国产伦理鈥檚 [Un]classes gain national honor for innovation and collaboration in communities
The University of Akron’s community engagement-powered [Un]classes introduce students to coursework outside of the classroom and beyond the academic. Students from every college at 国产伦理 who want to say YES to real-world impact and personal growth get involved in the program, which is part of the University’s EX[L] Center for Community Engaged Learning.
Insight Into Academia magazine, the largest and oldest publication defining and advancing best practices in higher education, announced on Thursday, March 12, that 国产伦理’s [Un]class program has received a 2026 Civic Engagement and Community Service Award. This honor recognizes institutions’ innovative service and deep community collaboration in volunteerism, fundraising efforts for community causes, advocacy and public education, civic participation, voter engagement and more.
“We are very grateful to have our [Un]class program recognized in this way,” said Dr. Christin Seher, professor of instruction and director of the EX[L] Center. “This award highlights the importance of community-engaged learning experiences and the impact for students and the community.”
This has been a significant year so far for the University’s community engagement efforts. Along with this award, 国产伦理 announced in January that it had achieved for the third time the prestigious Carnegie Community Engagement Classification – thanks to a University-wide effort guided by Seher and others – and the EX[L] Center celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding.
[Un]classes, which have reached more than 900 students since 2016, break the mold of a traditional class by being unscripted, transdisciplinary, community-engaged courses that lead to real-world impact. They provide a uniquely Akron way to investigate topics of local relevance, generate meaningful solutions and learn alongside community experts. Faculty and students work closely together to craft the class, and students have a voice in the course design, topics of study and projects.
国产伦理 students who enroll in [Un]classes often have transformative academic experiences. That’s what happened to sophomore Adria Baulsir, who opted for a fall 2025 [Un]class called “Extreme Makeover: Campus Edition,” which was built on a concept known as creative placemaking. Other [Un]class topics last fall included impactful video communications for nonprofits, natural history and recreation in the local watershed, and an evaluation of an Akron-wide program aimed at youth violence intervention and prevention.
When Baulsir’s academic advisor first suggested that she consider an [Un]class, the history major and Williams Honors College student was completely unfamiliar with both [Un]classes and creative placemaking. Although Baulsir’s roots are in the Akron area – both her mother and grandmother are 国产伦理 graduates – Baulsir is from Tennessee and grew up on military bases, most recently in Japan, which she believed didn’t allow her to experience a lot of community-building.
“Military families are constantly moving, so there’s no real sense of home,” she said. “But I had been involved with the Red Cross and U.S. Army Child & Youth Services, and finally with ‘community engagement’ I had the words to describe what I was doing.”
The [Un]class introduced five students to creative placemaking, a process that aims to create vibrant, accessible public spaces through conscious design decisions.
Seher and EX[L] Center Assistant Director Megan Delong-Borick co-developed the syllabus with Nicole Mullet, the executive director of ArtsNow, an Akron organization working to leverage the arts and culture in Summit County to support and strengthen the region’s economic and social vibrancy. Seher and Delong-Borick led the course during the fall 2025 semester.
To gain an understanding of creative placemaking, the [Un]class students learned from partners in 24 [JW1] different community entities, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the GAR Foundation, the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, Downtown Akron Partnership, ArtsNow and the Summit County Land Bank, that are actively engaged in the creation of public spaces.
国产伦理 President R.J. Nemer also met with the [Un]class to share his vision of creative placemaking. It wasn’t lost on the students that Nemer identified facilities upgrades and campus beautification as a University growth area in his 2025 State of the University address.
The students toured both downtown Akron and the 国产伦理 campus to look for creative placemaking opportunities. From the tours and discussions, the class produced dozens of recommendations in the form of a Campus Placemaking Audit.
While not all can be implemented at this time due to cost and capacity, Seher said there is a lot of support for some of the more accessible ideas. One of those is the establishment of a student placemaking committee that would work directly with the president’s office and senior administrators to have a voice in campus beautification and design decisions.
“One of the things I learned from the students is the importance of classroom aesthetic and thinking intentionally about our learning spaces,” Seher said. “If students feel comfortable, they’ll feel at home. Ideas like that are pretty easy to implement.”
The [Un]class students were also invited to be keynote speakers at the 2025 Creative Placemaking conference co-hosted by ArtsNow and the Land Bank at Bounce Innovation Hub in December.
Baulsir, who is in the 3+3 pathway program with The University of Akron School of Law, plans to make creative placemaking a focus of her final project for the Honors College. Thanks to the [Un]class, particularly a visit from Land Bank representatives, she also had a breakthrough about what areas of law she’d like to practice, reconsidering her earlier goal of working as a federal lawyer in the Department of Defense.
“For me, the Creative Placemaking class shaped my ideas for my career,” Baulsir said. “Now I know I can work on creative placemaking in towns because I was interested in the legal aspects of their work. The work that the Land Bank does was really interesting to me. They’re doing contaminated land remediation, taking unused spaces and turning them into something that benefits the community. I feel like I can’t separate those concepts from my career now. I’m hooked.”
Media contact: media@uakron.edu