Dickinson College
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

DOWNTOWN PARTNERSHIP Dickinson is committed to supporting the economic sustainability and vitality of the Carlisle community. Direct investments in community revitalization and service which have enabled the community to conserve resources, reuse and rethink spaces and their uses, and strengthened the local economy include: 25,000 sq ft of rent-free space for operations and distribution to local food bank, providing services food and services to low-income population. Rehabbed old YMCA building downtown into apartments for students involved in community service. Operating commitment $227k per year, 15 years. $250k loan to community for downtown hotel. No interest loan for 5 years; now 10 years at subsidized interest. Funding two homebuyer programs to help employees purchase homes in downtown revitalization zones. Leasing the second floor of the Carlisle Theatre as a black box performance space and experimental theatre venue at $48,000 per year which roughly pays the mortgage for the Theatre. Spearheading Carlisle ―High I‖ Initiative to spark retail revitalization of two blocks contiguous to campus. College provided $100,000 seed money for retail development study and retail coordinator. College paying $275,000 per year in taxes on buildings purchased since 1985 that could be rezoned institutional, but have been left on tax rolls. $50,000 to fund a traffic study in conjunction with the Borough of Carlisle‘s efforts to reduce truck traffic, promote walking and biking, and improve the air quality of the town. Project is now underway. ALLIANCE FOR AQUATIC RESOURCE MONITORING ALLARM is an environmental organization based out of Dickinson College that empowers local communities with scientific tools to assess, protect, and restore waterways across Pennsylvania. Since 1986, ALLARM has provided technical assistance to volunteer stream monitors in the state of Pennsylvania. In the form of grass roots, skill building training workshops implemented in municipal buildings and community centers throughout Pennsylvania, ALLARM has built the scientific capacity of community watershed associations to address water quality questions and implement monitoring studies. Two major curricular partnerships with the community regarding sustainability include Mosaic courses and service-learning opportunities. Mosaics are intensive, interdisciplinary, semester-long research programs designed around ethnographic fieldwork and immersion in domestic (and global) communities. Their objective is to encourage students to think reflexively about the diverse world in which they live as they engage in collaborative work with local, transnational, and international communities. This type of place-based learning is deeply engaged in understanding the local environment and the complexities of past, present, and future human interactions within that environment. For example, The Mexican Migration Mosaics (1998, 2003) focused on migrant labor in Adams County, Pennsylvania, just South of Carlisle. The 2003 Mexican Migration Mosaic worked with communities in Adams County, Pennsylvania and Peribán in Michoacán, Mexico--through family, work and circular migration. Through intensive fieldwork and internships, students came to better understand the economy and culture, living and labor conditions, and lives of people in both regions. The Climate Change Mosaic (2009, 2011) engages students with climate change science, policy, and global development through participatory research at the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference of the Parties’ convergences, and application of climate change knowledge to the Dickinson community.