So, you know, something like that where he's able to come and see someone face-to-face and actually hear us, you know, talk to us, not over the phone, not through email, but face-to-face, get some answers.

My name's Paul Ashton.

I'm the Cornwall Councillor for Polterra and Mount Charles.

We're here at the library this morning and right in the middle of my patch at the invitation to the Mayor of St Austell.

So we're very thankful for that.

So we're here today just to get to meet local residents and specifically hear from them about concerns that they might have about what's going on in the town or the surrounding area to the town as well.

Well the mayor currently is wanting to try and bring people together which is a great idea so the Cornwall councillors are very keen to work with the mayor and others as well.

please if you see me and you want to have a chat let me know you know just just stop me in the street if you want to i don't mind um if not i have social social accounts on facebook instagram x even you know whatever if you want to get in touch through social media i have all of those accounts or you can find all of my contact details on the website as well so email text whatever whatever

He recalls a growing focus on social impact and community engagement.

UTS in the mid-1990s was, as many other institutions were, most of them were in Australia, going through a period of transition.

It was the beginning of the corporatisation of universities and it was also a period when universities were being asked by governments to ensure that they actually had impact and had social concerns driving their programs to a much greater extent than they had in the 60s and 70s.

So the whole community sector was starting to change and it was also corporatising.

UTS had asked for expressions of interest in community-based programs.

A group of us in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences started talking about the possibility of getting some broader program together that would actually cover not just our faculty but all of the university faculties.

I think our general approach was we're about social justice and inclusion.

Create a single point of connection between the university and the community and give students opportunities to apply their learning to projects that mattered beyond the classroom.