Let's say you live in Boston, and all the talk of the Boston Harbor Cleanup makes you curious about just what goes on in an urban harbor. Or maybe you are a teacher trying to develop tools to use in the classroom. Or maybe you are retired, and have a question about your pension.
The answer to all those questions, and many others, reside somewhere
at UMass Boston as part of the university's mission of serving the
community. But service isn't like a field of dreams; if you build it,
there's no guarantee people will come. You have to get the word out
to them. That's largely the purpose behind a new Community Outreach
section of the university web site. Accessible at http://www.umb.edu/about
_umb/community _outreach/, the section lists the many ways UMass
Boston interacts with the community.
As part of its mission, UMass Boston has always had a strong sense of
community service. However, with each part of the university carrying
out its own efforts, there hasn't been one place people could turn to
discover all that is available to the community.
According to Web Communication Specialist Joe Peters, that one
location doesn't quite exist yet, but the new web site is close to
it.
"Every week more information comes in, and we're still refining parts of it," he said. "Since all this information wasn't in one place before, we've really had to draw on many departments and individuals to get what we need."
"It's not complete, but in a sense it never will be," he added. "We want to keep the information fresh. We want people to continue to contact us."
Faculty, staff and students at UMass Boston are encouraged to relay
their community-related information to Peters, joseph.peters@umb.edu
(7-5304).