Fits and Starts: Visions for the Community Engaged University

Good Morning. So, here we are in Alabama. You’ve all been here a few days. I just got here last night. And I’m again shocked. Eight o’clock in the morning and all of you had all these options and here you are. Now, I know it was the breakfast that probably pulled you in. But anyway, thank you for coming. Let’s acknowledge the folks here at the University of Alabama for their great work [applause]. Thank you so much. Special thanks go to Dr. [Samory] Pruitt, Dr. Heather Pleasants and Dr. Ed Mullins for organizing us and working with us over the past several months and working together. I’m now working with a new colleague half way across the country and we’re up to the challenge and we hope you are too. So, we hope you’ll come along with us on a journey today

Three Questions for Community Engagement at the Crossroads

Unfortunately, a decade of “calls to action,” begun by the Kellogg Commission’s report on university engagement and the 1999 Wingspread Declaration on Renewing the Civic Mission of the American Research University, has not produced a flowering of transformed institutions….This is not because engagement does not work….And it is not for lack of knowledge on how it can be implemented….Rather, engagement is difficult work. It gets to the heart of what higher education is about and as such, it requires institution-wide effort, deep commitment at all levels, and leadership by both campus and community. (Brukardt, Holland, Percy, & Zimpher, N., 2004, p. ii) [T]he civic engagement movement seems to have hit a wall: [I]nnovative practices that shift epistemology, reshape the curriculum, alter pedagogy, and redefine scholarship are not being supported through academic norms and institutional reward policies that shape the academic cultures of the academy. There are limits to the degree of change that occurs institutionally, and the civic engagement work appears to have been accommodated to the dominant expert-centered framework. (Saltmarsh & Hartley, 2008, p. 12) Full participation incorporates the idea that higher education institutions are rooted in and accountable to multiple communities—both to those who live, work, and matriculate within higher education and those who physically or practically occupy physical or project spaces connected to higher education institutions. Campuses advancing full participation are engaged campuses that are both in and of the community, participating in reciprocal, mutually beneficial partnerships between campus and community….Yet, while higher education as a sector has publicly acknowledged that it has an important public mission, there remains a gap between intention and practice. The problem lies in the incongruity between institutions’ stated mission and their cultural and institutional architecture, which is not currently set up to fulfill that mission

Rubrics as a Foundation for Assessing Student Competencies: One Public Administration Program’s Creative Exercise

Since implementation of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) standards for accreditation in 2009, public administration programs have been developing programmatic competencies that reflect NASPAA’s universal standards. Likewise, myriad efforts have analyzed data related to student and program progress toward achievement of these competencies. This article adds to that conversation by recounting the approach to assessing competencies used in the Department of Public Administration at Portland State University. There, newly developed rubrics reflect each of the department’s 10 competencies to examine whether students are acquiring the desired knowledge and skills. This article discusses the development and design of the rubrics as well as elements of gaining faculty and student input in the process

The Heart of the Matter: Aligning Curriculum, Pedagogy and Engagement in Higher Education

This essay explores the themes of curriculum and pedagogy, as outlined by the editors of this special edition, in the context of Portland State University\u27s institutional transformation. We elucidate select mechanisms that support curricular-community interactions, known at PSU as community-based learning. In doing so we discuss how CBL and other civic engagement strategies relate to the disciplines, departments, and interdisciplinary work as well as how these various collaborative approaches affect pedagogy and epistemology at PSU

Measuring Community-Engaged Departments: A Study to Develop an Effective Self-Assessment Rubric for the Institutionalization of Community Engagement in Academic Departments

Change in American higher education is occurring at a rapid pace. The increasing reemergence of civic or community engagement as a key component in the overall landscape of American higher is emblematic of that change. Academic departments play a critical role in higher education change, including institutionalizing community engagement on campuses. Yet, designing a way of measuring community engagement specifically at the level of the academic department has not been undertaken. Based on advice from national expert/key informant interviews and the recognition of the importance of the role of academic departments in the overall institutionalization of community engagement in higher education, this study addresses a methodological gap in the literature concerning the measurement of community engagement. Several instruments have been developed primarily for institution-wide application, and some have been applied to academic units including colleges, schools, departments and programs. This study employs a grounded theory research strategy to develop and test a self-assessment rubric solely for use in academic departments. To ascertain the utility and validity of the rubric, this study pilot tests the explanatory framework in twelve social science departments located in five, geographically-diverse American universities. A secondary purpose of the study is to initiate an exploration of the potential use of institutional theory to more completely understand the constitutive role of the academic unit in the institutional transformation process. The research confirms the utility and validity of the departmental engagement self-assessment rubric. Additionally, the study categorizes and displays via histograms six overarching dimensions by level of support for community engagement for each of the twelve test departments. Finally, this research recommends instrumental as well as substantive areas for future research, including those that better connect institutional theory with efforts to embed civic engagement in the mission of traditional academic departments

Beyond the University: An Initiative for Continuing Engagement among Alumni

In an effort to leverage students’ positive community engagement experiences as they transition to and become alumni, Portland State University (PSU) embarked on a pilot “Continuing Engagement Program.” This article provides a rationale for this effort, an overview of the programmatic elements, lessons learned, and future engagement strategies. The authors situate the Community Engagement Program (CEP) in the current alumni engagement literature, share findings from the PSU program, and hope to inspire additional creative thinking and action to support alumni and other community members’ persistent engagement for positive community change

Collectivizing Our Impact: Engaging Departments and Academic Change

This article invites readers to consider foundational assumptions about community-engaged work. The author envisions a path forward to help “un-stall” the community engagement movement and to deepen and broaden practice. Connecting cutting edge thinking emerging out of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors – all suggesting the need to collectivize our work – the author argues in favor of refocusing community engagement efforts on the backbone of higher education: academic disciplines and departments. The article concludes with a composite vision, compiled from data and experiences collected at multiple postsecondary institutions in the United State and beyond, for a partnership landscape that positions the academic unit closer to the center of the community engagement enterprise

History in Motion: Seeing Cuba’s Future Through the Past and Present

This article is a foreword for Volume 3, Issue 1 of the Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs