Reprinted with permission from Forest Hills Connection.
My Cautious 180 Degree Turn-Around on UDC
by Carol F. Stoel
I’ve lived in the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) neighborhood for years and often felt frustrated by the lack of visible student activity and the dearth of information about UDC’s activities. But in the last few months I have had the luxury of time to learn more about happenings at UDC, and I am impressed by the energy and purpose that I found.
I’ve met with some UDC folks, scoured UDC’s web site, looked up leads, and found bits of news in the local press (i.e. Forest Hills Connection) that are both exciting and daunting. Here are just a few interesting things I’ve learned.
My first finding is that I shouldn’t take the lack of UDC news personally. The press rarely covers UDC in spite of it being the city’s only public university. I know from my recent research that there’s lots of news that would be of interest and could have some significant bearing on our lives. There’s a lot going on!
My second finding is that certain parts of the university are developing real strengths. With outstanding programs, new leadership, and exciting synergies across different parts of the university and with the goal of meshing UDC’s programs with the goals of the city for urban sustainability, improved health and nutrition, and economic development. There is an explicit strategic focus that inspires hope in the heart of at least one cautious optimist.
In fact, UDC recently won three Sustainable DC Innovation Challenge grants, totaling $921,000. They are to be used for;
1. Building three aquaponics facilities in neighborhoods;
2. Building a commercial kitchen facility and food truck to promote nutrition and entrepreneurship, and
3. Creating a native plants nursery for combating invasive plants and restoring native habitats.
These three examples happen to be occurring under the auspices of my third discovery, the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Studies (CAUSES) and its highly regarded global leader, Dean Sabine O’Hara. It’s in this college that many of the important mandates of land-grant universities, of which UDC is one, are pursued. Each state in the Union has at least one land-grant university, and when UDC was founded in 1977, it was designated DC’s land grant university, given a small endowment, and it became eligible for all types of federal support for land-grant universities. These opportunities are mostly meted out through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and support the university’s commitment to the three pillars of land grant universities throughout the U.S.: Research of a practical nature, teaching and service. These three pillars shape the dean’s vision for CAUSES.
Dean O’Hara, an environmental economist, brings a distinguished research and administration background to the college. This year, in addition to being the dean, she serves as the president-elect of the International Society for Ecological Economists, and prior to joining UDC she was the president of Randolph College and vice president of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) that administers the State Department’s Fulbright Scholars program.
Sustainability is the organizing theme of the five centers in the college, with each having an academic and land grant focus. They include the Center for Sustainable Development, with a focus on green entrepreneurship and green infrastructure; the Architecture Research Institute, which partners with the Department of Urban Architecture and focuses on urban issues of design, rehabilitation, and transportation; the Center for Nutrition, Diet and Health; the Center for Urban 4-H and Youth Development, and the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education, coupled with health education and public health academic programs.
