Universitas Indonesia (UI), through the UI Public Relations Bureau and Public Information Disclosure (KIP), held a workshop entitled “Publication of UI Community Service Reports in Mass Media”. The activity, which was held on Tuesday (21/11) at the Integrated Laboratory & Research Center (ILRC) Building, UI Campus, Depok, was attended by the UI Public Relations Bureau and KIP team as well as journalists from various mass media who are members of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) and the Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI).
In her remarks, the Head of the UI Public Relations Bureau and KIP, Dra. Amelita Lusia, M.Si. said, “This activity aims to build harmonious relations between UI Public Relations and press colleagues. Hopefully, there will be mutual understanding between UI, PWI, and IJTI who are present today. We hope that our media partners can help broadcast good news from UI, including regarding UI community service which is part of the Three Principles of Higher Education.”
This workshop presented Prof. Agung Waluyo, S.Kp., M.Sc., Ph.D as Director of the UI Community Service and Empowerment Directorate (PPM) as well as a lecturer at the UI Faculty of Nursing (FIK) as a resource person. In his presentation, Prof. Agung said that the PPM UI Directorate received more than 400 proposals for community service activities this year. However, after going through a selection process, 211 community service activities were finally selected for funding.
“Community service is part of the lecturer’s research. As teachers who have an obligation to research, we have a moral responsibility to provide some of the results of that research to the community for maximum use. Our love for society makes us really want to be useful to them. This is so that they are aware that there is a problem in their area and it needs to be resolved together,” said Prof. Agung.
UI’s community service programs must be linked to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched by the United Nations (UN). This reflects UI’s contribution in supporting social, environmental, and economic sustainability in 2030. For example, when conducting community service in the form of community education in sorting waste, community service members must remember that the activity is related to SDG 13, namely Climate Action .
In his presentation, Prof. Agung presented various community service programs that UI had implemented. Not only is it carried out in disadvantaged, outermost, and frontier areas (3T), UI community service is even present in the development areas of the National Capital City (IKN) to respond to strategic IKN issues. These include carrying out health checks, basic life support training for health workers, and establishing Smart Homes to educate teachers at IKN.
Furthermore, PPM UI also pays great attention to the richness of Indonesian culture. Among them, there is a community service for preserving the Barong Landong art in Bengkulu, which has almost gone extinct. In this activity, the UI community service team collaborated with the Bengkulu Culture Service to introduce Barong Landong at schools and at large events. Apart from that, the UI community service team is holding the Komodo Culture Festival 2023 to bring many tourists to the Komodo National Park, and register the Tegal Batik motif to the Intellectual Property Rights (HAKI).
The UI PPM Directorate needs help from the mass media to report on community service activities carried out by thousands of UI lecturers. Apart from spreading good news in society, media coverage can also help raise funds or sponsors when carrying out community service in response to a disaster. One form of community service that involves donations is the construction of a disaster response house as a multi-purpose room when the earthquake disaster struck Cianjur. Prof. Agung said, “With a small amount of money, we want UI’s name to fly. In order to be successful, we need collaboration with the media. For this reason, we hope that media partners can turn UI community service activities into interesting news.”
Author: Dyra Daniera | Editor: Finda Salsabila
