The University of Maryland announced Wednesday it will create a new Center for Community Engagement that will be housed under the academic affairs division.
The new center will coordinate with units across campus to foster new opportunities for community-engaged scholarship, instruction and service, senior vice president and provost Jennifer King Rice said in a campuswide email. The center will reside in the provost’s office and will be led by a new associate provost for community engagement.
“The Center will ensure that community engagement is woven into the very fabric, values, and identity of the institution,” Rice said in the email.
[UMD joins effort to increase rural student enrollment]
The center will provide leadership for community engagement, develop partnerships locally and globally, offer training and development opportunities and support collaborations across units, according to the email.
The university already has some partnerships with the broader community. Its effort with the City of College Park — the College Park City-University Partnership — brings together members of the university community with local residents. And the existing Office of Community Engagement, which will be embedded within the new center, connects the university to surrounding neighborhoods.
