Questions about Community Hour Logistics
(staffing, scheduling, etc.)

There will always exist a need for us to be flexible around scheduling certain classes, based on curriculum, space access (such as labs), and other factors. While classes will not be typically scheduled during this time, we will have exceptions to practice on occasion and we will honor those exceptions. The need to schedule classes during this time will be addressed by the Provost, the Academic Deans, and the Registrar.

It has already been recognized that for certain courses and programs, mostly dependent upon limited space use opportunities such as labs or athletic facilities/fields, there will be a handful of courses, practices, or programs that must continue to meet during the Community Hour block. In academics, anyone that finds themself in that situation should consult with their appropriate college Dean. In other areas, please consult with your divisional Vice President for confirmation and guidance.

This space in our schedule is an invitation into the USM community through engagement. A community cannot form by force or by mandate. Instead, we want to invite the voluntary participation and engagement that can be meaningful for our macro and micro communities. For that reason, we cannot make this mandatory but we can work to build this as a part of our campus culture and identity.

Yes, all campuses, including our online community, are invited participate in the Community Hour.

We will not need to consider closing an office or stopping work very often, but when the situation does arise, it should be considered carefully. A decision to close or reduce work in offices during this time will be left to the administrator in charge of that office and supervisors with supervisees. We want to encourage creativity around keeping administrative and work functions ongoing during this time, providing coverage for necessary services and support, while also being creative in assuring that staff are supported to attend events and engage in community happenings without having to take personal time to participate, unless it is agreed to use a lunch break to participate. Depending on the office and service, this may look different ways: with enough advanced conversation and planning, someone else may be able to cover duties for an hour; we might coordinate to forward a phone to another extension for the hour so someone can answer and take a message to convey after the community hour has ended; or we may put an out of office on an inbox to indicate there may be a brief delay in providing replies until after the Community Hour observance has ended–these are all details that should be worked out between supervisor and supervisee. Additionally, many offices may sponsor events during the community hour to encourage student engagement, which would require the office to be open and staffed.

We will not be holding macro level work meetings during this hour, though we invite our micro communities to use this time to connect and meet. We invite our student support offices and faculty to consider walk-in hours at least once a week during this time to be easily accessible; we invite working groups to connect on important projects and discussions; in season athletic teams, one of our many micro communities, may need to use some of this time for practices or training; we invite clubs and organizations to schedule and host macro level and micro level programming- intended for the full campus community (or for micro communities); we invite our offices and departments to plan training workshops and meaningful discussions during this time; we invite colleagues or faculty/staff and students to connect one on one or in small groups over lunch during this time– the ways in which we can enhance and build both our micro and macro communities are truly only limited to our creative thinking and planning.

Communication and coordination will be key. Inviting the conversation well before attending a Community Hour event and developing some internal plans on how essential services will be maintained would be a valuable exercise to consider between teams, supervisors and supervisees. It will likely look different depending upon the office, staffing, the essential service, and even the time of year. Decisions should be made based on the needs of the office and the services they provide.

We know that there are offices, depending upon the time of the year, that may not be able to close or reduce work for the hour. We want to encourage creativity around keeping administrative and work functions ongoing during this time, providing coverage for necessary services and support, while also being creatively enabling staff to leave their desk or workspace to attend events and engage in community happenings. Depending on the office and service, this may look different ways: with enough advanced conversation and planning, someone else may be able to cover duties for an hour; we might coordinate to forward a phone to another extension for the hour so someone can answer and take a message to convey after the community hour has ended; or we may put an out of office on an inbox to indicate there may be a brief delay in providing replies until after the Community Hour observance has ended–these are all details that should be worked out between supervisor and supervisee.

Senior leadership has been vocal in supporting this initiative from the beginning. That will continue. Additionally our senior leadership expects to have a presence, engaging in Community Hour activities alongside our faculty, staff, and students. Senior Leadership has rescheduled multiple standing meetings given their time overlap with Community Hour. Furthermore, senior leadership will work closely with their teams, supervisors and staff, to encourage participation via opportunities to engage in Community Hour while ensuring that key business tasks and work is able to continue as necessary.

As we have two physical campuses separated by miles and a virtual campus, we encourage that individuals or groups planning events for community hour, in which they are hoping for full community engagement, consider opportunities to live stream the event; record the event and upload it for later review; when appropriate, hold the event on Zoom; or consider other creative opportunities to permit folks that cannot physically attend a chance to learn and engage in the community and learning of the event including recording a podcast related to the event, providing a resource guide and questions related to the event, or consider creating a research posting for the event on social media. There are numerous ways to encourage fuller engagement by leveraging technology. The institutional cultural approach to use of these technologies will be a new approach for us as a community in many ways and so the continued encouragement and reminding of opportunities will be necessary until it becomes common use.

