“Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept.” – Joachim Prinz
Purpose
Office of External Relations
The purpose of the Office of External Relations is to cultivate and sustain relationships with local, state, and federal elected officials and their offices and government entities and to serve as a leading liaison within community. The Office serves as a single point of contact for internal and external constituents toward navigating and leveraging University resources and services, resolving a planning or land use issue, informing advocacy, and identifying opportunities for collaboration and partnership, for example.
Emblematic of the University’s mission, the Office works based upon the University’s role as an anchor institution within community and thus its moral responsibility to lead and serve its campus and broader community guided by sound ethical decision making and a genuine commitment to have a positive impact upon society and the lives of those who reside within it. The West Chester University Mission and Pathways to Student Success Strategic Plan are foundational to and motivation for the work of the Office.
Center for Community Solutions
The purpose of the Center for Community Solutions (CCS) housed within the Office is to address community need through providing project-based, community-engaged learning experiences for students, enabling their applying knowledge and skills learned, and value for community partners through their achieving organizational goals and objectives with needed assistance at no cost. Thus, the CCS is central to informing, growing, and sustaining the University’s community engagement and leadership as an institutional priority and demonstrating its genuine commitment to actualize its public mission.