Tent City 3 @ UW

Homelessness is a recognized crisis in Seattle and Washington State. As part of the community’s response to this crisis, the UW will host an organized tent city for 90 days during the winter quarter 2023.

History

This effort arose from a request by the Tent City Collective (TCC)— a group of UW students, alumni, and Tent City 3 (TC3) residents who have been working with faculty, academic departments, and local civic leaders to bring Tent City 3 to the University. (TCC was also instrumental in bringing TC3 to the UW Seattle campus in 2017 and 2021.)

How can faculty/instructors get involved?

The community engaged courses team within the CELE Center is partnering with Tent City Collective to serve as a conduit for service-learning and other academic engagement opportunities with Tent City 3 during their stay on campus. Meaningful engagement with Tent City 3 is possible and that academic conversations around housing and homelessness are a key part of this residency.

Those interested in proposing a course-based activity with Tent City 3 and/or developing courses that address issues of housing and homelessness can access resources and support for for this work through the Community Engaged Courses (CEC) team within the CELE Center. This team has years of experience supporting thoughtful and ethical engagement in academic courses across the undergraduate curriculum; please contact Kathryn Pursch Cornforth, Director of Community Engagement for additional support developing your ideas and assessing potential course offering options.

All academic engagement proposals will be reviewed by a committee is comprised of faculty, administrators, students, and TC3 residents; final approval for all academic engagement proposals rest with the Tent City 3 leadership. To make an academic connections proposal for consideration please submit basic course information and a summary of your course themes.

You should expect a response within three weeks of submission.
proposals submitted by Friday, November 4 should expect a response by November 23
proposals submitted by Friday, December 2 should expect a response by December 23
proposals submitted by Friday, January 6 should expect a response January 27