Bridging Two Worlds: Professional Service and Service Learning

Authors of this essay, also published in the NSEE Quarterly, argue that proponents of service-learning and faculty professional service should join forces to pursue a common agenda of community outreach. At a time when colleges and universities are being urged to help solve society\u27s problems, the faculty represents a virtually untapped resource. Certainly, there are presently - and always have been - individual faculty working in the community as consultants or as supervisors and guides for students. If the campus is to make a significant impact, however, the institution must be able to deploy departments, divisions, interdisciplinary centers and institutes to work on community problems. The current system of promotion and tenure stands as a real impediment to faculty involvement in community outreach. By joining forces to create partnerships or bridges, advocates for service-learning and faculty professional service can work to expand the current promotion and tenure system to provide incentives and rewards for faculty work in this area

The Status of Faculty Professional Service and Academic Outreach in New England

In 1994 the New England Resource Center for Higher Education surveyed New England colleges and universities about the professional service faculty are engaging in, and the policies and structures that support such activities. Information was obtained from 120 institutions. As seen through a wide lens, there is considerable institutional commitment to faculty professional service. A majority of respondents reported that service is both a stated part of their institutional mission and that faculty, administrators and staff supported that commitment. However, a sharper focus reveals a gap between statements and practice: only a third of the respondents were able to demonstrate that commitment through either an office or individual charged with overseeing service initiatives or use of explicit criteria to evaluate professional service in promotion and tenure decisions. Results varied by institutional type, with public four-year institutions reporting higher levels of commitment and support for faculty professional service than either private fouryear institutions or two-year colleges

Organizational Structures for Community Engagement

In a time of public scrutiny of higher education, there is good reason - both for the survival of the campus and the survival of the community around it -- for institutions to promote outreach. Yet even within those institutions with formal structures -- mission statements, faculty handbooks, and presidential leadership that support community service -- the practical considerations -- work assignments, evaluation mechanisms and institutional rewards -- present real challenges. Service-enclaves are structures that exist or are developed within institutions that allow faculty and staff to work collectively as they serve their communities. While individual service work is no less important, these enclaves make this work visible, legitimate, and institutionalized. And they are places where traditional academic notions about what constitutes acceptable research and the value of created over applied knowledge are being tested and changed. As colleges and universities seek to connect more to their external environments, they should look to service-enclaves and ensure that they incorporate the following characteristics: leadership, integration with teaching and research, institutional support, flexibility, visibility, and institutional savvy

Readers' Advisory in North Carolina Public Libraries: Does Database Access Matter?

One tool that public library staff use for readers' advisory is NoveList, which until 2014 was accessible to North Carolina's public librarians and patrons through a public-private partnership known as North Carolina Libraries and Virtual Education (NC LIVE). In 2014, NoveList along with other databases were dropped from NC LIVE due to financial constraints. Public library systems in North Carolina were surveyed to investigate the impact of losing access to NoveList via NC LIVE. 95% of respondents indicated that RA is either extremely or very important to the mission of their library system. The only readers' advisory tool ranked higher than NoveList was personal knowledge of the library's collection. Seven interviews with public librarians support the findings and demonstrate the continued resourcefulness of NC's public library professionals.Master of Science in Library Scienc

Whistleblowing and Compliance in the Judicial Hierarchy

One way that principals can overcome the problem of informational asymmetries in hierarchical organizations is to enable whistleblowing. We evaluate how whistleblowing influences compliance in the judicial hierarchy. We present a formal model in which a potential whistleblower may, at some cost, signal noncompliance by a lower court to a higher court. A key insight of the model is that whistleblowing is most informative when it is rare. While the presence of a whistleblower can increase compliance by lower courts, beyond a certain point blowing the whistle is counterproductive and actually reduces compliance. Moreover, a whistleblower who is a “perfect ally” of the higher court (in terms of preferences) blows the whistle too often. Our model shows an important connection between the frequency of whistleblowing and the effectiveness of whistleblowing as a threat to induce compliance in hierarchical organizations

Signaling and Counter-Signaling in the Judicial Hierarchy: An Empirical Analysis of En Banc Review

We leverage the institutional features of American courts to evaluate the importance of whistleblowers in hierarchical oversight. Drawing on a formal theory of signaling in the judicial hierarchy, we examine the role of whistleblowing dissents in triggering en banc review of three-judge panels by full circuits of the Courts of Appeals. The theory generates predictions about how dissent interacts with judicial preferences to influence circuits' review and reversal decisions, which we test using original and existing data. First, we show that judges who dissent counter to their preferences are more likely to see their dissents lead to review and reversal. Second, we show that dissents are most influential when the likelihood of non-compliance by a three-judge panel is highest. Our results underscore the importance of dissent in the judicial hierarchy and illustrate how judicial whistleblowers can help appellate courts target the most important cases for review

Trait Hope and Preparation for Future Care Needs among Older Adult Primary Care Patients

We examined associations between trait hope and preparation for future care needs (PFCN) among 66 older adult primary care patients in western New York. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing PFCN (awareness, information gathering, decision-making, concrete planning, and avoidance), and the Adult Trait Hope Scale. In multivariate regressions, lower hope, particularly less agency, was associated with more awareness of needing care, whereas higher hopefulness, particularly pathways thinking, was associated with increased decision-making and concrete planning. Greater hopefulness appears to be linked to goal-directed planning behaviors, although those with lower hope may actually be more aware of the need for planning. Evidence-based programming that encourages learned hopefulness may contribute to enhanced health planning and decision-making among older adult primary care patients

Signaling and Counter-Signaling in the Judicial Hierarchy: An Empirical Analysis of En Banc Review

We leverage the institutional features of American courts to evaluate the importance of whistleblowers in hierarchical oversight. Drawing on a formal theory of signaling in the judicial hierarchy, we examine the role of whistleblowing dissents in triggering en banc review of three-judge panels by full circuits of the Courts of Appeals. The theory generates predictions about how dissent interacts with judicial preferences to influence circuits' review and reversal decisions, which we test using original and existing data. First, we show that judges who dissent counter to their preferences are more likely to see their dissents lead to review and reversal. Second, we show that dissents are most influential when the likelihood of non-compliance by a three-judge panel is highest. Our results underscore the importance of dissent in the judicial hierarchy and illustrate how judicial whistleblowers can help appellate courts target the most important cases for review

Whistleblowing and Compliance in the Judicial Hierarchy

One way that principals can overcome the problem of informational asymmetries in hierarchical organizations is to enable whistleblowing. We evaluate how whistleblowing influences compliance in the judicial hierarchy. We present a formal model in which a potential whistleblower may, at some cost, signal noncompliance by a lower court to a higher court. A key insight of the model is that whistleblowing is most informative when it is rare. While the presence of a whistleblower can increase compliance by lower courts, beyond a certain point blowing the whistle is counterproductive and actually reduces compliance. Moreover, a whistleblower who is a “perfect ally” of the higher court (in terms of preferences) blows the whistle too often. Our model shows an important connection between the frequency of whistleblowing and the effectiveness of whistleblowing as a threat to induce compliance in hierarchical organizations