Initiative Description (4 pages)

UC Merced operates under the sensitive condition of regional and state decision-makers (e.g., Regents, the state legislature, industry and civic leaders) critically questioning the value and direction of the sole UC campus in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV). All involved understand the challenges of locating UC Merced in one of the most disadvantaged regions in the USA at a time of unprecedented national financial crisis that disproportionately effects SJV including our predominantly lower SES student population. All involved understand that UC Merced cannot succeed in its academic mission without true and effective partnerships with regional and external stakeholders to address the impact of poverty. Leaders within and outside of our campus continue to face the daunting challenge of growing a Tier 1 research institution toward national ranking given the conditions of severe overall scarcity including in extramural research funding. Engaged Transformation of Poverty (ETP) in the SJV builds on the new UC Blum Center initiative attending to global poverty through the unparalleled power of UC research and research training. It will demonstrate the impact of UC Merced research expertise to address pressing regional and by extension global problems. To address the 2020 strategic plan’s goal for achieving national ranking of our campus, it would be remiss to reach this goal absent evidence that our research is contributing to the alleviation of the region’s poverty.

In September 2013, UCOP accepted UC Merced’s proposal to establish a new Blum Center in the SJV with the theme of Global California: Transformation of Poverty into Prosperity. The Blum Center is a multi-campus initiative stimulated by UC Regent Richard Blum to channel the talent and power of UC to measurably impact poverty in developing economies worldwide. The Blum Center at UC Merced joins peer centers at UCSD, UCLA, UCB, and UCD to leverage substantial extramural and intramural resources for research and training related to improving the impact of higher education on local-to-global economic, environmental and social inequities. The UC Merced Blum Center builds on the infrastructure and relationships that UC Merced’s Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship (ReCCES) has established throughout the region. ReCCES has evolved since 2006 with funding from the Chancellor’s office, external grants, and the General Fund.  ReCCES provides training and assistance to faculty, students and community partners interested in community engaged research.  Both Blum Center and ReCCES will support the continuum of work, from the independent faculty member proposing research on social, engineering, or even biomedical aspects of poverty to multi-site, interdisciplinary research collaboratives with direct ties to industry, civic, and legislative priorities.

The mission of ETP will be as follows.  First, there will be direct support of faculty research focused on the causes and consequences of regional poverty as well as interventions aimed at its transformation. Second, direct support of graduate student research will include training on interdisciplinary approaches to poverty transformation.  Third, to prepare and encourage undergraduates in the pursuit of graduate studies and career development, an undergraduate minor will be developed that couples engaged scholarship and service learning.  The campus research that will be supported will integrate the voice and priorities of community stakeholders to shape and implement its direction.  This will allow UC Merced to leverage existing research strengths in sustainability, public health, community empowerment and regional development to establish the best practices required to tackle extant and newly emerging problems.  We see ETP as a unique opportunity to both directly reduce local, regional, and global poverty and at the same time expand UC Merced’s capacity to be a world leader in this emerging interdisciplinary field of inquiry.  We hope that leadership will embrace poverty alleviation as a crosscutting campus-wide strategic theme. 

ETP strengthens UC Merced’s original commitment to be an engine for economic and human development in the region. UC Merced will be an even stronger problem solver in regional poverty and a role model for national and global poverty elimination. Several campus entities have evolved with new ones emerging (see list of affiliated strategic academic initiatives) which give an opportunity now to connect the dots, build capacity, and assist our academic research, teaching and service to be more effective in the region. Rather than propose a new theme, we underscore the importance of universities evidencing their impact.  Across the nation, research universities are urgently trying to understand how to prove their value through community engagement.  NIH, NSF, and the Department of Education are among the federal stakeholders that are calling for community-engaged institutions of higher education.  For example, NSF reports and requests for proposals throughout 2013 have explicitly called for community participation in decisions about what to study and have made funding contingent on community engagement. A 2005 UCOP sponsored report highlighted the opportunity for UC to become a leader in this. In order for ETP to take UC Merced to national ranking it is imperative that new faculty lines are established within each school and existing faculty are supported to be part of the solution. The role of Blum Center and ReCCES is to provide training and resources that make it easier for this to happen.

ETP is currently coordinated by faculty in Anthropology, Economics, Engineering, and in Public Health. ETP’s growth and influence will require diverse collaborators from across all three schools including the oft times unrecognized contributions from the humanities and arts, and efforts more commonly called public scholarship. There are a number of evolving local and regional ETP opportunities. Smart Valley Places, a competitive federally funded initiative is focused on developing a 20-year plan for economic development in disadvantaged communities. It has generated over $5 million since 2012. The Merced County Economic Development Initiative launched in June 2013 through Hospital Community Benefit Programs is convening investors and grant makers to develop a long-term plan for economic and workforce advances in Merced City and County. This initiative explicitly sees UC Merced’s presence and promise as key ingredients for making Merced County the driver of SJV’s economic success. Investments in research and development are anticipated to exceed $20 million in the first five years. ETP can coordinate UC Merced’s role in these and other initiatives to ensure future planning aligns with our university’s current and future aspirations. This initiative has

Participation in local and regional initiatives will illustrate how UC Merced helps transform poverty to prosperity joining the success of other nationally ranked universities.  Promising and inspiring peer initiatives are rare. However, some role models include The Milwaukee Idea and Oregon’s “Regional Solutions”; University of Michigan (Poverty Center) and Stanford University (Center on Poverty and Inequality). These illustrations are important because they ensure the integration or research with action for a measurable impact on poverty. 

