach activities plus faculty and others who have a stake in federal, state and local regulatory and grant-making processes, to develop the plan to address these issues.