Austin is a diverse community. With the current shortcomings of political influence and historical inequities, major disparities prevail. For instance, the poverty rate for Hispanic individuals is almost three times that of white individuals in Travis County.

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In Central Texas, these community disparities in access to economic mobility permeate all walks of life — from early education and health care to workforce preparedness and transportation.

One academic field that studies and empowers social improvement is community development. Many universities, such as Rutgers and Northwestern, offer community development majors. While UT offers an urban studies major, a community development major offers a vastly different scope of studies. 

UT should expand and offer a community development major to cultivate leaders in community revitalization, equity-based planning and local governance. 

From our university campus to our local suburbs, we live in communities to tackle grand issues, build rapport with our neighbors and support perpetual growth in our respective environments. 

It allows us to share personal relationships, empower change and create a stronger overall society that strives toward equity and social justice. It’s an avenue for change, a mechanism for growth. 

“One of the biggest (discrepancies) is accessibility to transportation, and I think you know, growing up in Katy, Texas, I had no freedom,” social work sophomore Angel Huang said. “I had to rely on a lot of people around me to drive me around. It limits you to a lot of other things like your job aspects, where you can live and where you can work, … especially for those that are underfunded, poorer communities.”

We must do better. We must learn from our disparities.

Community development focuses on the methods of building and strengthening communities. With many research avenues, the major would focus on the economic, social, environmental and collaborative aspects of neighbors and local governance. From affordable housing to access to workforce programs, community development distinctively focuses on underrepresented communities and their revitalization. 

“Community can be either geographic-based, so a particular neighborhood, or a community of persons who have things in common,” said Heather Way, a clinical professor and co-director of the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic at the School of Law. “(ECDC) focuses on lower income communities, which can be communities of people or geographic communities, and helping them build access to assets and wealth and opportunity.”

UT currently offers an urban studies major, yet, the major differs from community development in important ways. While urban studies examines the policy and socioeconomic characteristics of a community, there is less of a focus on the empowerment aspect of communities — especially those that have been historically forgotten, such as Freedmen’s towns.

Freedmen’s towns were African American neighborhoods established throughout the 1800s. These towns were home to former slaves who migrated and settled in cities and local communities, including the greater Austin area. To this date, some of these neighborhoods prevail with a historical designation. 

These stories, these persons and these families’ histories must be preserved. 

In essence, these two majors approach the same issue from different angles. Community development is grassroots-oriented and community-driven, while urban studies focus on governance and policy on a broader scale. 

Given our social tendencies, there will always be issues that arise in communities. From economic underfunding to a lack of infrastructure, many communities lack the fundamental support that leads to a thriving atmosphere and positive community interaction. 

To work towards community revitalization, UT should add a community development major.

Wan is a civil engineering and Plan II freshman from Houston, Texas.