Campus Compact » In The Media

Democratic Devolution: How America’s Colleges and Universities Can Strengthen Their Communities

Communications — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:02:18 +0000

In the face of a deepening economic and political crisis, the U.S. political and governing system is deadlocked. We need a new way forward. The old and tired government versus markets debate is just that—old and tired. It’s time for a broader mobilization of America’s civic resources, including the nonprofit sector and especially our colleges and universities.

We see government as a catalyst that stimulates new forms of interaction and partnerships between all sectors of society. Based on our experience at the University of Pennsylvania, we believe government should challenge all institutions of higher education (public and private; community colleges, colleges, and universities) to contribute systematically to improving the quality of life and learning in their local communities.

New Edition of JCEHE

tdomf_26a6d — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:04:56 +0000

The Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education has just published its latest issue at:
https://discovery.indstate.edu/ojs/index.php/joce.
We invite you to review the Table of Contents here and then visit our web site to review articles and items of interest.

Thanks for the continuing interest in our work,

Catherine Stemmans Paterson, PhD, AT
Faculty Fellow, Community Engagement
Associate Professor, Applied Medicine & Rehabilitation
Editor, The Journal of Community Engagement in Higher Education

Tirey Hall 132 A
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
(812) 237-3693
(812) 237-2525 fax
cpaterson {at} indstate(.)edu

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education
Vol 4, No 1 (2012)
Table of Contents
https://discovery.indstate.edu/ojs/index.php/joce/issue/view/18

Editorial
——–
Service Learning: Representing University and Community Outcomes in our Writing
Catherine Stemmans Paterson

Research and Theory
——–
Service Learning Projects in the Public Relations Writing Course
Deborah Silverman

Insights, Case Studies, and Applications
——–
A User-Friendly Guide to Intergenerational Service Learning
Denise Clark Lewis, Desiree Seponski

Impact of service learning on pharmacy students’ empathy towards patients
Autumn L Stewart, John R Tomko, Holly C Lassila

Errata
——–
Errata

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education
http://discovery.indstate.edu/ojs/index.php/joce

Inside Higher Ed: Combining Civic Engagement and Economic Development

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:09:46 +0000

Merging campus civic engagement and economic development can create “engaged learning economies,” which are a boon to both colleges and local communities, according to a new report from Campus Compact, a national coalition of 1,200 college and university presidents. The report describes 25 examples where this has worked, including efforts by Widener University to work with local groups to help improve the economy of low-income Chester, Pa., which is home to the university.

Northern New England Campus Compact Awarded $150,000 EPA Grant

Mark Este — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:31:23 +0000

Grant Supports Environmental Education and Stewardship on College Campuses

09/18/2012

LEWISTON – Maine Campus Compact (MCC), in partnership with New Hampshire and Vermont Campus Compacts, will receive $150,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to prepare college students for a lifetime of environmental stewardship. The grant will train college faculty to develop and deliver courses which partner with community organizations to address local climate change and water quality issues.

Over 80% of students enrolled at eligible campuses are from Northern New England. In the past decade, they have seen the effects of climate change through the shrinking of the northern boreal forest, more extreme winter and summer weather, rising sea levels, and restricted habitats for northern animals. Now, more than ever, it is imperative to preserve our natural resources. Equally important is giving students the critical thinking skills necessary for employment in a competitive market.

Through this two-year initiative, 75 faculty members from 19 selected campuses (11 in Maine, 4 in New Hampshire, and 4 in Vermont) will learn how to embed environmental service-learning components into a course of any discipline. Selected campuses will be announced in April 2013. Students who participate in these courses created by participating faculty will get hands on, real-world experience to strengthen their learning and create connections to the larger community while helping to address some of our state’s most pressing environmental issues.

“This grant could not have come at a better time,” said MCC Executive Director, Sally Slovenski. “With climate change causing unprecedented challenges to the health of our nation’s ecosystems, we are pleased to be part of this unique opportunity for Northern New England’s colleges and universities to lead the fight in finding long-term solutions to sustain our planet for generations to come.”

***
Established in 1994 and hosted at Bates College, MCC is a statewide coalition of 17 college and university presidents working to build strong communities and a more just democratic society by developing students’ citizenship and problem solving skills through community-based learning. More than 15,000 student volunteers at MCC member campuses provide some 1.6 million hours of service annually, with an economic impact of more than $25 million a year. MCC is an affiliate state office of Campus Compact, which includes almost 1,200 college and university presidents in 34 states.

