UI Office of Outreach and Engagement connects Iowa communities with University of Iowa classrooms

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Manning, IOwa, mayor and UI students
Manning Mayor Harvey Dales and
UI students

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences instructors who want to lead service-learning experiences in Iowa communities have a partner ready and eager to help make it happen: the University of Iowa Office of Outreach and Engagement, part of the Office of the Provost.   

The UI Office of Outreach and Engagement’s services to campus include:

  • Service-learning course administration
  • Community-based research support
  • Grant funding for community-engagement activities
  • Marketing and promotion
  • Coaching and consultation on community-engagement best practices

Connect with the UI Office of Outreach and Engagement:

An essential part of the Office of Outreach and Engagement’s mission is to connect faculty, staff, and students to communities in Iowa through partnerships. One recent partnership that the office facilitated was between the city of Manning, Iowa, and Professor Frank Durham of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

In need of a client organization for his students’ consulting project, Durham contacted Travis Kraus, director of Economic Development & Sustainability in the Office of Outreach and Engagement. Kraus offered a range of organizations that had answered a request for proposals for advanced student consulting services, and connected Durham with city officials in Manning.

Manning (pop. 1,553) sits proudly in Carroll County four hours west of Iowa City. Manning’s city leaders wanted to reverse the current trend of populations moving away from small cities and wanted to improve publicity for the high quality of life they enjoy in rural Iowa, so they called on the University of Iowa for assistance.

Throughout a semester-long course in the fall of 2018, students worked to develop communication plans that would entice prospective residents to move to or visit Manning.

Durham encourages his colleagues who want to launch public-engagement projects in Iowa communities to work with the Office of Outreach and Engagement, the central hub for community engagement at the University of Iowa.

“The chance for students to work with a live client is magical,” Durham said. “Our visit to Manning brought the whole project to life. The students loved it, and our contacts in Manning were quite enthusiastic, as well.”


The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.