The University of Washington Bothell has submitted a proposal to host Imagining America, a national consortium that promotes community engagement, especially in the arts and humanities.
Its leaders will be on campus Thursday, April 7, for a site visit that includes a talk which is open to the campus community at 9 a.m. in the Rose Room (UW1-280). Everyone is encouraged to attend or participate by phone. A conference line is available: call 1-800-379-6841; enter passcode 712623.
One member of the five-person team is already on campus — School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Dean Bruce Burgett.
Chancellor Wolf Yeigh says a partnership with Imagining America could help carry out a transformational agenda mapped out by the Community Engagement Task Force and recent Diversity Action Plan.
Yeigh says the proposal also has received interest from UW Tacoma and the Graduate School, which is the graduate school for all three UW campuses. A tri-campus alliance would be a more powerful partnership, Yeigh says.
Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life is a consortium of more than 100 colleges that arose from a 1999 White House conference. It was originally hosted at the University of Michigan and is completing a 10-year residency at Syracuse University.
If UW Bothell becomes the new host, the office would be integrated into the campus for at least five years. Its mission is to advance community and cultural engagement through research, reports, initiatives, mentoring and its peer-reviewed online journal Public.
