Aquinas College
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

Aquinas has several mechanisms for systematic assessment of community perceptions of the institutional engagement with community. Most of these assessments are currently program-based, however, we are working toward an accompanying institution-wide process of assessing community perceptions of the institution, including our engagement with community. Our executive leadership explicitly promotes community engagement as a priority. In 2012 the Board of Trustees initiated a rolling annual strategic planning process with five strategic focus areas for the institution. One of these five focus areas is community engagement. The community’s voice is integrated into institutional or departmental planning for community engagement. When community members share in department decision making, it is often done through community advisory boards, in both academic and administrative departments. Two programs with Advisory Boards, the School of Education and the Community Leadership Program, provide examples of integration of community voice in department planning for community engagement. Finally, Aquinas has a campus-wide coordinating infrastructure to support and advance community engagement, with three hubs and a Community Engagement Task Force (an advising body to college engagement.)

Aquinas maintains systematic campus-wide tracking or documentation mechanisms to record and/or track engagement with the community. The Office of Academic Affairs maintains three sets of data on our community engagement. 1) Data on curricular student community engagement. 2. Data on co-curricular student service. 3. The Partnership Data Set provides a continuously updated and searchable list of our community engagement. It is available electronically to encourage investing in (strengthening) existing partnerships when possible, and coordinating connections with the partner. We also use this data to inform a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the Strategic Plan. Community engagement is connected with diversity and inclusion work, through our Center for Diversity and Inclusion. The Center is engaged with West Michigan organizations with similar goals, including the Grand Rapids Public Schools Migrant Education Program, Intercollegiate Network for Multiculturalism, Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance, and The Committee to Honor César E. Chávez. Through partnerships, the Center hosts speakers to increase cross-cultural awareness; works to create a more inclusive campus climate; organizes events that engage a variety of cultural traditions; and provides student and faculty engagement opportunities to combat social inequality. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion collaborates with other Aquinas organizations to engage community.

Our Partner Data Set includes 1,184 partnerships with 801 different community partners. This list is available on the college's intranet.