Today VCU’s Division of Community Engagement hosted a lecture this afternoon by Dr. Barbara Holland, an expert on organizational change in higher education, with a focus on the institutionalization of community engagement.

Part of the impetus for the event was also celebrating VCU having received Carnegie Foundation’s designation as a “Community Engaged Campus”. Former First Lady of Virginia and education advocate Anne Holton attended and spoke also.
The only question that time allowed from the audience was in regard to adjunct professors’ pay and declining state support for education.
While it may be easy for Oregon Hill residents to question VCU’s local commitment given past difficulties and controversies (not that this event attempted to address specific neighborhood concerns), the declining financial investments on the part of corporations and government in research make it clear that VCU’s challenges for community engagement will be very real. Hopefully Dr. Holland’s lecture will spur more open discussion and action.

Separate from this keynote event, on an even more positive note, residents may want to mark on their calendars the upcoming opening of the RVA Toolbank (on March 19th), with support from VCU.