As part of the university’s successful Carnegie Community Engagement Classification application process, the Office of Research and Engagement has compiled a list of fifty of UT’s best community-campus partnerships. The university will be celebrating its status as an engaged institution throughout the coming year by featuring these individual examples in articles that highlight their unique contribution to the community.
The Tennessee Water Resources Research Center
The Tennessee Water Resources Research Center, housed within UT’s Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, seeks to improve regional water quality through community-based projects, outreach, education, training, and community empowerment activities. Center initiatives have included a $500 million watershed improvement plan in Beaver Creek Watershed, a Knox County Adopt-A-Watershed, which has engaged thousands of K-12 students in service-learning for water quality improvement, and state-wide professional development training for several hundred professionals per year. Many UT student theses and dissertations are written on watershed improvement projects implemented through the center and its partnering organizations.
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“Making a difference means engagement of community members in the private and business sector,” said Tim Gangaware, TNWRRC assistant director. “It means improving quality of life in our communities.”