Finally arrived at our Michigan State Basecamp and checked into the Kellogg Center. All the Regen North partners are envious of this really brilliant campus facility. Imagine what we could do at MMU with a proper conference centre - there's a huge demand for top notch meeting space in Manchester and something like the Kellogg would really fit the bill.
We met up with John Beck, Hiram Fitzgerald and Deb Smith for a campus tour. All we can say is WOW - Michigan State University's campus has over 660 buildings, it spans over 1 million square feet - and has over 100 miles of "sidewalks". The scale is really "next level" compared to UK universities. They have a HUGE American football stadium, a baseball stadium, 3000 seater venues for plays and performances etc. etc. The tour was really fascinating. It gave me a chance to see Richard Braham from NESTA in action. Before this trip I was intrigued by what a policy communication person actually does - now I know - Richard is a brilliant networker and because he writes policy reports he asks the most insightful and penetrative questions. Interviewing is a real technique and I have a new found respect for the policy guys. I'm genuinely excited about reading the report that he puts together after the trip and I think that there is going to be lots to follow up on for MMU.
Anyway sorry about the detour - back to MSU campus...one thing that did strike me about the tour was the proliferation of the MSU brand. Their green colours and pine tree logo were literally everywhere. I don't think that this would work back in Manchester. Through the work of projects like the Beacon we are learning that there is a big trust building exercise that we need to go through with the local inner city community before they identify with and accept the MMU brand. Here - people seem to have much more of a sense of pride around their university brands - I guess in part due to the more sophisticated alumnus networks. I asked Hiram about this later on at dinner and he told me that this was a national phenomenon. The other big difference is that the US college and university "football" teams are the equivalent of our Manchester United's. So in effect - all the love and passion that people have for a team like Manchester United or City is bestowed on the local universities. One clear example of this on the tour was the Community Development Center - an outreach post beyond the MSU campus in East Lansing. It was branded with a big MSU logo - if MMU copied this model and put an MMU outpost in, say Harpurhey, and branded it MMU then local people would not identify with it and probably wouldn't use it. We'd need to work with the local community and see what kind of building, brand etc. that they would like for the outpost for this concept to flourish.
As I say the MSU campus is huge - they generate their own power, they have TV and radio stations, animal clinics, $1.7 billion annual budget, they have their own police and fire department, employ 16,000 people...
MSU's concept of outreach and engagement is important and I am sure that we will learn much more about it but generally it's about creating things WITH the public. This is important to me, as it is very much in line with what we are doing around public engagement at MMU. The other thing that came across strongly on the tour is the tangible link that MSU makes between it's engagement activity and its success in terms of winning grants and contracts. So, MSU has just won a $550 million contract for a cyclotron that will bring physicists to the campus from all over the world...Hiram was able to say that the community engagement activity was a big part of winning this contract - so there is a knock on financial argument that I guess we need to start making more effectively in the UK.
The final point I want to note about the tour is about Deb Smith's work. She is involved in correctional programme for offenders based around nutrition. A really great win win project where incarcerated people grow their own food - and get healthier (and are less likely to reoffend) as a result. Deb will be in Manchester in the Summer - so we need to make sure that the Regen North team keeps those links active because we can create partnerships with academics like David Haley and great examples of community projects like the Hulme Community Garden Centre.
