Community Engagement at The University of Memphis

Community Engagement at the University of Memphis began as a grassroots effort. In the fall of 2002, an ad hoc faculty group, representing most of the University's colleges, gathered over breakfast to informally address common interests around student internships and service learning. The group quickly expanded its discussion to encompass broader questions regarding (1) how faculty and students could be connected more meaningfully to the Mid-South community through research and teaching and (2) how to assess the reward structure of the University so that such scholarly work could be acknowledged and honored.

Moving from a broad-based discussion of shared interests in strengthening the University of Memphis's connection to the Mid-South community, the faculty group soon came to recognize that such a vision fit aptly within a movement in higher education increasingly referred to as engaged scholarship.