University Commitment to Community Engagement: Academic Excellence through Scholarship that Makes a Difference

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University Commitment to Community Engagement
Academic Excellence through Scholarship that
Makes a Difference
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Changing Academic Priorities

• Traditional View of Excellence
• Research funding- whatever the topic
• Number of Doctoral Degree Programs
• Selectivity
• Invention/discoveries
• Size
• International reputation
• Athletics

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New Traditions of Excellence

• Distinct missions based on intentional balance
  among teaching, research, and engagement
  activities
• High importance given to undergraduate learning
• Emphasis on performance and accountability with
  rewards for merit
• Articulated impact/outcome objectives for
  teaching and research
• Responsiveness to emerging issues

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Institutional Motivations

• Response to accountability pressures
• Reaction to vocational focus of students
• Create a distinctive mission
• Concern for community/economic development
• Improvement of image/community relations
• Link to new funding streams
• Enhance/give focus to research and teaching
• Inspire social/civic responsibility in students

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The Engaged University

• The engaged institution is committed to direct
  interaction with external constituencies and
  communities through the mutually-beneficial
  exchange, exploration, and application of
  knowledge, expertise and information. These
  interactions enrich and expand the learning and
  discovery functions of the academic institution
  while also enhancing community capacity. The
  work of the engaged institution is responsive to
  community-identified needs, opportunities and
  goals in ways that are appropriate to the
  universitys mission and academic strengths. The
  interaction also builds greater public
  understanding of the role of the university as a
  knowledge asset and resource.

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Civic Engagement as Scholarship

• Engagement is a specific conception of faculty
  work that connects the intellectual assets of the
  institution (i.e., faculty expertise) to public
  issues such as community, social, cultural, human
  and economic development. Faculty apply their
  professional knowledge and academic expertise to
  public purposes, as a way of contributing to
  fulfillment of the mission of the institution.

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Engagement Aligns Scholarly Work with the Mission

• Engagement is a reflection of the institutions
  high interest in the community. The faculty
  member is performing intellectual tasks that
  reflect a larger commitment of the institution to
  link scholarship to public issues.

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Scholarship of Engagement

• Integrates teaching, research and service
• Is not an add-on or extra activity
• Recognizes diverse faculty interests
• Can be valued and rewarded
• Gives scholarly work a public purpose
• Is not just a new view of service

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Challenges to Measurement

• Diverse strategies and forms
• Multiple perspectives and expectations
• Involves complex issues
• Shared roles makes attribution difficult
• Impact of work is not immediate
• Different levels of interest across institutions
  and among faculty

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Evaluating Engaged Scholars

• The Scholarship of Engagement can be
• Documented with more attention to context,
  quality, and impact
• Subjected to rigorous peer review
• Assessed by established criteria for quality
• Promotion and tenure guidelines are changing

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Scholarship Assessed Boyers Design

• All scholarly work will have in common
• Clear goals and research questions
• Context of theory and literature
• Appropriate methods
• Significant results
• Effective communication/dissemination
• Reflective critique

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A Vision for a New Academic Culture

• Distinctive but comprehensive institutional
  missions mix of teaching, research, engagement
• Integration of traditional scholarly roles is
  valued
• Variety and flexibility in faculty roles
• Multiple career pathways recognize personal
  goals and career stages
• Balance between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
• Shared governance and shared leadership

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The Growing Integration of Scholarly Work

• Boyer (1996)
• Teaching, Research and Service become Learning,
  Discovery and Engagement
• Huber (2001)
• The scholarship of teaching like the scholarship
  of engagement calls for viewing academic work as
  an integrated whole instead of as a series of
  distinct and competing parts

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Global Interest In Engagement

• Universities as Sites of Citizenship and Civic
  Responsibility Project
• International Consortium on Higher Education,
  Civic Responsibility and Democracy
• The Democracy Collaborative
• Universities Project/Salzburg Seminars

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Which Universities Embrace Engagement?

• State universities with relatively generic
  academic and research programs
• Universities with large numbers of local students
  
• Younger universities or former teacher colleges
• Universities located in highly urbanized regions
  which are major economic hubs
• Highly motivated individuals at prestigious
  research universities
• Some land-grant universities

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What Have We Learned About Civic Engagement?

• The characteristics of partnerships
• The role of community in teaching research
  service-learning participatory action research
• Engagement is changing academic organizations and
  culture
• Institutional missions are becoming more
  distinctive and intentional
• We can assess and compare levels of institutional
  commitment to engagement