The document discusses the benefits of a community garden that is associated with Indiana State University. The community garden allows for synergies between the university and community by providing opportunities for volunteerism, access to sustainable food, extracurricular activities, and cultural exchange. The garden is supported by the Institute for Community Sustainability, which provides resources for research experiences in sustainability. It also serves as a platform for diverse, community-led teaching and engages learners of all ages through tours, lectures, and other programming.

1. The Community Garden as a
University-Community Platform
Ashley Rose Newton, Indiana State University
Introduction
The intersections between sustainability
curriculum, diversity awareness and cultural
competence are practiced each day at Indiana
State University in the Community Garden. The
goal of case-study is to exemplify that community
gardens create a wide variety of benefits both to
the university and to the community. This study
explores the dynamics of the community garden
from the aspect of being in association with a
university so that researchers, sustainability
directors, campus administrators, and campus
planners may consider a community garden for
their affiliation.
The Institute for Community Sustainability (below) lies at the front of
the garden and serves as a resource not only to the community, but
fosters a wealth of research experiences relating to sustainability
within and beyond the garden.
Community-led teaching provides
students diverse learning
opportunities, such as mushroom
identification (above).
Tours, lectures, and
other activities in the
garden engage
learners of all ages.
The ISU Center for Bat
Research, Outreach, and
Conservation provides bat
boxes (artificial habitats)
and learning materials to
integrate the biological
sciences into the
community garden (left).
Conclusions
Methods: surrounding the images aggregate the
activities which creates this university-community synergy
Acknowledgements/Data Sources
Community Gardens in partnership and in close
proximity to a university allows for consistent
volunteerism, access to sustainable and organic
food, extracurricular activity, and the ability to
synergize the community and the university.
The community garden working in part with the
Institute for Community Sustainability gives
important curricular applications.
Incorporating diversity and cultural idea transfer
platform is an ongoing dynamic within the
community garden.
1. Latimer, J.C. Van Halen, D., Speer, J., Krull, S., Weaver, P.,
Petit, J., Foxx, H., in review. Soil Lead Testing at a High Spatial
Resolution in an Urban Community Garden: A case study in
relict lead in Terre Haute, Indiana, Journal of Environmental
Health.
Lead testing in community garden by ISU students,
(above)(1)
Material for compost and
path creation in the garden
allows for ISU to save money
in that all organic materials
removed from campus can
be reused rather than
needing to be sent to paid
waste facilities.