Main Street SUNY Cortland
Strengthening College and Community Connections
Main Street SUNY Cortland is a bold initiative consistent with a powerful trend in American higher education.
Colleges and universities are being called upon to assist the
economic development of their surrounding communities while increasing
the civic engagement of their students.
Main Street SUNY Cortland is a highly visible symbol
of how the college's administrators, faculty and students see
themselves tied to the economic and civic well-being of the greater
Cortland community.
Background
In recent years, SUNY Cortland
has been moving toward even greater economic integration and
civic engagement with the surrounding Cortland community. A major
step in this direction came with a Housing and Urban Development
grant in 1999 to develop a Community Outreach Partnership
Center (COPC).
The three-year COPC project
directed college resources–especially technical expertise and
student involvement–to address needs identified by the community.
- Among COPC's initial accomplishments
were
- establishment of the Cortland Counts community assets and needs assessment process
- initiation of a children's museum
- consolidated housing plan
- activities in support of the college's Institute for Civic Engagement.
A second, two-year COPC
New Directions project targeted
the city's East End neighborhood and included support of the
East End Community Center run by the City Youth Bureau.
Main Street SUNY Cortland Project
As these partnerships evolved, so
did the expressed desire on the part of community members to
have an even greater college presence in the community. Main Street SUNY Cortland is the next step in bringing the
educational resources of the college into the local community.
Located in the "Beard Building,"
on Main Street opposite the Community Restaurant, the building's
owners, McNeil Development Consultants, are presently making
extensive renovations according to college specifications.
The first floor will house the office
of the Institute for Civic Engagement's Community Outreach Partnership
Center and the office of the downtown manager. The COPC Coordinator
will be responsible for scheduling various educational, community
and cultural meetings and events for the first floor space.
By serving as a base for student
volunteer activities, service learning projects and internships,
the facility encourages even more civic engagement among SUNY Cortland students.
The first floor also provides
space to develop research projects directed at community needs.
On the second floor there are two classrooms where both graduate-level and undergraduate classes are scheduled. By having late-afternoon and evening graduate classes taught
in Main Street SUNY
Cortland, commuting
students who might not normally visit downtown may be more likely
to visit stores and restaurants.
The Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) Grants
COPC I
Cortland Counts
Children’s Museum
Consolidated Plan for the City of Cortland
Groundwork for the Institute for Civic Engagement
COPC II: New Directions
East End Community Center (Partner: Cortland City Youth Bureau)
Partnering with Institute for Civic Engagement and the American Democracy Project
Main Street SUNY Cortland project.
Note: text and photographs above are by Craig Little, PhD, Distinguished Service Professor, SUNY Cortland
SUNY Cortland -- A Strong History, an Exciting Future of Community Involvement
