By SHANNON O. WELLS
The traditional mission of Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) to serve the public good and enhance the region’s social and economic health through high-impact social and urban research is getting a renewed emphasis on community-engaged research and scholarship.
As UCSUR engages in a search for a new director, Provost Joe McCarthy said he envisions community-engaged research as a natural outgrowth of the center’s work and key to broadening its scope. Such a shift, he explained, would actually return UCSUR’s mission back to its earlier, more expansive, intention.
“The old mission statement really said a lot of the same things, where ultimately they really want to serve the public good and have a positive impact on the social, economic and health of the region and the country,” McCarthy said in a December interview with University Times.
As priorities shifted through the years, however, initiatives based on gerontology and other aspects of population-aging moved to the forefront.
“It was a little bit of a narrow scope where it was focused on an older population and working (more) with the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center,” which provides technological and legal infrastructure to support research and community engagement.
Along with the Learning Research and Development Center and the University Center for International Studies, UCSUR is among Pitt’s interdisciplinary, research-intensive centers.
Calling UCSUR’s contributions through its 50-year history “fantastic,” McCarthy said he sees UCSUR taking on a “more holistic view of a University center that’s dedicated to leveraging — based on basic and applied social and behavioral sciences — for the benefit of the region and society as a whole.”
The direction calls for the center to strengthen its community-engaged efforts by closely partnering with Pitt’s Community Engagement Centers (CECs), the Office of Engagement and Community Affairs (ECA), and other centers across the University that practice community-engaged scholarship.
Greater connection
In line with Chancellor Joan Gabel’s strategic “It’s Possible at Pitt” philosophy, this emphasis supports two Plan for Pitt 2028 pillars: That the University will “propel scholarship, creativity and innovation,” and “will be welcoming and engaged,” while highlighting the intentional impact and momentum of developing long-lasting relationships and collaborations between Pitt and the local community.
“What’s really almost unique to Pitt is that we have that very strong focus in a University center,” McCarthy said, “and we also have these award-winning Community Engagement Centers distributed throughout the region.”
The renewed vision, he explained, will help consolidate these features.
“By connecting those two in a more formal way, we can leverage that world-class strength and community engagement that we have through both the community engagement centers on the operational and frontline standpoint, if you will, but also on community-engaged scholarship.
“We have a very substantial, growing number of our faculty who are interested in focusing on community-engaged scholarship as their research area, or certainly as one of the pillars within their research area,” he added. “So connecting those allows us to have this research and translational bond that I think can be really impactful.”
This vision will allow Pitt’s CECs to collaborate with UCSUR to “empower impactful translation in ways that are unique not only at Pitt but in higher education generally,” said Lina Dostillo, vice chancellor for engagement and community affairs.
Dostillo lauded an in-person workshop hosted by UCSUR and Engagement and Community Affairs on Nov. 4 that brought together around 50 faculty, research staff and postdoctoral associates who are doing, or interested in undertaking, community-engaged research to learn more about UCSUR.
“It was an opportunity to get to know UCSUR a little bit, to understand the ways in which UCSUR can support engaged research,” Dostillo said, including what it offers in the way of research methodology support, “whether that is the qualitative side of things or the quantitative side of things.
“But there’s also a really deep bench when it comes to civic data, community-led data sets, urban and regional analysis,” she added, “and the GIS ( Geographic Information System) mapping that UCSUR has done previously is very community engaged.”
Through the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, UCSUR partners with the ECA on the Engagement and Outreach Map, which lists and connects community-engaged outreach and programming happening in and around the University.
Dostillo said representatives at the workshop demonstrated “a whole variety of applications for their support” and how they’ve worked with researchers across the University and with various community leaders to engage in high-impact, community-facing research.
“We had a very good attendance, and I think a very broad attendance across disciplines. And it shows what can be accomplished when you pull together a major research center like UCSUR with a support unit like the Office of Engagement and Community Affairs,” she added. “I think it was a really nice way for us to communicate and emphasize the level of support that’s available for engaged research and engaged scholarship here at Pitt.”
Director search
Re-examining UCSUR’s mission stems in part from a search for a new center director in 2021 and 2022 that Dostillo indicated did not lead to the desired field of candidates. Taking a step back provides an opportunity to more carefully consider the center’s direction.
“In the time since the last search, we have been able to develop a clearer vision for UCSUR’s future — to be the hub for community-engaged research at Pitt and a true partner with the CECs, which should expand impact,” Dostillo explained. “We expect that having a clearer vision will help candidates, and ultimately the next director, move the center forward in a way that is well aligned with the rest of the University and the Plan for Pitt 2028.”
In addition to developing community-engagement efforts aligned with Pitt’s strategic goals, the search profile for the new UCSUR director lists priorities:
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Increase funding support for the center’s activities from multiple sources with priority on attracting federal research funding.
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Enhance the visibility and integration of UCSUR within the University and increase engagement with faculty and students.
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Advance the center’s profile and impact among urban and social research centers at peer institutions.
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Deepen and broaden UCSUR’s collaborations with local, regional and national partners to carry out impactful and publicly relevant work.
The deadline for initial consideration is Jan. 13. Review of the candidates will continue until the search is completed, with the successful candidate “ideally” beginning their duties by summer 2025.
“It would be ideal for us to have our UCUSR director in place over the summer and ready to hit the ground and probably on board in the fall,” Dostillo said.
“I think we want to be deliberate with the search, and we want to move with the right speed to attract the right candidates, but also make sure that we’ve thoroughly explored those across the country, frankly, that might be interested in such a unique opportunity.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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