Community Relations Team Works to Ensure UA Is a Good Neighbor

Community Relations Team Works to Ensure UA Is a Good Neighbor

By Amy WilliamsUniversity Relations – Communications
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Tannya Gaxiola
Tannya Gaxiola
Mary Laughbaum
Mary Laughbaum

The UA's Community Relations team is responsible for building and maintaining positive relationships with the Tucson community and local elected and appointed officials.

It's a small team – just three employees – with a big job. Their efforts include coordinating community service projects, promoting the University as a key resource to community leaders and working with neighboring communities when the UA has events that draw large crowds, such as sporting events and Spring Fling.

The team includes Tannya Gaxiola, assistant vice president for community relations; Mary Laughbaum, director of community relations; and Sheila McGinnis, director of outreach and community partnerships. Gaxiola and Laughbaum talked with Lo Que Pasa about what their team has been up to lately and its goals moving forward.

Why is it important for the UA to build and maintain good relationships with the community, and what is Community Relations' role in that?

Gaxiola: The UA is the region's largest employer, and our economic impact on the state is about $8.3 billion annually across the state. In order for the UA to continue to have this kind of an impact, we have to have good relationships and good partnerships with our city and county governments, our chambers of commerce, the nonprofit community, et cetera. Our team helps to maintain those positive relationships with the outside community. For many off-campus folks, we're their main point of contact with the UA. When they have an opportunity or need some support, they know they can call the Community Relations team and we help to connect them to the right people on campus. At the same time, when our UA colleagues need to connect with a government official or a community leader, they can call us and get a warm introduction rather than having to start building a relationship from scratch.

Laughbaum: The UA is a city within a city, a large employer, a huge economic driver, a research leader and an exemplary institute of higher education. As a vital partner in the growth of our community, state and nation, the UA must maintain good working relationships with our partners at all levels to ensure we maximize our resources and create an environment where healthy growth of our community can be maintained. The Community Relations team works to develop those relationships with city and county elected officials and their staffs as well as the neighborhoods surrounding campus. The partnerships we help create not only contribute to the broader goals of the UA and the city, but help make more livable communities around the campus. We are the link between the governing bodies of the city and county, the business community and nonprofit organizations to the University of Arizona.

How has Community Relations worked to address and improve UA-neighborhood relations, particularly in light of concerns about the non-University owned high-rise student housing just off campus?

Gaxiola: When I joined the team several years ago, we changed our philosophy for how we work with neighbors. We decided that we want the UA to be a really great neighbor – the best neighbor we can be. Many of the folks who live around campus choose to be nearby because they want access to what UA has to offer – jobs, education, the amazing community programming, some of the most beautiful green space in Tucson. At the same time, they have to deal with the negative aspect of being by a flagship institution like ours – rowdy students, construction noise, tons of traffic, et cetera. But if we as the UA can commit to being kind and considerate neighbors, we can do a lot to mitigate those bad things. So, we've done a lot to try to be a better neighbor: set up a seven-day-per-week hotline for neighbor issues, let neighbors know ahead of time about events that may impact them, worked with campus colleagues to change the way we do things so that we aren't as noisy, et cetera. This has gone a long way to help our neighbors feel that we are those kind, considerate neighbors you would want to live next to.

When the issues with the high-rise housing came up, we were able to build on some of that goodwill to work collaboratively with our neighbors to address the issues. Because we had already proven that we do want to help make this a more enjoyable place to live, the neighbors trusted us and worked with us to help improve the issues. Having that trust and that communication was so important, and it will continue to be important as we work through whatever issue may come up next. 

Laughbaum: We engage on a regular basis with the neighborhood leadership at our Campus Community Relations Committee, where we discuss issues, bring in speakers and share new ideas that work toward enhancing a livable community around the campus. In addition, we have a UA Neighborhood Hotline (282-3649) that any neighbor may call with a concern related to campus. We also maintain good working relationships with UA leadership in Athletics, Parking & Transportation, Dean of Students, Campus Recreation, Campus Health and others to ensure that we work together in resolving issues or addressing the needs of the community at large.

