A Brief History of CommUniverCity San José

CommUniverCity San José is a collaborative project of the Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace communities, San José State University (SJSU) and the City of San José. SJSU concentrates service-learning classes in these neighborhoods in cooperation with the Neighborhood Advisory Council and the City and will continue to do so for a three to five year period with the broad goals of building community in the neighborhoods and engaging students in civic life.

Prehistory – To understand the creation of CommUniverCity San José, it helps to know about the context that inspired it. From 1997 to 2000, two related initiatives were under way at SJSU. The first was a 3-year grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for a Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC). The second was a California State University (CSU) system-wide strategic planning process to promote service-learning and community service.

The COPC grant (1997-2000) was designed to help a disadvantaged community access university resources. The COPC target community included downtown San José east to Highway 101. One small component was to expand service learning, which was seen as a key strategy for institutionalizing the partnership (very much like our CommUniverCity concept). Susan Meyers (Education), Debra David (Gerontology/Health Science), Dayana Salazar (Urban and Regional Planning), and others were connected to the COPC in various ways. Also, COPC secured the initial VISTA grant which has now evolved into the current Health Trust/SJSU VISTA project to provide support staff for CommUniverCity. The COPC grant had expired by Fall 1999.

In 1997, the CSU began a strategic planning process for service-learning, encouraging every campus to engage in its own parallel process. The SJSU Center for Faculty Development allocated a .2 Faculty-in-Residence position to facilitate our campus effort. Debra David was tapped for that position. Many of the people now involved with CommUniverCity actively participated in shaping the SJSU strategic plan, particularly Bob Gliner (Sociology), and Susan Meyers. The Center for Service-Learning received initial funding for a part-time faculty director beginning January 2000, and Debra David was appointed to that position.

The COPC grant, the creation of the Center for Service-Learning, and the concept of interdisciplinary project teams with service-learning all set the stage for the emergence of CommUniverCity.

History – In the Fall of 2003, Susan Meyers, Dean of the College of Education, proposed a campus-wide service-learning partnership between a San José neighborhood and SJSU to the Council of Deans (calling it a “Town/Gown” initiative). The Deans approved, but committed no resources. Undeterred, Dean Meyers and Debra David met with Betsy Doss, Principal of San José High Academy, who suggested working with the City of San José’s Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI). Later that Fall, Debra David and Michael Fallon (Program Coordinator of the Center for Service-Learning) met with SNI community coordinators. Paul Pereira was immediately enthusiastic about partnering with SJSU service-learning activities.

Dean Meyers encouraged Dr. David to investigate prospective SNI neighborhoods. Three VISTA members working with Dr. David (Diana Ray, Rachel Kulik, and Denise Batongbacal) were charged with doing background research on SNI neighborhoods. They were asked to focus particularly on school statistics, health-related needs, proximity to campus, socio-economic characteristics, and racial and ethnic diversity. The Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace SNI – one assigned to Paul Pereira – was selected.

In April 2004, Dean Meyers convened an initial meeting of City representatives, campus leaders from five Colleges, and several community representatives to discuss the Town/Gown partnership. Response to that meeting was quite positive. In Fall 2004, several service-learning classes began working with the Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace neighborhoods, particularly focusing on health, education, urban planning, anthropology, and management of information systems. A meeting to discuss the partnership’s principles and governing structures was held on campus in November, leading to the creation of a steering committee. The Health Trust sponsored a student showcase/poster session at Roosevelt Community Center in December that drew a large, high-energy group of students, faculty, city and university administrators and community residents.

Over time, the city, campus and community representatives evolved into a steering committee, which in Spring of 2005 met several times to discuss project selection, assessment, funding, and other organizational matters. The mission, name, and guiding principles were approved. Momentum continued to build, with more courses (in education, health science, and sociology) and more faculty coming “on board.” The Bridging Borders AmeriCorps Program held a “Serv-a-Thon” on March 19^th, 2005, in honor of Cesar Chavez Day. Teams of member and community residents helped with several maintenance and improvement projects at the Roosevelt Community Center and surrounding neighborhoods, followed by a moving presentation/reflection session after lunch prepared by residents from the Olinder Neighborhood Association, also in the Five Wounds/ Brookwood Terrace community.

Kip Harkness, the city’s lead on the Town/Gown project, secured a commitment of city funds to match SJSU contributions, and Dean Meyers and Dr. David asked Provost Carmen Sigler to support a part-time 12-month executive director position—which was approved!

Over the summer of 2005, the project steering committee adopted the title “CommUniverCity San José,” selected Political Science Professor Terry Christensen as executive director, and presented a menu of projects to the Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC). Based on the preferences of the NAC, five projects involving faculty from five SJSU colleges were selected for Fall 2005 (civic engagement; community planning; walkability/mapping; college-going culture for schools; earthquake safety preparation).

The implementation of these projects and the development of CommUniverCity San José during the 2005-2006 academic year were facilitated by the part-time executive director and two full-time VISTA volunteers supported by the Health Trust and the City of San José. Office space at McKinley Community Center (in the project area) was provided by the City of San José. During their first months of service, the executive director and VISTAs secured CommUniverCity San José’s first external grant (from Pacific Gas and Electric), oversaw the development of the CommUniverCity webpage (coordinated by Management Information Systems Chair Stephen Kwan), the creation of a logo (an in-kind contribution from BoldBlue), developed plans and solicited funds for a day of service (April 22,2006), and assisted in the completion of service learning projects.

The structure and membership of the CommUniverCity Steering Committee was also formalized during this time. Kip Harkness of the City of San José and Dean Susan Meyers of the College of Education were elected as co-chairs. Besides the Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace NAC, community partners include the Health Trust, Neighborhood Housing Services Silicon Valley, the San José Unified School District, City Year San José / Silicon Valley and others.

The efforts of the collaborative culminated in the Spring 2006 Day of Service, with the participation of 457 volunteers and over 100 residents, including community planning workshops, voter registration, house painting, and multiple neighborhood clean up and improvement projects. On May 20, residents gathered for a final planning workshop that culminated in goal setting for the next five years. Meanwhile, project development for the 2006-2007 academic year (reflecting neighborhood priorities) was underway.

In its first year of operation (the 2005-2006 academic year), CommUniverCity San José projects resulted in a total of 340 SJSU students working with 1,103 community residents to complete 8,797 hours of service supported by $221,113 in donations, grants, university expenditures and city contracts.