The EPA’s Environmental Education (EE) Sub-grants Program is a competitive grant program that supports EPA’s efforts to increase public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues and provide participants in EE grant-funded projects the skills necessary to make informed environmental decisions and to take responsible actions toward the environment.

To serve and reflect

Mark Este — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:20:14 +0000

From the Times Higher Education (UK)
08/02/2012

In the US academy, engagement with the surrounding community and learning through service are 150-year-old ideals whose time has come again – but is the driving force altruism or self-interest?

Undergraduates and postgraduates at the University of Iowa are working to find new sources of energy – geothermal, solar, wind – for every building in the surrounding city of Dubuque, where a power plant is scheduled to close.

Students at the University of Wisconsin are generating electricity, and profits, from cow manure on dairy farms in Oshkosh, where revenues have plummeted due to low milk prices.

Long an undercurrent of the US academy, service by universities and their students to the communities around them – in academic parlance, “engagement” – has risen to the surface exactly 150 years after its importance was recognised in the landmark legislation that created many of the nation’s most prominent campuses.

Students are demanding it. Universities are using it to win back support from legislators and taxpayers. And there is a new-found enthusiasm for connecting service with learning. All this is layered on top of Americans’ persistent determination to help.

“Service is part of our history, part of our spirit,” attests Hiram Fitzgerald, associate provost for university outreach and engagement at Michigan State University. “It gets us into trouble sometimes,” he adds, jokingly.

Universities are counting on community service to have precisely the opposite effect at a time when they are struggling to cope with budget cuts and exhorting voters in states including California to restore some of their funding.

This resurgence comes against the backdrop of the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in the summer of 1862 as the US Civil War was raging. Named after Justin Morrill, the Vermont congressman who introduced it, the act ultimately established more than 70 universities nationwide, most of them public, but also some private and quasi-public, including Purdue, Cornell, Rutgers, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California system; the universities of Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin; and Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania state universities.

These institutions were meant to democratise higher education, then primarily the province of the upper classes, and also to serve their home states. Most added so-called extension services to apply their research into agriculture and manufacturing to the practical needs of their regions.
“This was part of Justin Morrill’s vision, and Abraham Lincoln’s: universities for the people, for the working class,” says Charles Hibberd, associate dean of agriculture and extension director at Purdue. “It became obvious that there wasn’t enough new knowledge to solve the problems of the day, so people started doing research. But if new knowledge is locked up in a peer-reviewed journal somewhere and not transformed into products people can use, it’s not worth much, especially to the taxpayers who support us.”
The commemoration of the Morrill Act anniversary, marked at the end of June at a Washington event featuring Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates as keynote speaker, is one reason why the topic of service in higher education is enjoying a revival.

But there are many others. The project in Oshkosh turning biogas into power, for example, will ultimately make money for the university whose students are conducting the research. It will also be at the centre of a biosolids research and teaching laboratory. The Iowa outreach effort is part of a course for second-year master’s students called Field Problems in Planning.

Both represent another new trend in service: connecting it with classroom learning, which has been shown to improve students’ year-to-year return and completion rates.

When a national organisation called Campus Compact was established in 1985 by the presidents of Stanford, Brown and Georgetown to formally renew the idea of service first envisaged by the Morrill Act, Fitzgerald says, “the emphasis was more on the service than on the learning.

“Over the past 15 years, there’s been an increasing emphasis on the learning part of service learning. From the university’s perspective, if institutions are investing in the support services necessary to monitor students’ work in communities, there has to be some tie-in to students’ reason for being at the university.”

The semantics have changed, too. Community service is now often known as “engaged scholarship” and “community-engaged learning”. What started out at Michigan State as the Office of Volunteerism has evolved into the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement.

There, each volunteer opportunity is assessed for its relevance to students’ coursework, Fitzgerald explains: “Does it give them a deeper understanding of their role in a civil democracy? Do they learn skills?” Students for whom performing service is connected to an academic course of study have their attendance and contributions formally evaluated.

The increased emphasis on preparing students for the workforce is another reason why universities are more closely connecting service with learning, says Judy Botelho, director of the Center for Community Engagement at the 23-campus California State University system.

