What is unique about a University community?
A university is somewhere in between a business and a ‘normal’ community, and its members are held together by the business aspects as well as the community aspects. Discussing this in more detail White and Harder explain that universities “occupy a space between businesses, which are often tightly coupled systems with explicit goals, rarely values-driven; and communities, which are very loosely coupled, motivated by values and often with divergent goals"1. In fact working with a university community can easily become a balancing act between the values of a community and the goals of a business; and it may be appropriate to recognise the sub-communities within your institution.
Moreover, the university is a space that brings together people from many different regions, often only for a short period of time, giving the community a very diverse and transient nature. Being aware of this can be useful when you are setting up your Transition University group and thinking about who might be involved and what their motivations are. If you want to consider this further there is a report from a workshop that looked at university communities here.
Most universities in the UK engage with their sustainability and climate change impacts on some level, supported by a number of groups including the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) [www.eauc.org.uk]. In St Andrews climate change is now found high on the agenda of University’s Strategic Plan, and the Transition group links into the University’s Sustainable Development Working Group charged with heading up action on climate change.
Your university community will display its own uniqueness. It is particularly helpful to understand the following:
• How the official university structures are designed to work with sustainability,
• How student or staff initiatives work with sustainability
• Which channels of communication are currently being used,
• Which areas receive a lot of engagement, and which are ignored.
• What policies, strategies and approaches are already in place to address issues around inclusion, diversity and marginalised voices.
• What policies, strategies and approaches are already in place to address issues relating to wellbeing and creating healthy human culture.
1. White, R.M. & Harder, M. (2013) The Journey towards Sustainability via Community: Lessons from two UK universities. Chapter in The Sustainable University: Progress and prospects. Ed. Sterling, S., Maxey, L., Luna, H. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 144
Example: When Transition University of St Andrews started there was already an established structure of an Environment and Ethics Officer being elected in the Students Union each year. This person would have a network of communication channels to the university governing body, but also to the Environment Team within the Estates department. The Transition group made sure to hang on the back of this structure through having a very supportive Environment and Ethics Officer, and therefore quickly managed to get approval and influence in many of the university’s internal structure.
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