Photos of the “Community Encounters” class courtesy of Gabriel Radley
The relationship between ASU and the downtown Phoenix community has never been stronger.
We are not, however, operating anywhere near optimal levels of interaction, and the tension that still exists in the young partnership threatens to disenchant community leaders and students alike.
There is much good being done in the meantime though. This semester I had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for a class titled “Community Encounters.” This course brought a group of 20 students into direct contact with the many of the best and brightest that Phoenix has to offer.
They learned of poetry and how to nurture a burgeoning arts scene from the ever positive and supportive Aaron Johnson.
They learned of preservation and how to fight a city as a citizen directly from the likes of Marshall Shore, Jim McPherson, and the fiery and outspoken Sean Sweat.
They learned how to grow a community from Kenny Barrett and the “guerilla” involvement tactics of Stacey Champion.
Those fine leaders and downtown advocates are but a small portion of the total introduction to the community these students received, and it was a beautiful process to watch and be a part of.
If every student could receive this kind of welcome to the community, I dare to say the change we wish to see would become that much more of a reality, but, we would still fall short.
College students are by nature transitory creatures; community builders are fixed, putting all of their efforts into an area for the long haul. Two major changes can be developed to help close this disparity.
On the university’s end, programs can be created and marketed to make Phoenix feel like it is at least an option, and — if the university feels especially bold — Phoenix could be encouraged as a dynamic and interesting place to make a home after graduation.
The process of teaching students to adopt the city as their own, as well as making them have a vested interest in its long-term success, is key to helping students engage the community on a much deeper level.
A change in the way community members approach students is also necessary. ASU is a massive talent and work pool, but in order to get high levels of participation it is imperative to do more than ask why students are not helping with a particular project.
To succeed in wooing students to participate, they must truly be marketed to. The promise of a real urban paradise that Phoenix visionaries wish to see is certainly a driving force for residents and particularly motivated students, but it lacks appeal to students whose skills could be better applied for short-term projects that can directly impact their lives.
One of the downtown Phoenix campus’s greatest assets is that it is a campus devoted to fields that directly relate to and help in shaping the community.
The Walter Cronkite School is clearly involved in the promotion and development of the community in a vital way; however their commitment to objectivity allows their reach to be broad but shallow.
This is where the other schools — like the entirety of the College of Public Programs — should fill in the gaps; each school is incredibly specialized and has the potential to be deeply rooted in shaping and advancing the community, yet these programs — as excellent as an education they provide — do not force community involvement like that required of journalism students.
The existence of an urban campus at ASU provides the opportunity for a truly unprecedented level of experience-based learning. It is time that the school, its students and the leaders of the community reach out and truly utilize what has been laid before them.
The system is not broken — far from it. The pieces are there, simply waiting to be assembled. Now let us build this glorious contraption and watch a true ASU-community partnership come to life.
Gabriel Radley is a criminology and criminal justice sophomore at the College of Public Programs, vice president of Barrett Leadership and Service Team Downtown, founding member of the Student Residential College Advisory Board and an active member of ASU Downtown Alive!