“Millennial students (those entering higher education after 2000) are coming into college with the objective of getting a job. Some students may be reluctant to do service learning because they don’t see it helping them to do that. But it can teach some great soft job skills and get you great connections.”

Of course, not all students have ulterior motives for performing community service. Although few universities make it a formal requirement, about a third of students take part anyway.

At Michigan State, which has just under 48,000 students, about 18,000 perform community service at any given time. Of those, 5,000 participate in off-campus community activities directly related to their studies. In the California State University system, nearly half of its present cohort of 427,000 students are engaged in some kind of community service, a 114 per cent increase over the past 10 years.

Universities, in turn, closely track these numbers because they are important ammunition in efforts to persuade legislators, governors and taxpayers that public higher education is worth the money. For example, the California State system estimates that its students perform 32 million hours of service annually. Using a nationally accepted hourly pay rate of $21.36 (£13.75), it calculates that this creates an annual economic impact of $684 million – nearly a third of what the state currently spends (after years of huge budget cuts) to run the campuses. Michigan State, Kansas State University, the University of Kentucky and other schools use an “outreach engagement measurement instrument” to calculate the same things.
“There’s no question about it, we’re generating a lot of metrics,” Fitzgerald says. “There’s not an institution in this country that is not actively stressing that part of what they do.”

Botelho says there is pressure to go even further. “We’ve done a decent job, but we need to do more. One of the high priorities out of the chancellor’s office is to do a research project on the impact of these practices. How do we make the case to our taxpayers and our legislators?”
M. Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, the group that represents higher education institutions established by the Morrill Act, says that demonstrating the sector’s impact on society is now essential.

“You need to quantify it,” he argues. “You can’t just say we’re going to do it and we believe in it. You have to give examples.”There are other practical reasons for universities to reach out, says Maureen Curley, president of Campus Compact, which has grown steadily from its original three members to 1,200 institutions today. “We’re only as healthy as the communities that are around us,” Curley says. “We’re dependent on each other…”

Click here to view the whole article>> http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=420714

Fairmont State & WVU Students Connect with ‘Buy Local, Shop Shinnston’ Campaign

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:28:37 +0000

Some college students are working with one local city to promote shopping locally.

The West Virginia Campus Compact Program connects colleges and cities. College professors submit classes where they want students to have real world experience and cities submit things they want help with. The projects can range from art to marketing and technology.

Minnesota Campus Compact recognizes U of M, Crookston

admin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:19:10 +0000

At their annual awards ceremony at Macalester College, Minnesota Campus Compact recogized the University of Minnesota, Crookston in a variety of ways.

University of Minnesota, Crookston Chancellor Charles H. Casey attended the awards ceremony along with Rachel Lundbohm, instructor in the Business Department and Alexandra Buscher, a senior from Merrifield, Minn., majoring in business management. Also joining them was Dave Bennett, who represented the Rydell National Wildlife Refuge and Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge at the ceremony.

IU Kokomo offers science workshop for teachers

admin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:15:46 +0000

Indiana University Kokomo will partner with area teachers to enhance science education, while also providing more opportunities for future teachers to build their skills.

The School of Education received a $2,250 Scholarship of Engagement faculty grant from the Indiana Campus Compact to fund its science inquiry fellows project. The project includes a one-day workshop to prepare teachers in grades 5-12 to lead scientific inquiry projects.

NobleHour Sponsors the Inaugural Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:08:11 +0000

NobleHour today announced plans to sponsor the Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 6, 2012. The summit, which is hosted by the Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin Campus Compacts, helps campuses network, create strong community partnerships, and learn how to integrate civic and community-based learning into their curricula.

The summit will comprise of several presentations exploring different models of community engagement, sustainable service-learning strategies, and other civic-engagement focused topics. Speakers include representatives from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Buena Vista University, the University of Northern Iowa, Macalester College, and other institutions.

Intern Works For Tropical Storm Irene Recovery

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:03:06 +0000

Throughout the summer, 13 college students and recent graduates will be working on flood-related projects as interns for the Vermont Campus Compact’s Vermont Recovery Project.

The students will work directly with flood victims, document changes on local rivers and improve flood response plans.

Outstanding Employees Named at Purdue North Central

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:58:53 +0000

Purdue University North Central recently recognized three outstanding employees for their outstanding accomplishments.

