"It was a rare opportunity to pick the professor brain:" Relationship building as the foundation for community-university partnerships at the University of Minnesota

Protests and calls for action erupted following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, including in geoscience departments across the United States. At the University of Minnesota, members of the Department of Earth & Environmental Science, largely driven by students, began organizing to determine areas of opportunity with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion. One area identified by students was a desire for increased connections with local environmental groups in the Twin Cities.

We assembled as an organizing team to address this desire, with our efforts resulting in a 5-hour long summit in November 2021 between members of the Earth & Environmental Science Department and local environmental organizations. Our explicit goal was to initiate and support meaningful relationships between our department and Twin Cities communities marginalized within the Earth Sciences (e.g. urban residents, people of color) and to redirect university resources (money, researcher time, scientific equipment) to those communities, recognizing that this could not be accomplished in one event. We prepared ourselves and our department by drawing on existing institutional knowledge about community engagement, inviting community groups to meet individually with the organizing team to begin building relationships, and hosting departmental workshops on community engagement prior to the event. Overall, the summit was positively reviewed by community and university participants alike. Several scientific connections in support of community priorities came as a result and many groups encouraged us to repeat the event. However, we know that there is continual room for improvement, as feedback from participants encouraged us to consider adjustments to the format and communities present.

This work details our planning process, the structure of the event, resulting connections, reflections from organizers and participants, and details about our efforts to create sustainable change at our institution. We hope that by sharing this work we can learn from and inspire others to advocate for community science within their institutions.