Powerful Partnerships:

Dr. Gregory Vincent, a UT administrator and professor, would like for you to mentally erase old definitions of “university” and picture a bigger University of Texas at Austin—not necessarily one with more students, parking lots and desks but an institution that’s influence reaches farther and affects more lives. One that stretches to Amarillo in the north, El Paso in the west, Marshall to the east and Brownsville to the south. It’s a university that belongs to the people of Texas and integrates community engagement with teaching, research and service.

Vincent, the vice president for diversity and community engagement and a professor in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Administration, has studied university-community partnerships around the nation for over a decade. He repeatedly has encountered examples of communities and schools that are benefiting from a reciprocal relationship, and he is a passionate advocate of public universities giving back to the people and states that support them.