This is the first time these awards will be given. Earlier this year, Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee (APSAC) and the Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee (CSSAC) suggested that an outstanding employee in each of the three employee classifications – clerical, service and Administrative/Professional be honored. Nominations were collected from throughout the PNC campus and award recipients are selected by a four-member committee.

Jackson Community College student earns coveted community service award

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:49:13 +0000

Mention Jane Boyle’s name to her family, friends and teachers and one of the first things they’ll likely tell you is, “She’s a giver.”

This kind of commitment to service has earned her one of this year’s 31 Outstanding Community Impact Awards from the Michigan Campus Compact, a coalition of college and university presidents.

Vermont College and University Students to Help Local Communities with Long-Term Recovery

admin — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:27:05 +0000

As Vermont approaches the one year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene, many individuals and organizations are still hard at work on clean-up and recovery from one of the worst natural disasters in the state’s history. A number of students from Vermont’s colleges and universities will join in this
summer, continuing the clean-up effort, assessing environmental damage, and helping individuals and communities across the state to come to terms with their losses.

Vermont Campus Compact’s Statewide Internships for Vermont Recovery Project will place thirteen undergraduate and graduate students from 6 different campuses with long-term recovery committees and community organizations around the state. Students will take on a variety of projects that range from working directly with flood survivors, documenting changes to local rivers, and improving emergency response plans.

Cheryl Whitney Lower, Executive Director of Vermont Campus Compact, notes, “Vermont’s higher education students have valuable skills, expertise, and energy to contribute to our state’s recovery. This program will tap into the intellectual capacity of our students, offering them meaningful ways to contribute to long-term recovery while also providing a real burst of energy to organizations that have been at this work for ten months now.”

Students from Green Mountain College, Lyndon State College, Saint Michael’s College, SIT Graduate Institute, Middlebury College, and the University of Vermont will work for the following organizations: American Red Cross of Vermont and New Hampshire Valley; Central Vermont Long Term Recovery
Group; Green Mountain United Way; Friends of the Mad River; Mad River Flood Recovery; ReBuild Waterbury; Southeastern Vermont Irene Long Term Recovery Committee; State of Vermont Irene Recovery Office, the University of Vermont, and Vermont 2-1-1.

Ben Ushkow, who graduated from St. Michael’s College in May and will be interning with the American Red Cross states, “After witnessing the destruction caused by Tropical Storm Irene, I felt motivated to do everything I could to help my favorite state recover and prepare for any unfortunate disasters in the future.”

Katie Emerson, a native Vermonter and environmental studies major at Green Mountain College, is excited to use skills learned in the classroom in the real world. “I will use my GIS and mapping skills to document the Mad River and inform policy decisions. I also hope my work will be useful in educating the public about how rivers move and change over time.”

Please visit Vermont Campus Compact’s website to meet the interns and learn about their projects.

Interns will gather for a two day orientation at Goddard College on June 11-12 before dispersing to different sites around the state to begin their internships. The orientation will include an afternoon of service in Middlesex helping a home-owner remove flood debris from her property; in-person and on-line trainings and reflections focused on professional and civic development will keep the interns connected with VCC staff and UVM facilitators throughout the internship experience.

Vermont Campus Compact is grateful to a host of funders and supporters who made this project possible. Major funding was provided by The WaterWheel Fund for Vermont Flood Recovery at the Vermont Community Foundation. Additional generous monetary or in-kind support was provided by the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, National Life Group, King Arthur Flour, Chroma Technology, TruexCullins, the State Irene Recovery Office, Saint Michael’s College, and the UVM Community-University and Service-Learning Partnerships office.

VCC provides training, networking, grants, resources, awards, and more to advance service, service-learning, and civic engagement on campuses and in communities. VCC is part of a larger national network of 35 state Compacts affiliated with national Campus Compact, representing 1100 college and
university presidents and their campuses, all dedicated to realizing the public purposes of higher education.

