American is a community, and it is a part of a larger community, and it contains smaller communities. It all depends on how you define a community.
We as AU students are all together, and participate in a government, attend classes and share the same buildings and resources. I would consider that a community. We are also a part of the DC community. Explorations is also a part of the Leonard community. And the L2 community. And the Explorations community.
My group discussed in class how many people determines when a group becomes a community. We had decided it was around four or five, but the more I think about it, the more I think it depends on the circumstances. There can be large groups of people, who may be connected by some common theme or place of residence, and can't consider themselves as a community. If there is nothing to relate to, and nothing that can bring them together in some way, then they are just people who live in the same space. And at the same time, perhaps two people live isolated from society, they could technically consider themselves a community as well.
So yes, AU is most definitely a community because we all have a pride and very strong common link of being a part of something big, where we live and learn and are constantly with one another.
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So from what you say, it relates to my point that AU is comprised of smaller communities as well, like the UC community or the L2 community.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I found it difficult to choose whether AU is a community or many communities in one. I decided that it was both as there are smaller communities inside the big one of the college itself.
I agree, that it was really hard for me to clearly define AU as either a community or not. It is true, that we all go to the same university so I guess you could say we are all part of the AU community. It is headed by a president and we all work together to make it a better place. However, I don't feel connected to all 6,000 undergrad as a community, so there are smaller communities within AU that I can join to become connected to a smaller group of people. In this way, AU is a melting pot of communities. I agree with the idea that it all depends on how you define community. To some, AU may feel like a community and to others, they feel more connected to AU in smaller communities within the university.
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