EPT’s current status and future growth will draw on the Blum Center network across the UC system, extramural support through philanthropic and governmental funds. Our campus investment in EPT is centered around developing a team of academic and non-academic support staff, establishing on and off campus facilities for research and research training, and providing strategic operational and stimulus funds for faculty and community collaboration. Requests for personnel include:

Academic and community research liaisons for each school [Master’s level (doctoral level preferred)] to coordinate school and faculty priorities with research opportunities.  Though we are not asking for faculty lines, EPT’s success will depend on the hiring of additional relevant faculty. These liaisons will be important cheerleaders for all the things that require advancement: faculty development and promotion, recruiting new faculty, graduate student development.

Here are some activities that this initiative is undertaking and will grow through 2020:

• Training and ETP professional development for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates

Faculty: workshops on community engaged research methods; facilitate grant opportunities; networking on campus and off campus with community stakeholders;

Connect with research groups and advisors outside of UC Merced (e.g., UC Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California; Community University Research & Action for Justice); Conferences for showcasing faculty community engaged research; co-host UC Merced Research Week events on and off campus.

Graduate students: workshops on community engaged research methods; facilitating grant opportunities including seed grants; summer stipends; networking on campus and off-campus; support of master’s and doctoral theses.

Undergraduate students: internships and field experiences; facilitate service learning.

• Develop the infrastructure and capacity of community organizations as effective partners in

ETP.

Workshops on community-engaged methods; facilitate grant opportunities; networking with campus stakeholders; connect with research groups and advisors outside of UC Merced (e.g., UC Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California; Community University Research & Action for Justice); conferences showcasing ETP research and solutions; cohost UC Merced Research Week events off campus.

• Represent and advance UC Merced’s mission in regional, state, national and international efforts related to poverty transformation.

Ensuring the UC Merced is a member of various initiatives; connecting our faculty research and graduate and undergraduate training to these initiatives.

•  Develop and implement independent campus projects that build the campus infrastructure for ETP and capacity and raise national attention for UC Merced

• Develop a proposal for a new minor, tentatively “Community Development”

• Continue developing the Research, Innovations and Solutions for Equity (RISE) program.  RISE identifies community organizations and industry partners to articulate research projects and priorities within their area of work. 

Link our faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to these community driven research priorities; develop funding, training, and other infrastructure needs to support ongoing ETP between UC Merced and community partners.

Resources need for ETP through 2020 include the following:

Personnel:

Community research liaison (1 FTE for each of three schools. 1) This position is a master’s level (doctoral preferred) with training and capacity to articulate and work with and advocate for faculty research and needs at each school related to ETP; 2) This person would promote and generate enthusiasm for ETP within each school with anticipation of generating new faculty lines aligned with ETP. 3) Serve as relationship builder and broker between each school and their appropriate community partners.  By 2020 we anticipate that each school would have two community research liaisons.

Administrative support staff (1 FTE) for community liaisons.

Communications staff (1 FTE) responsible for developing public announcements, managing relationship databases, managing websites and social media.  Because working with disadvantaged communities and issues of poverty require extra sensitivity to community relations, this staff member must have experience working with underrepresented communities.

Graduate Student Researcher (2 per school)

Undergraduate work-study students (4 per school)

Community Station Coordinators: (8 FTE) One community station per county (8); managing the activities, volunteers and events related to ETP at community stations (described below). Someone hired from the community and provided training in how to be an ETP representative for their community.  As ETP grows we expect this staff to double by 2020.

Facilities

On campus space appropriate to this level of initiative e.g., 3,000 sq. ft. with private offices and conference space and appropriate computing and conferencing technology.

Off campus facilities: Community stations that are within existing trusted organizations also allowing for private offices and conference facilities and appropriate computing and conferencing technology; one community station per county.

Other Necessary Resources

Funding for events including at least one conference per year; workshops; space costs; food and equipment for community events; community participant stipends; travel reimbursement for UC and community members; stipends to support grant writing and pilot and feasibility studies; appropriate transportation (e.g., vans for student research teams).

Between now and 2020 we anticipate that ETP’s presence and activities will attract at least three new faculty lines per school to support ETP research.  Undergraduate enrollment in the minor affiliated with ETP is expected to reach 1500 by 2020; by 2020 graduate students affiliated with ETP is expected to reach 200.