At its core, BTU is dedicated to supporting, aligning, and elevating collaborations between Towson University and its many community partners. In addition to convening and best practice events, recognition opportunities, and strategic support, BTU provides a variety of mechanisms to support faculty and staff involved in community engagement and partnership work.
BTU resources are intended to support partnership and community engagement work of
faculty, staff, and students. There are many different forms of community engagement
and partnership work within higher education. At Towson University, this work is seen
as “a dynamic relational process that facilitates communication, interaction, involvement,
and exchange between an organization and a community for a range of social and organizational
outcomes” (Johnston 2018). Individuals seeking BTU support should craft requests with
these parameters of community engagement and partnership work in mind.
BTU Enrichment supports engagement activities such as event and material supplies, catering or meal needs, workshop supplies, external subject matter expert support, gap funding, equipment, marketing materials, honorariums, stipends, and other activities directly related to qualifying community engagement and partnership work. To further TU's economic inclusion efforts (link), BTU asks that all efforts be made to make purchases from local, small, minority-owned businesses. Requests are limited to $1,000.
BTU Transportation supports the utilization of Towson University shuttles, the rental of vans, and parking codes for faculty, staff, or students traveling off-campus, or partners traveling on-campus, for partnership and community engagement projects.
BTU National Visibility supports conference registration and travel for individuals in the continental United States with direct relation to presenting community engagement work at conferences or events. Requests are limited to $1000 and will be reimbursed via a budget transfer to the faculty/staff member's department.