A $50,000 grant from the John P. Murphy Foundation has funded the new Public Interest Research Center at Baldwin-Wallace. The center will boost students’ knowledge of cutting-edge research social science research methods while aiding nonprofit organizations in their own research.
A Public Interest Research Center at Baldwin-Wallace will provide students in Mark Mattern’s public interest research class knowledge in cutting-edge social science research methods. A $50,000 grant from John P. Murphy Foundation, as well as the College’s donation of used computers got the center up and running in March.
Located on the lower level of the Baldwin Library building (now a part of Malicky Center) the PIRC will provide a valuable service to small and perhaps economically marginal organizations with public and social service missions. These might include nonprofits and community-based organizations such as small arts groups, community development corporations and community centers. These groups often cannot afford the services of most research vendors.
Each year, for the last five years, Mattern and Michael Telin, president of Telin International Arts, co-teach a class in Public Interest Research. Each year the class has partnered with a community group. This spring the class will work with the Detroit-Shoreway Community Development Organization, which will provide the first project for the B-W PIRC.
James Levin, founder of Cleveland Public Theatre in the Detroit-Shoreway area, is currently heading an effort to turn a portion of the neighborhood into an arts district. At the heart of the effort is the now dark Capitol Movie Theatre, which will be the focus of the B-W center’s first project. Mattern said that Levin and his group hope to renovate the Capitol into a multi-screen venue for independent films. Students will survey area residents over three nights to discern whether the project would have public support. Results of the survey could be used, in part, to boost fundraising efforts Mattern said.
In the future, Mattern sees any number of classes throughout the campus working with the PIRC. Clients could be individual faculty members involved in research that requires a survey or political science classes conducting surveys during elections. He said that they might even take on some fee-for-service work as long as it doesn’t drive out the public interest area which is the stated mission of the PIRC.
Whatever the project, students will be involved; working with the clientele, designing, creating and conducting the survey, doing the data analysis, generating reports for the client and, most importantly, developing skills that will take them from B-W to their first job and beyond.
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