Our team also organized a public forum that brought together city officials, neighbors, landlords, students and businesses to address concerns about the off-campus student housing in general. Community Relations also developed an annual education seminar as an outreach for local landlords who rent to students, to empower them with resources within the UA and city to better serve their tenants.

When student behavior incidents occurred in the high-rises, our team immediately engaged with city and UA leadership along with the Islamic Center leadership and the owners of the towers involved. Working with the City of Tucson and the Dean of Students office, we connected the property owners with resources to educate their student residents and hold them accountable for their behavior. We could not have done this so effectively if we had not previously developed good relationships with these partners.

Spring Fling recently drew very large crowds to campus. How does Community Relations work to ensure that major campus events have a low impact on surrounding neighborhoods?

Laughbaum: Community Relations participates in the Campus Use Committee, which schedules all events on the Mall, and on the Spring Fling Committee to ensure that the team has the connections with specific neighborhoods and to discern when more engagement might be needed. We keep open lines of communication with the neighbors, keeping them informed of road closures, traffic flow, security, expected crowds, special community engagement opportunities and benefits to the local community. Our neighbor partners often have great insights that provide us with improved procedures for more successful events. We've arranged behind-the-scenes tours and ensure that the neighbors have access to the hotline and a point of contact at the event throughout the timeline. The neighbors are very pleased with the process and our accessibility.

Gaxiola: When Spring Fling was brought back to campus a few years ago, the neighbors were really concerned. They remembered the way Spring Fling used to be. But since Spring Fling has been back on campus, the student leaders and Associated Students of the UA staff leaders have made neighborhood relations priority No. 1. That has made all the difference. They rearranged where the rides are so that the noisy ones are farther from the neighbors, they started doing clean-up patrols in the neighborhoods so that the yards don't end up littered with trash, they created a hotline for issues, et cetera. Really, the student leaders have been amazing, and our neighbors are incredibly grateful to them. Our role in Community Relations was as advisers, and to help facilitate that communication. We help to make sure we're all on the same page, we try to identify and prevent issues before they come up, and if something does go wrong, we try to intervene as quickly as possible. 

What are other recent successes of the Community Relations team? 

Gaxiola: Our team does a lot of work – we're everything from government relations, to neighborhood relations, to campus philanthropy and volunteerism. I'm really proud of the UA Neighborhood Network that we've created to bring together our team with the Dean of Students, UA Police Department, the city ward offices, Tucson Police Department, landlords, neighbors and students to address issues of student misbehavior in the neighborhood. Together, we're really helping to improve the experience that our neighbors and landlords have. As part of that effort, Mary Laughbaum started a landlord education program that has been really well-received. 

Laughbaum: We coordinated our second annual Landlord Education Seminar, as mentioned, with excellent feedback from the speakers and participants. We provided contacts, resources and information from within the UA and the City of Tucson to better equip landlords to serve student tenants. Another partnership is Mortar Board's Clean-Up Crew from the Honors College. We connected the students to neighborhood leadership and encouraged neighbors to develop projects for the students. The result was a successful Saturday morning in which Mortar Board's Clean-Up Crew worked on 11 different projects within the surrounding neighborhoods. In addition, our UA Cares campaign connects our staff and faculty with a myriad of opportunities to serve, give and participate in nonprofit organizations' events throughout the community. Our "1,000 Acts of Kindness" campaign has resulted in well over 3,000 acts of kindness offered by our UA members.

What are Community Relations' major goals, priorities and projects moving forward?

Gaxiola: We are looking for new and better ways to deepen our relationships with our government contacts, our neighbors and the nonprofit community. We want Tucson to think of the UA as the best partner this community could possibly have. We are already the largest economic impact driver in the county, so we have a great base to build upon.

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