Students performing ‘scholarship of
engagement’ in Beaumont endeavors

Since Hurricane Rita dealt a blow to Beaumont in September 2005, students from Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning have helped the city recover with plans to renovate and revitalize neighborhoods and housing while fulfilling an important university initiative, said Forster Ndubisi, head of the department.

“Our collaboration with the city of Beaumont is a perfect example of the scholarship of engagement as outlined in the university’s academic master plan,” he said.

In the plan, Jeffrey S. Vitter, provost and executive vice-president for academics, calls for engagement, defined as collaborative partnerships between Texas A&M and entities that build upon the university’s strengths in research and education.

Most recently, Beaumont city leaders have begun implementing ideas presented in December 2008 by graduate and undergraduate urban planning students in an effort to revitalize the city’s North End neighborhood with a $20 million federal grant.

“Some ideas from the 90-minute presentation,” wrote Dee Dixon of the Beaumont Enterprise, “were the need for improvements to Beaumont Municipal Transit, a localization of social services and small business management education.” Dixon’s article about the meeting between the students and city and community leaders appeared in the Beaumont Enterprise in its Dec. 3, 2009 edition.

In spring 2006, urban planning students led by Nancy Volkman, associate professor of urban planning, created a design concept for the revitalization of Magnolia Gardens, a housing project that had been damaged by the hurricane.

Students in Shannon Van Zandt’s Neighborhood Revitalization class and Cecilia Guisti’s Urban and Regional Economic Development class also traveled to Beaumont after Rita, reviewing site plans and discussing options for bringing investment and economic development to the beleaguered Magnolia Gardens area.

Read Dee Dixon's Dec. 3, 2008 story, "City leaders plan hope project," in the Beaumont Enterprise.

- Posted: June 19, 2009-