From the beginning, our desire was to find a time and a way to introduce and support efforts to build greater community and connections among our students, staff, and faculty. Building out a Community Hour schedule felt like a productive and exciting vehicle to achieve this.. How the community hour evolves and shapes what is needed by the community outside of those initial goals is something that will be informed by the community.

Community members should not think of it as a necessity to “protect” the time, but instead, think about how to make the best use of the time block? The time is there to be utilized for both smaller community engagement and meetings as well as larger, full community engagement. Norms should include a review of the use of the Community Hour, both institution-wide and in smaller communities that asks , “Did we make the best use of this time? How might we make changes to improve our use?”

Especially early on, we won’t all be perfect in how we use this time, but we should be flexible and willing to adjust based on what your team, your colleagues, and the larger community might need at that time, day to day and week to week.

The logical answer here is to get involved in planning community facing programming and make sure that you and your colleagues are engaging with the community hour offerings when they are available. Here are a few more suggestions to maximize engagement:

  • Encourage attendance and offer flexibility to assure that team members interested in participating are able to engage.
  • For those planning and holding community hour events, make sure to schedule and communicate about the program with enough lead time that folks can plan and coordinate to attend if they are interested.
  • Consider how to make use of both campus spaces and technology and plan for physical accessibility so that the largest audience is able to participate from our community.
  • Collaborate with several offices, colleges, and/or departments for the hosting of programs to increase the level of interest and buy in for the event.
  • If you find a successful way to maximize attendance at one of your programs, talk about it. Share with others how you succeeded. Likewise, if you attempt something and it falls flat, do not be embarrassed for learning something in the process–share and let others learn the lessons you’ve learned.

Working with our Orientation Leaders and the Office of Orientation and the First Year Experience (OFYE), we will introduce new, incoming students to Community Hour during Orientation at the beginning of each semester. Likewise, faculty and staff will be introduced to Community Hour during their onboarding process.

Questions about Community Hour Events & Event Planning

Part of our evaluation process will be to ask the community, directly, if they felt that the offerings were inclusive, accessible, and representative of the diverse identities and interests that are represented in our campus community? The data that we gather will be used to inform future opportunities as we continue on with these efforts. We hope to see a variety of opportunities for engagement that are accessible and that represent the varied points of view, ideas, and cultural lenses of our community membership.

Not every event or program that will take place for Community Hour will be able to be live streamed or recorded. However, we ask event planners that if an event would permit for such engagement, consider arranging for this with IT services to assure that greatest potential of access within our community. Additionally, for events that it might be appropriate to hold over Zoom, to be inclusive of our online community and those that are not able to be at an event in person, we encourage planners to do so from time to time. The more we can be mindful of this in the planning stages of programs, the more accessible a Community Hour event might be for a wider percentage of our community.

We anticipate that several events each semester will be appropriate to try to connect all campuses simultaneously with an asynchronous option for engagement. Whether or not we want to designate those as “signature” is up to the discretion of the community. Some may be “signature” some may be “traditions”, we anticipate numerous opportunities.

We will utilize our Campus Groups app as the tool to publicize our Community Hour events. There is a specific tag that has been created, “Community Hour”, in Campus Groups and we encourage event planners to use it if their event is intended as a Community Hour event. There will not be an official approval process, but we do encourage that planners consider offerings on the days ahead that are listed so that we can be mindful not to duplicate or over program other events. Especially for those events that we hope for the entire community to potentially engage.

The Community Hour Coordinating Committee is creating a webpage that will include numerous resources, guides, and “how-to” information to help guide event organizers in their planning and administration of a successful community hour event. While the university has not established a specific budget to provide funding support, partnerships and collaborations between areas, offices, clubs, and organizations are highly encouraged to provide greater financial resource availability for organizers.

To allow for the fullest potential of planning for attendance for all members of the community, we recommend at least 2-3 weeks in advance of a program’s date. Outside of that, we know that the earlier that an event is planned and advertised to the community the easier it will be for folks to plan to attend. Especially as many of our community members will need to make decisions and arrangements around work coverage and office coverage to attend.

While no event planner is required to host events during the themed weeks, it will help us organize Community Hour engagement around so important aspects of the student experience and may make those events more meaningful to student audiences. See above on this webpage to see the themes for Fall 2026.

Questions about Student Engagement with Community Hour

While institutional, formalized incentives are not specifically going to be offered, we anticipate student organizations making use of this time to support programming, some of which has incentivization (prizes) for participation. Additionally and entirely up to faculty, credit or points could be assigned for attendance and reflection/participation on events that are held during this time period if faculty feel it is appropriate.

Requiring creativity and thoughtfulness, consideration must exist for how we might get engagement from our online students, commuter students, adult students and others who for various reasons may not be able to attend all of the events that are hosted at this time. Live streaming an event, recording an event, and/or considering holding the event (for lectures, roundtables, and other appropriate styles of event) over Zoom can help encourage student participation.

