Presented by Towson University
This session begins at the 26:23 mark.
In response to the rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, the BTU (Baltimore + Towson University) team had to respond quickly to both on-campus conditions and work with our external partners. Using a triage tool that will be shared in the presentation, we assessed what could be continued, what could be adapted and what just had to be let go at this time. A number of new innovations were attempted with varying success in the following months. We learned a significant amount about new technologies that facilitated a different type of community engagement work. Although it is not something that was necessarily welcomed, some new innovative ways to conduct community engagement and partnership work has been discovered including means of communication, a prioritization of various programming, and new strategies. This presentation will feature a student employment plan that was implemented with reallocated unused resources that spurned 15 new faculty research projects directed toward the pandemic and employed 22 students who had lost employment due to COVID-19. In addition, we have learned new tools that are currently and will continue to enhance our diversity, equity and inclusion work in our community engagement collaborations moving forward.