Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 74.85
Liaison Andrea Trimble
Submission Date Feb. 8, 2024

STARS v2.2

University of Virginia
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Julia Monteith
Senior Land Use Planner
Office of the Architect
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

1st Partnership 

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee (LUEPC)

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership?:
Sustainability-related

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? :
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability:
UVA and its surrounding community of the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County have established a transformative partnership through the (1) LUEPC (Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee), (2) Planning Commissions (City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County), (3) Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO - 5 County area), and the (4) Master Planning Council (UVA).

Senior UVA planning staff are appointed to the City and County (1 each) Planning Commissions to have active knowledge and an active role in shaping each community. The time invested in preparing for and attending Planning Commission meetings is significant, and each community gets the benefit of representation by the University. In exchange, UVA has a Master Planning Council(MPC) that consists of Vice Presidential and other UVA staff that addresses planning at and in the context of the University. MPC is attended by appointed members of the City and County Planning Commissions in addition to the Chief Planning staff for each of those entities. Senior UVA planning staff attend the local metropolitan planning organization (MPO) Technical and Policy Board meetings and play a role in guiding the transportation planning and process for our larger community area and transportation network. This high-level coordination within the political network of the community leads to an extraordinary level of coordination in town gown relationships and successful partnerships for the community.
This practice has been underway for over 20 years and UVA provides staff and financial support to this effort on an annual basis. UVA developed a centralized website for LUEPC in 2019, rather than information provided on each agency (City, County, University) websites as has been the practice in the past.
http://vapacc.org/

2nd Partnership

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Resilient Together

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (2nd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Resilient Together is a County, City, and UVA collaborative planning and implementation process designed to ensure our community is strong, safe, and healthy in the face of a changing climate.https://engage.albemarle.org/resilient-together. The planning process was initiated in 2023 and is underway a two year process, yielding climate resilience plans for each entity and coordinated planning for our region.

3rd Partnership 

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Office for Community Partnerships

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Sustainability-related

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (3rd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
UVA has an office for a community partnership emphasizing sustainability through equity and diversity in our community. The partnership is designed to connect faculty, students and communities to mutually beneficial research and teaching programs and initiatives. The partnership reflects current and ongoing community based initiatives, and allows users to search for associated projects and community partners. https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-opens-community-partnerships-office-downtown

Additionally, Engaged UVA was launched by the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Outreach in 2017 in an effort to highlight information on the community engaged programs already underway at the University. Community members can see the array of current and ongoing programs.

Optional Fields 

A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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Website URL where information about the institution’s community partnerships to advance sustainability is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
See links provided above.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.