USF Collaborates with East Tampa
The Collaborative provided seed grants to four USF service-learning courses during the Spring 2004 term to faculty from around the campus, in partnership with community representatives, to further USF’s involvement in East Tampa.
Description:
University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft and The Board of Trustees want the University to make meaningful contributions to local communities. Community engagement – principally carried out through community-based scholarly research, student’s community service projects, and service learning courses – are the ways USF can carry out this vision.
In August of 2003, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio invited USF to be a partner in her East Tampa Initiative, providing the university an opportunity to mobilize its diverse resources in a coordinated manner. East Tampa is the area bounded by Hillsborough Avenue to the north, I-4 to the south, I-75 to the east and I-275 to the west. A multidisciplinary group representing 10 different USF Colleges gathered to meet with city officials and discuss their needs and issues and identify possible university roles in research, service and teaching. USF Provost Renu Khator gave Judi Jetson, director of the USF Collaborative for Children, Families and Communities, the assignment to identify a substantive project that USF could do in East Tampa that would show tangible results.
Since that time, she and Kathy Betancourt, Associate Vice President for Government Relations have worked closely with faculty and community leaders to develop and test ideas as well as to begin new partnerships. The result was an initiative to map the assets of the neighborhood. The community of East Tampa has identified for USF multiple areas of need: public safety, aesthetics/beautification, economic development, land use and housing.
The Collaborative provided seed grants to four USF service-learning courses during the Spring 2004 term to faculty from around the campus, in partnership with community representatives, to further USF’s involvement in East Tampa. Grants will again be available for Spring of 2005. Together, the university, the city, and community have begun to build a body of knowledge that highlights the assets and opportunities of this historic community.
Funding for Academic Year: 2004-05