Community Engagement News

National Organization Executive Visits Main Campus

Barry University President Emerita, Sister Linda Bevilacqua, and Campus Compact Vice President, Dr. Marisol Morales, exchange pleasantries. For many years, Sister Linda was a member of the Florida Campus Compact Executive Committee.

Barry University remains fully committed to community engagement, institutional leaders have emphasized. 

According to President Mike Allen and Provost John Murray, students, faculty, and staff are doing excellent work with the community that makes a difference.

In separate meetings with Dr. Marisol Morales, a vice president of Campus Compact, the president and provost pointed to students’ collaborative service in community settings and the community-engaged work of both faculty and staff members.

“We are proud of how much our students are giving back to the community,” Dr. Allen said. He mentioned the recent Founders’ Day of Service, when students got up early and took part in community service activities for several hours.

Dr. Murray expressed appreciation of the work being done by Campus Compact, a national organization promoting the public purposes of higher education.

Barry is a Campus Compact member institution. Dr. Morales visited Barry’s main campus in her role as the organization’s vice president for network leadership.

Barry University President, Dr. Mike Allen (right), with Campus Compact Vice President, Dr. Marisol Morales, and Dr. Glenn Bowen, executive director of the CCSI.

Dr. Morales also met with Sister Linda Bevilacqua, O.P., Ph.D., president emerita and founding director of the Adrian Dominican Institute for Mission and Leadership. They spoke briefly about organizational changes at the Boston-based organization.

Sister Linda, who served for many years as a member of the Florida Campus Compact Executive Committee, praised the civic engagement work of the national organization and its state affiliate.

The Campus Compact VP’s final meeting was with members of Barry’s Anti-racism and Equity Coalition (AREC). Dr. Morales pledged to support the coalition’s efforts to create an educational community that celebrates diversity, addresses racism, and actively engages in building a better world through learning, teaching, research, and self-reflection.

Courtney Berrien, associate director of the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI), chaired the AREC meeting.

Dr. Morales meets with Dr. John Murray, provost (left); Dr. Victor Romano, associate provost for student success and undergraduate studies; and the CCSI’s Dr. Glenn Bowen.

In its mission statement, Campus Compact says it “advances the public purposes of colleges and universities by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility.” In addition, “Campus Compact envisions colleges and universities as vital agents and architects of a diverse democracy, committed to educating students for responsible citizenship in ways that both deepen their education and improve the quality of community life.”

Dr. Morales visited Barry’s main campus on November 23. The CCSI coordinated the Campus Compact executive’s visit.

Faculty Learning Community Introduced to ‘Anchor Institution Framework’

During the Faculty Learning Community meeting, Drs. Mureen Shaw and Sheila McMahon held up the anchor institution model as a good one for Barry’s engagement with the community.

The “anchor institution framework” can be instrumental in further enhancing Barry’s engagement with the community. That’s the consensus of faculty members attending a meeting recently.

Last month, the Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship (FLC) took a preliminary look at the “anchor institution” model and noted its usefulness as a framework for university–community engagement.

A discussion of the anchor institution framework followed a presentation by Dr. Mureen Shaw, an associate professor of nursing, at the FLC meeting on November 18.

Dr. Shaw reviewed an article on anchor institutions in AJPH Perspectives (Vol. 110, No. 3), a publication of the American Public Health Association. “Anchor Institutions: Best Practices to Address Social Needs and Social Determinants of Health” was written by Howard K. Koh, Amy Bantham, Alan C. Geller, Mark A. Rukavina, Karen M. Emmons, Pamela Yatsko, and Robert Restuccia.

Anchor institutions are “large, place-based establishments” that invest in their surrounding communities as a way of doing business. They invest financial, human, and intellectual resources to address social challenges and needs in the communities where they operate.

Dr. Sheila McMahon, an assistant professor of social work and a Welfare Committee co-chair in Barry’s Faculty Senate, highlighted the value of the anchor institution framework for land use. She specified how Barry’s property could be redesigned for affordable housing, workforce development, and partnerships with local businesses.

The FLC is a cross-disciplinary collective of faculty members who participate in a program focused on community-engaged scholarship. The CCSI established the FLC in 2012 as a faculty development program.

For further information on the FLC, contact any of the co-facilitators: Dr. Laura Finley, lfinley@barry.edu; Dr. Pamela Hall, phall@barry.edu; Dr. Celeste Landeros, clanderos@barry.edu.

Typography Students Bringing Early Christmas Cheer to Nursing Home Residents

Students taking ART 335, a typography course, are doing something special for the residents of the nursing home across the street from Barry’s main campus entrance.

The students visited the Shoreside Health and Rehabilitation Center on November 9, when each student was paired with a resident.

“My students spent time sitting with the residents and asking them questions to get to know them better,” said Nicole (Nicky) Beltran, associate professor of graphic design.

“The main idea behind the project is for the students to take the words they learned from the residents and transform them into typographic portraits,” she explained.

Prof. Beltran and her class will head back to Shoreside this Tuesday (Dec. 7) to present the framed portraits to the residents. The presentation will be the highlight of what Prof. Beltran calls “a small Christmas donut party,” which will give the students an opportunity to spend more time with the residents.

Service-Learning Faculty is One of Seven Categories of Awards for Community Engagement

Service-Learning Faculty is one of seven categories of community engagement awards for which nominations are being accepted.

The Service-Learning Faculty Award recognizes faculty members for exemplary integration of community service into the curriculum or for demonstrating excellence in using service-learning as a teaching and learning strategy. Instructors of designated service-learning courses are prime candidates for this award.

Students, faculty and staff members, and community partners are invited to submit nominations by the last Friday of January.

The 2021 winner of the Service-Learning Faculty Award was Sister Mary Frances Fleischaker, a faculty member in the Department of Theology and Philosophy.

Previous winners were Dr. Samuel Doss (Business) and Dr. Raul Machuca (Education) in 2020; Dr. Silvia Maciá (Biology) in 2019; Nicole Beltran (Fine Arts) in 2018; Dr. Pamela Hall (Psychology) in 2017; Dr. Kevin Kemerer (Business) and Dr. Mitchell Rosenwald (Social Work) in 2016; Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech (Nursing) in 2015; and Dr. Tamara Hamilton (Physical Sciences) in 2014.

The CCSI will host Barry’s Ninth Annual Community Engagement Awards Ceremony on March 30.

Nominations are being accepted also in six other categories: Community Impact, Community Partnerships, Community-Based Research, Community-Engaged Scholarship, Community Engagement Educator, and Engaged Department.

The nomination forms are available at the CCSI website. For additional information, contact the CCSI via email, service@barry.edu.

Positive Messages: Freshman Precious Charles values and practices patience; Emma Winter, a nursing major, holds on to happiness. Precious and Emma assisted in the Barry Urban Garden on Founders’ Day of Service last month.

For assistance with GivePulse—the community engagement platform—contact Dr. Heather Johnson, experiential learning facilitator, at qep@barry.edu.

STUDENT SUPPORT FOR FAIR FOOD: Students recently rallied in support of the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance.

NEW COMMUNITY PARTNER: Cristo Rey Miami High School is Barry’s newest community partner.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AWARDS: Engaged Department is one of the seven categories of community engagement awards for which nominations are being accepted.

Community Engagement News is a publication of the Center for Community Service Initiatives.

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