Want to learn more about the work being done by students, faculty, and campuses to positively impact our local and global communities? Visit our website www.vtcampuscompact.org or contact Executive Director Cheryl Whitney Lower at clower {at} smcvt(.)edu

Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, Eduardo Ochoa, To Keynote Annual Massachusetts Campus Compact of College and University Presidents

admin — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:37:21 +0000

Eduardo Ochoa, assistant secretary for Postsecondary Education, will deliver the morning keynote address at the Annual Massachusetts Campus Compact of College and University Presidents in Waltham, Mass., on Tuesday, June 12. Ochoa will discuss the importance of higher education civic engagement programs during a session titled “Civic Engagement and the PreK-Postsecondary Education Pipeline.” His remarks will be followed by a Q&A session.

The event is being hosted by the Massachusetts Campus Compact (MACC), a nonprofit coalition of 70 college and university presidents committed to developing the civic skills of students, building partnerships with the community, and integrating civic engagement with teaching and research. The annual gathering is part of a statewide network of college and university presidents in the MACC network. As part of its yearlong focus on the pre-k through postsecondary education pipeline, MACC is highlighting member initiatives that use civic engagement to increase college access and student success.

WHO:
Eduardo Ochoa, assistant secretary for Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

WHAT:
Keynote remarks at the Annual Massachusetts Campus Compact of College and University Presidents

WHERE:
Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, Mass.

WHEN:
8:30 a.m. ET, Tuesday, June 12, 2012

WKU hosts 7th Annual Kentucky Engagement Conference

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:49:13 +0000

On Nov. 8-9, Western Kentucky University will host the Kentucky Engagement Conference for the first time since the conference began in 2006.

The conference brings together academic administrators, faculty, staff and students to share best practices and learn trending ideas related to community engagement, service-learning, civic health, community-based research, and related topics. The location of the Kentucky Engagement Conference changes each year as it rotates between Kentucky’s regional universities. The conference is planned by the host school with the assistance of the statewide planning committee consisting of representatives from the eight Kentucky universities (WKU, Eastern Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky University, Murray State University, Morehead State University, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, and Kentucky State University), Kentucky Campus Compact, the Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Kentucky’s Secretary of State’s office.

Mariya Ilyas ’13, Amar Patel ’13 and Sustainable Bowdoin Receive Campus Compact Awards

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:46:29 +0000

Juniors Mariya Ilyas and Amar Patel, as well as Sustainable Bowdoin, have received awards from Maine Campus Compact, a consortium of 18 higher education institutions dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement and service learning in higher education.

Meramec Students Take On Service Learning Project

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:43:36 +0000

Webster Rock-Hill Ministries is going high-tech into the computer age, thanks to the help of some dedicated students and staff at St. Louis Community College at Meramec in Kirkwood.

Students and administrators from Meramec, officials with Webster Rock-Hill Ministries (WRHM) and Mayor Gerry Welch of Webster Groves recently convened to celebrate the accomplishments of the Service Learning/Civic Engagement program at Meramec, which brought the high-tech enhancements to the ministries.

Faculty and Staff Day celebrates close of the academic year with theme ‘We’re from Everywhere!’

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:38:23 +0000

The annual Faculty and Staff Day Program was held Tuesday, May 8, in Bede Ballroom, Sargeant Student Center at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. Faculty and staff from all units across campus attended the luncheon and program that followed. The theme for the day was “We’re from Everywhere,” and faculty and staff commemorated their heritage by donning clothing representing some part of their heritage. Hosting the event were Rachel Lundbohm, instructor in the Business Department, and Kristie Jerde, assistant director of residential life.

Students ‘Pay It Forward’ with award to Inspiring Minds

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:28:33 +0000

Youngstown State University students have awarded $2,000 to Inspiring Minds of Warren as part of the Pay It Forward: Strengthening Communities through Student-Led Philanthropy Initiative.

Under the program, students in the Nonprofit Community Service course in the YSU Williamson College of Business Administration gain hands-on experience in philanthropy by awarding money to a local nonprofit organization.

Community colleges offer archaeology training and dig at Japanese Gulch

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:31:39 +0000

Lynnwood, Wash.— Edmonds and Everett community colleges offer archaeology classes this summer with a rare opportunity for students to work on a real local dig.

Students will be excavating a site at Japanese Gulch, within 140 acres of wooded ravine, in Mukilteo this summer. They will be recovering artifacts of the Japanese community, emigrants working in the Mukilteo Lumber Mills, who lived in the area in the early 1900s. The City of Mukilteo discovered historical and cultural artifacts at the site while working on a fish passage and stream restoration project at Japanese Gulch Creek.