There will definitely be student-led programming during this time that will be supported by the clubs, organizations, Student Senate, and by program specialists and student leaders in the Division of Student Affairs (Student Engagement & Belonging, Recovery Oriented Campus Center, Residence Life) when appropriate. Those events will be supported through the appropriate programming funds associated with the host(s) of the program.

Questions about Evaluating & Adjusting Community Hour

Fall 2026 has been designated as the semester that we will begin Community Hour, with the Monday through Thursday, 12:30pm-1:30pm, blocked out of scheduling. This is when Community Hour will be observed.

The Community Hour Coordinating Committee will have an assessment page that is up and running throughout the semester in which members of the community can provide anonymous feedback about the ongoing efforts of the community hour initiative. Additionally, there will be formal surveys administered at the mid-point of the semester and at the end of each fall/spring semester. As the feedback is being reviewed decisions will be made to evolve things that are not structural; however key decisions that might result in deeper changes are likely to be made between semesters.

Outcomes and goals that have been established to assess and evaluate
initial success are:

  • By the end of the first semester of implementation (Fall 2026), achieve a weekly average of at least 150 students, faculty, or staff in Community Hour events and activities as tracked with sign in, swipe, RSVP, or approximate headcounts.
  • Secure at least 10 academic or administrative offices/departments in hosting or cosponsoring a community hour event during the first semester.
  • Create at least one weekly opportunity for students to engage with faculty and or staff outside of class and offices, starting in the first four weeks of launch.
  • Conduct at least two formal feedback cycles per semester to assess perceptions, participation and potential barriers to Community Hour participation. Use the data to inform decision making about future evolution of the Community Hour.
  • Students, faculty, and staff report knowing about the common hour events and opportunities to connect with other members of the USM community.
  • Students, faculty, and staff who attend events feel a strong sense of connection and community and report these opportunities enhance their overall experience at USM.
  1. We will request that all program organizers create track attendance and feedback at their event over the community hour. A link will be provided to program organizers that will allow them to officially log their attendance numbers and feedback after the event. Campus Groups does allow for tracking and instructions on using that portion of the app for event planners can be found here.
  2. A mid term and end of term assessment will be administered to the campus community in the Fall of 2026 seeking feedback and providing evaluation of the community hour initiatives.
  3. A google form will be accessible throughout the semester in which we will gather feedback from the community regarding Community Hour.
  4. In the Spring of 2027 a series of Focus Groups will occur gathering additional information as feedback regarding the Community Hour.

The Community Hour Coordinating Committee will review the feedback on
an ongoing basis and recommend appropriate adjustments and changes for
Community Hour in an ongoing fashion. Several virtual forums will be
established in which the committee can share the data received and any
recommendations that will be coming out of the data.

From our perspective, students experience the programming and community opportunities offered during the Community Hour as both something they want to attend and something they are able to engage with (either in person, virtually, or in a follow up format) as “successful participation”. When we assess students about their engagement, this will be a data point we hope to capture from them.

Early on, as we implement the Community Hour, we will be reviewing the model and feedback regularly throughout the semester and year. When we can introduce some evolution to the process in a way that does not disrupt our attempts to implement the Community Hour, we will decide to do so in a timely and ongoing fashion. However, significant changes to the Community Hour structure will likely not occur until we have natural breaks in our academic year including between Fall and Spring semesters and over the summer between Spring and Fall. The hope for this initiative is to introduce it with purpose, building support and engagement with opportunities, but allow the initiative to take shape based on how our community sees this initiative evolving. It is a significant structural change in our day to day to introduce this initiative. Likewise, it is a significant institutional cultural change. The success of these initiatives take some time to shape out.

Yes.

Analysis of assessment data and community feedback will inform the decisions that are made regarding the evolution of the Community Hour.

We are not expecting that Community Hour, for the first official semester, perhaps the first official year, will field high levels of participation for all community hour days. Since this initiative is new and our systems/processes are not fully set up functioning with Community Hour in mind, we recognize that there are going to be barriers, short falls, and improvement opportunities that will rise to our knowledge during the first semester and first year. Work toward reducing those barriers, addressing our short falls, and taking advantage of opportunities to improve will occur throughout the year as we identify those. We can’t measure the success of the initiative by the outcomes experienced just in the first semester or the first year for those reasons. Change takes time.

The first is providing opportunities for us to identify or learn about these potential consequences. It will be important for individuals who experience or recognize one of these issues, or others, to share them via our feedback form. Our hope is to be timely in response to issues that we see arise that can be addressed with some immediacy. That will look different based upon what the situation is, but identifying and responding to those consequences in as timely a way as we can will be the commitment of the Community Hour Coordinating Committee alongside Cabinet Leadership and the President’s Office.