Understanding the Ecosystem of Geospatial Research and Service in Universities

What Is Everyone Supposed to Be Doing?

“…What about universities without a geospatial center, how should they be evaluating local need for one? Although Guan and Hess (2020), did not anticipate this result, they found post-hoc that the activities of geospatial centers were different at universities that had an academic department of geography versus those that did not. If true, this is an important finding in that it is the very nascence of understanding that promises to lift us from the doldrums of our current state of mostly confusion.…”

“…Furthermore, if as a community we do not figure this out and better define and communicate our role, it will likely be imposed upon us by outside forces that may or may not understand the value of what we have to offerin fact this is already happening at many institutions. Guan and Hess (2020) addressed the abovementioned questions most directly in their article "Understanding the Ecosystem of Geospatial Research and Service in Universities" by distributing an international survey to university map and GIS centers (hereafter 'geospatial' centers). With the survey results they found evidence of substantially overlapping activities of centers that are administratively housed within an academic department, library, school or college, central administration, or other university unit.…”

“…In fact, contributors to this effort will be featured in an upcoming issue of this journal, guest edited by project leaders Emma Slayton and Jessica Benner. The recent and exciting work of Guan and Hess (2020) along with Slayton and Benner promise to provide answers to many of the questions posed at the outset of this editorial.…”

UCGIS at 25

“…However, crosscampus centralized coordination of GIScience activities is relatively uncommon, though notable campus-wide initiatives exist, such as the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, the Center for Spatial Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, U-Spatial at the University of Minnesota, and the GIS at Tufts University program, to name a few. Increasingly, such efforts are managed by university entities already charged with working across academic units, such as libraries (Guan & Hess, 2020), thus bypassing the dependent linkages with any one academic department.…”