Engaged Department Institute for Social Sciences and Education

Posted by on April 2, 2004

ENGAGED DEPARTMENT INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES AND EDUCATION
June 7-8, 2004
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Applications Due: April 30, 2004

This summer institute, sponsored by the Upper Midwest Campus Compact Consortium (a partnership between state Campus Compact networks in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), is designed for academic departments in the social sciences and education interested in the department as a unit of engagement and change. Ten departments will be invited to participate. Social science and education departments from across the country are invited to apply; however, Campus Compact member institutions in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin will be given preference.

The purpose of the Institute is to help participating departments (1) develop strategies to include community-based work in both their teaching and their scholarship, (2) analyze various models for integrating service-learning, community-based research, and other kinds of civic engagement into undergraduate and graduate curricula, and (3) develop a level of unit coherence that will allow them to model civic engagement and progressive change at the department level. Teams will leave the Institute with an action plan for deepening or expanding partnerships and integrating civic engagement more coherently throughout their academic programs.

The Institute will be facilitated by two national experts:

Dr. John Saltmarsh
John Saltmarsh is the Project Director of Integrating Service with Academic Study at Campus Compact. He has been involved in the creation, design, and implementation of the Campus Compact Engaged Department Institute, acting as a facilitator for the Institute for over five years. He is a co-author of the Engaged Department Toolkit (Campus Compact, 2003) and has presented sessions on the engaged department at numerous national conferences. John holds a Ph.D. in American History from Boston University and taught for over a decade as a tenured professor at Northeastern University and as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Feinstein Institute for Public Service at Providence College. His essays on service-learning and experiential education have appeared in the Michigan Journal for Community Service Learning, the Journal of Experiential Education, the National Society for Experiential Education Quarterly and the Journal of Cooperative Education. He also has served as the guest editor for a special issue on service-learning and civic engagement of the Journal of Public Affairs (Sept. 2002) and serves on the editorial board of the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning.

Dr. Christine Cress
Christine M. Cress received the Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and currently serves on the Portland State University faculty in the Postsecondary, Adult, and Continuing Education (PACE) Program. Dr. Cress? scholarship is focused on learning communities, community-based learning experiences, and the impact of campus climate on student development outcomes and faculty morale. She directed a comprehensive campus climate study of faculty work life at the University of Arizona (see http://www/u.arizona.edu/~millen) and has consulted on learning, leadership, and assessment projects at institutions across the country. Dr. Cress was a member of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Project on “Leadership Reconsidered: Engaging Higher Education in Social Change” and was selected by the Kellogg Foundation as a 2002 National Emerging Scholar on “?Higher Education for the Public Good.”

In addition to providing significant time devoted to team planning and discussion, the Institute will cover topics such as:

? The academic and civic effectiveness of community-based work
? Discipline-specific models of service-learning integration
? Supporting community-based work at the faculty and student levels
? Assessing community-based work at the faculty and student levels
? Community-based work as a vehicle of curricular integration
? The community partner as departmental resource; the department as community resource

Departmental teams will be chosen on the strength not only of their letter of application but also of their institution?s willingness to use Institute outcomes in a wider context. To this end we are especially interested in applications from departments in institutions where community-based work is already well established on an individual faculty basis and where moving to greater institutionalization at the department level could represent an important institutional step. Hence, all successful applications must include a letter from the institution?s chief academic officer describing his or her strategy for making use of the applicant?s Institute experiences.

Each departmental team should consist of the following: the department chair, three faculty members (or two faculty members and the institution’s service-learning coordinator), and a representative from a nonprofit or public-sector community partner with which members of the department have already worked or would like to work. Departments are also encouraged to include students as part of their team.

Each team will be expected to pay a $500 registration fee both to help defray Institute costs and to signify their seriousness of purpose. Campus Compact will cover meals during the Institute for all team members. Travel and accommodations are not included in the registration fee.

Upon completion of the Institute, participating teams must be willing to begin working the following fall to implement the plans they developed during the Institute. They must also agree to communicate their efforts to their relevant national disciplinary association and to be prepared to present on their experience in whatever forum the association deems appropriate. Campus Compact staff will conduct follow-up site visits with each campus team.

Timetable

April 30, 2004 Applications due
May 14, 2004 Applicants selected and notified
May 31, 2004 Attendees submit pre-Institute planning documents
June 7-8, 2004 Engaged Department Institute
Sept 2004-May 2005 Departments begin implementing initiatives
June 2005 Teams submit reports detailing previous year’s work

Application Guidelines

Departmental Application Letter and Materials
Each prospective team should submit an application letter that describes the department?s interest in and experience with community-based course work and/or research. In addition to specific academic initiatives, identify specific community partners with which department members have established working relationships. Finally, the application letter should describe what you think would be the benefits to (1) department members, (2) students taking departmental courses, (3) the larger institution, and (4) the off-campus community if the department were able to increase its effectiveness in working with the community through strategic alliances.

To be accepted for the Institute, each team must include the department’s present or incoming chair and a nonprofit or public-sector community partner. Please provide full contact information for all team members expecting to attend the Engaged Department Institute. While not required for the application, Campus Compact will expect to receive curricula vitae for all team members prior to the Engaged Department Institute.

Chief Academic Officer Endorsement Letter
The department?s application must also be accompanied by a letter of endorsement from the institution?s chief academic officer. This letter should not only signify the Chief Academic Officer?s willingness to cover the travel costs associated with this initiative but also indicate how he/she would utilize the applicant?s experiences in a wider institutional context. Please also indicate whether any team member, the institution’s academic VP or equivalent, or president has participated in any Campus Compact events (and which ones) over the past three years.

Please mail application materials to Thomas Schnaubelt at Wisconsin Campus Compact, UW-Parkside, 900 Wood Rd., Box 2000, Kenosha, WI 53141. All applications will be reviewed by Campus Compact staff in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Applications must be received by April 30, 2004. With questions or requests for additional information, please contact Thomas Schnaubelt (Wisconsin Campus Compact, Thomas.Schnaubelt@uwp.edu, 262-595-2002), Julie Plaut (Minnesota Campus Compact, julieplaut@mncampuscompact.org, 651-603-5084), or Sandra Hansen (Iowa Campus Compact, sandra.hansen@wartburg.edu, 319-352-8660).

The Engaged Department Institute is supported by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service Learn and Serve America program. Co-sponsors of the Engaged Department Institute include Campus Compact, the Morgridge Center for Public Service at UW-Madison, the Upper Midwest Campus Compact Consortium, and the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology.