No, the definition of community cannot be defined for everyone. The community advisory group can provide a process and tools to assist an institution in defining its “community,” but that definition will differ from campus to campus.
One Suggestion: Right now, some institutions think of community as the geography in which you recruit student-athletes and students in general. That is YOUR need. In this program, we need to define community from a COMMUNITY MEMBER’S perspective.
Some Things to Think About:
- How far are people willing to travel to do things on your campus?
- How attracted are people in a defined area to involvement in a college or university?
- What is lacking from the rest of the community that could be provided by your school for people in your community?
- Where are other community options located? (You may have more opportunity to your west than to your east, for example.)
- Who of your former student-athletes have become community leaders? How can they help your school and how can the school help them in their leadership positions?
- Does your school serve an area that is not completely identified by the physical location of your campus (e.g., a local church diocese)?
|