SCYP | Partnership with City of Albany Officially Underway

On September 29, 2016, we officially launched our SCYP partnership with the City of Albany, Oregon!

SCYP brings hundreds of brilliant students and multiple faculty experts from a range of University of Oregon disciplines to work with a single Oregon community over a single year to work on community-defined sustainability issues. The program allows students to be the innovators, planners, and designers of community projects. This fresh perspective and dedication will enable Albany to benefit from a multidisciplinary set of ideas, concepts, and plans that will help move their community into the future. The SCYP model has been so successful at bringing about tangible impact in communtiies and for students, it has been adopted as the template for sustainable city partnerships at 27 other universities across the globe (and growing).  Yet, we are still proud to be carrying out the public role of a public university by serving and working collaboratively with communties in Oregon.

Over the course of this academic year, students from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Lundquist College of Business, the school of Architecture and Allied Arts (A&AA) and the School of Journalism and Communications (SOJC) will all be figuring out how to be translational scientists, taking the theory and best practices learned in the classroom and applying them to the real-world needs and desires of Albany. Students are fantastic at being idealistic realists—pushing community memebrs to think creatively about the future while still working within the political, social, economic, and cultural constraints of local community life.

UO Coursework | Focus Areas

Projects are continually matched throughout the year, but when it is all said and done, we anticipate that 25 courses and 500 students will give roughly 40,000+ hours of effort working on Albany-defined issues and goals, including projects on:

• Downtown planning, design and community
• Strategies for historic preservation outreach 
• Evaluating parks and recreation funding 
• Assessing Albany’s cultural assets
• Engaging marginalized communities
• Developing safe and connected protected bicycle transportation system
• Natural area and riverfront conceptual design

SCYP Kick-off | September

The success of this year’s kick-off event was an exciting start to the partnership. Attendees included Deans from the SOJC and A&AA, as well as UO Provost Scott Coltrane. Also in attendance was District Director for Congressman Peter DeFazio, Dan Whelan, who shared the congressman's gratitude "that cities and communities in [his] district receive the invaluable student support they need to transition to more sustainable futures.” 

Partnership Update | Early Progress

Since September, Albany staff and elected officials have graciously shared their expertise with students during site visits, and provided valuable input on preliminary architectural programs and designs. Albany staff are frequently traveling to the UO to talk to classes about Albany’s history, culture and long range plans for the city’s growth. Final presentations for fall term will be held both in Albany and on campus. If you want to read more, please see this official announcement about this year-long SCYP partnership. For more information about SCYP, including how to become a future partner, please contact SCYP Program Manager Megan Banks.