At UC Davis, the idea of the engaged university finds its expression in multiple action research partnerships between faculty, students, and communities focused on environmental justice in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. Through these partnerships, communities gain access to rigorous research and institutional networks and the university is able to better meet its Land Grant values and obligations to serve the people of California. Such partnerships also promote greater transparency and accountability in the university and provide critical information that can aid in struggles to address disproportionate burdens of environmental hazards suffered as a result of racial, economic, and political inequality.

Towards these ends, the UC Davis Environmental Justice Project (EJP) has found a very promising role in the capacity of convener. Founded in 2006 and directed by Professor Julie Sze, the EJP hosts quarterly public lectures in which local academics doing environmental and social justice research are invited to share their work in informal settings among community and university members.

By getting into the field in diverse communities and seeking their input through focus groups and consultations, the EJP created the Community Research Inventory to document activist knowledge of former university-community relationships and future research opportunities in the Central Valley. The Research Inventory also includes an Academic Literature Review on EJ issues, which intends to assist communities in accessing relevant research information about a particular environmental issue.

Finally, the upcoming “California, the University, and the Environment” Conference at UC Davis (May 7-8, free and open to the public) will celebrate the work of Central Valley women environmental justice activists as documented by former Masters student, Tracy Perkins, through the 25 Stories Project. The 25 Stories Project details the stories of women environmental justice leaders in the Central Valley through photography, theater, and narratives. The 25 Stories Environmental Justice Teaching Tools, to be released in summer of 2009, in turn share these important narratives as a way to introduce the movement of environmental justice to undergraduate students in classroom settings. The May Conference also invites the public to attend panels and convenings on local environmental issues.

The Center for Regional Change (CRC), also founded in 2006 and directed by Professor Jonathan London, operates according to the following values:

• Engaged research is needed to help solve problems that matter to the region
• Collaborative partnerships are needed to support mutual teaching and learning
• Rigorous research is necessary to support social equity and sustainability

In support of these values, the CRC pursues the following activities:

• Catalyze and conduct innovative and solutions-oriented research.
• Facilitate active campus engagement with regional stakeholders.
• Enhance graduate and undergraduate education through community-engaged projects.

A major initiative of the CRC is its partnership with the Sacramento Coalition for Regional Equity (CORE). As part of its efforts to support CORE’s formation and strategic direction, the CRC worked with the Race Equity Project (REP) to produce a series of maps representing facets of regional equity and inequity (scroll down to reach the map section). In the next two years, the CRC will work with CORE and the REP to produce a regional equity indicators project called the SCORECARD, mapping issues such as access to transit, affordable housing, nutritious food, quality education, living wage jobs, parks and green space, and other opportunities. As part of this effort, the partnership will also develop and implement a community mapping workshop series in which residents can map their own local knowledge of what makes a healthy and unhealthy community, as well as integrate secondary data for use in informing advocacy strategies. The CRC’s new California Community and Regional Mapping Laboratory will provide the technological support for these projects.

Another exciting offshoot of the CRC’s partnership with CORE is the CRC’s Community Scholars program, which brings regional activists to campus for a quarter of reflection and project-based learning with the Community Development Masters students. This year, the Community Scholars were CORE Director, Constance Slider, and CORE Steering Committee member, Lindell Price.

The EJP and the CRC are committed to making social equity a foundational dimension of everything they do. This includes bringing in pro-active and critical perspectives on race, class, and gender –examining both how these factors shape social outcomes, and how not addressing them can lead to a worsening of social inequities. By pursuing action in which communities sit consistently in the driver’s seat of community-university partnerships, the idea of the engaged university can be transformed into a truly inspiring reality.

Article authored by:

Maggie La Rochelle,
Graduate student, Human and Community Development
University of California, Davis

Jonathan London,
Director, Center for Regional Change
Assistant Professor, Human and Community Development
Senior Researcher, Environmental Justice Project
University of California, Davis

Julie Sze,
Director, Environmental Justice Project
Associate Professor, American Studies
University of California, Davis