Smith College
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

Smith's major capital projects are all reviewed and approved by the City of Northampton Planning Board. Board meetings are public and community stakeholders attend. In addition, it is the college's practice to actively seek community input for projects that particularly affect neighboring areas by holding and participating in forums for neighbors and interested members of the community. Examples over the past year include a forum for community questions, concerns and input about new apartments to be constructed in 2014-15, and forums regarding the potential sale of a parcel of real estate owned by Smith.

1) The Smith College Council on Community Policy is a broadly representative, deliberative group that meets to consider matters that concern the campus community. In its deliberations, and working in concert with others on campus as appropriate, the "College Council" addresses issues of common concern. Its mission concerns the well-being of the community — its capacity for collegiality and the pursuit of the commonweal while providing an excellent education to women. Membership of the council includes two members of the City of Northampton's elected city council. 2) Recently Smith established a new Center for Community Collaboration. The center (CCC) promotes a campuswide culture of community engagement, responsive citizenship and the active generation of knowledge to benefit society.

Educational institutions: Smith is a member and active participant in a consortium of area educational institutions, Five Colleges Inc. Other members include Amherst, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke Colleges and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In addition, Smith contracts with two community colleges in the nearby cities of Greenfield and Holyoke to hold classes free of charge in a Smith building, to better serve local community needs. Government bodies: the core body is the City of Northampton. In addition to the council, board and forums described above, each year Smith convenes a series of meetings including the Mayor and two of his staff members and the college's President and three of her staff members. Private sector organizations: Smith works with the Northampton Chamber of Commerce to ensure its board includes a Smith administrator; Smith is an active participant in establishing a new regional chamber organization; Smith's president serves on the Economic Development Council; Smith led successful efforts to establish an arts organization in the region; and so forth.

The efforts listed above are in numerous locations on Smith's website. The URL for the college's Center for Community Collaboration is: http://www.smith.edu/ccc/about.php