I’ve been blown away by the number of people that have reached out to me, offering to contribute, write and critique the work on this blog. I even have folks letting me know about my typos. But by far the best, and most interesting, paragraph sent to me was this: 

Camden is a tight knit place, not especially open to outsiders. Trust must be gained. Community knowledge and perspective is exchanged on the front stoop through shared relationships. How do you get those with local knowledge to show up? And why, ultimately, interact with Rutgers, a University with a reputation for being in the city but not of the city?

The email went on to ask: 

When it comes to solving community/city issues, don’t the ones experiencing them the most potentially have the most creative solutions to share? Then again would readers welcome the perspectives of those who don’t have a piece of paper hanging on the wall? And if not, is it our role to speak for them, to share their perspective? And then in so doing, what does this say about their legitimacy?

My reaction is, wow, these are all the right questions. They are questions I ask my students every day in class. And all I can say in response is, there should be (and already are) places to have these discussions. And Rutgers needs to be having them. 

I started this blog because I heard this exact sentiment, that Rutgers is “in but not of” Camden. It was one of the questions I asked during my job interview here: what is the reputation of the university around the city? So I know there are some negative perceptions, something I certainly saw when I taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oxford. But I’ve also blown away by the work of the Civic Engagement Office here at Rutgers and by the students walking through my door trying to engage with Camden.

This isn’t an attempt to speak for Camden. I just moved here. But I love local knowledge, I love local perspectives, and I think my students and others around the campus are doing some wonderful work on the fringes. All I can do is be honest and open. If community voices decide this is a place they want to have a conversation with students and readers, they will always be welcome. If it becomes a place for students to write about, critique and challenge their perspectives of Camden, I’ll be a happy man. But most of all, I want this blog to be a place that challenges us to understand where local ideas come from, what they mean, and what their value is in policy. That means asking hard questions, like the questions my emailer posed to me.

I hope this blog can be the kind of place where we ask those questions, and I took the job here at Rutgers-Camden because I believe a public university can, and should, be that type of a place. So “why, ultimately, interact with Rutgers, a University with a reputation for being in the city but not of the city?”

I don’t know, but I hope we find out.