The center also extended its opinion-gathering effort to the entire campus by holding two campuswide forums in February. The center, housed in the Bank of America Center on Franklin Street, is only 18 months old, but Didow is quick to point out that the vision and priorities that he was given when he was asked to start the center date back four or five years prior to the opening of the center. The meetings have helped Didow get a sense of the current level of public activities and what kind of vision and aspirations that faculty, staff and students hold for the future. Didow said one of the problems he has found is that staff members pour more time than any other group on campus into volunteer work within their own communities, yet have fewer opportunities to do so in University-affiliated efforts. There is no easy way to fix that problem, either.
Employees can already qualify for paid leave to do volunteer work.
The problem is that most departments can't spare them because of the work that has to get done each day. Jennifer Hemingway, the director of the Annual Fund and Alumni Relations with the School of Social Work, urged Didow to try to find ways to enlist alumni in volunteer efforts, including those who no longer live within the state. Everybody wants to start a new thing when often the bigger need is sustaining worthwhile efforts already under way. Morrison said another concern she has is that efforts are being duplicated when they could be joined. There are close to 200 projects posted on the site already, and Didow knows that is only a small portion of the projects that are under way.