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ABOUT CETR
The Center for Community Engaged Teaching and Research (CETR) at the California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) supports faculty with their community engaged classes and community based research projects. CETR aims to do this through collaboratively and multi-stakeholder-created, mutually beneficial and long-term sustainable university-community partnerships. The larger context of CETR鈥檚 purpose is the role that academic institutions play in their surrounding communities, and in supporting democracy in general (Avila, 2017, 2023; 2025). CSUDH鈥檚 role in the community is in alignment with the university鈥檚 historical roots. The current CSUDH location in Carson, California, opened its doors in 1968, as a California Governor鈥檚 strategy to improve economic conditions in surrounding communities after the 1965 Watts Rebellion (More on CSUDH history here). In alignment with CSUDH鈥檚 roots, CETR aims to create community-rooted, justice-driven teaching, research, and learning, while fostering reciprocal university-community partnerships that empower students, faculty, and community members to co-create knowledge, address real-world challenges, and imagine more just futures together.
Within this broader framework, CSUDH defines community engagement through two core academic practices: Community Engaged Learning (CEL) and Community-Based Research (CBR). Below are brief descriptions of these two practices. We elaborate more in the Faculty tab.
Community Engaged Learning (CEL)
Community Engaged Learning (CEL) at CSUDH is guided by California State University system policy and shaped locally by the University Community Engaged Learning Committee (UCELC), established in 2022. CEL-designated courses integrate academic learning with community based service, collaboration, or research directly tied to course objectives. This type of engagement is deeply experiential, social justice oriented, and aligned with
Community-Based Research (CBR)
Community-Based Research (CBR) is a collaborative approach to scholarship that aims to take into account the expertise and priorities of community partners. While the depth of community involvement can vary, CBR at its best promotes justice-oriented research by grounding inquiry in community contexts, relationships, and shared purpose. It redefines how knowledge is produced, shifting from top-down academic models toward shared inquiry rooted in community contexts and long-term relationships. CBR encompasses a spectrum of practices, ranging from consultative partnerships to more deeply participatory and justice-driven models such as Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Participatory Action Research (PAR). These related approaches involve community members as co-researchers throughout the process, from defining questions and shaping methods to interpreting findings and taking action. In doing so, they blend scholarship with organizing, capacity-building, and systems change (See for example, Caine and Mill, 2016, Minkler, 2005, Raphael and Matsuoka, 2024).
The Center for Community Engaged Teaching and Research (CETR) emerged from a campus-wide listening process conducted by the Co-chairs of Pillar of the Community, the President's appointed committee to assess campus activities related to community engagement. As stated under Pillar of the Community in the Strategic Plan: 鈥淢utually informing and beneficial connections between the CSUDH campus and communities 鈥� local, global, and virtual 鈥� will be a fundamental strength and a crucial part of our work to facilitate pathways to success and socioeconomic mobility for students and to help our communities thrive.鈥� Read the CSUDH Strategic Plan.听听
This Committee鈥檚 charge coincided with the retirement of Cherryl McKnight, former Director of the Center for Service Learning, Internships, and Civic Engagement in July of 2023. Upon her retirement, Miami Gatpandan and Francisco Checkcinco were named Interim Co-Administrators, while Pillar鈥檚 Co-Chairs were asked to lead a project to re-envision the future of community engagement at CSUDH. The main findings from This process included a campus-wide survey, faculty focus groups, and a Toro-Hour presentation to share the findings from this process, including:聽
- A lot of great CE activities are happening across campus, the majority of which are student-facing and/or not connected to teaching and research.听
- Faculty are requesting more support and resources to connect their teaching and research locally with community organizations, business, schools, and government, and with the international community.听
This led to the decision to restructure SLICE (a primarily student-facing center) into CETR (a primarily faculty-facing center). Dr Maria Avila, who had retired as Associate Professor of Social Work at CSUDH in 2022 was asked to come out of retirement to lead this process as CETR鈥檚 Interim Director. This job includes chairing the University Community Engaged Learning Committee, created in 2022 with the charge of creating a Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Designation. Avila has a long history as a community organizer in Mexico and in the US, of working in the field of community engagement in several academic institutions, and of sharing her work in various settings nationally and internationally. See campus-wide announcement of her hiring here.听