Faculty for the Engaged Campus

Press Release
Overview
Background
Intended Outcomes
Leadership Team
Faculty Development Charrette
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
For More Information

Overview

This national initiative of CCPH in partnership with the University of Minnesota and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill aims to strengthen community-engaged career paths in the academy by developing innovative competency-based models of faculty development, facilitating peer review and dissemination of products of community-engaged scholarship, and supporting community-engaged faculty through the promotion and tenure process. It is supported by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) in the US Department of Education.

Faculty for the Engaged Campus builds on the work of the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative, a FIPSE-funded group of health professional schools that have been working together to build capacity for community-engaged scholarship on their campuses and among their peers nationally.

Background

Community-engaged learning and research are gaining recognition and legitimacy in higher education. The critical issue facing colleges and universities today is how do we institutionalize and sustain them as core values and practices? Having a cadre of faculty with the commitment and competencies to link their scholarship with communities is central to answering this question.

Faculty for the Engaged Campus seeks to address these persistent challenges:

• There are few professional development pathways for those who seek community-engaged careers in the academy
• Peer reviewers in a given faculty member's discipline or profession who can understand and assess the rigor, quality and impact of their CES are not readily identifiable
• There is no accepted method or vehicle for peer reviewing, publishing and disseminating products of CES that are in forms other than journal articles (e.g., technical reports, resource guides, handbooks, policy briefs, etc.)
• There are no clearly defined or accepted roles for community partners in the faculty development, review, promotion or tenure process.

Intended Outcomes

Faculty for the Engaged Campus aims to achieve these outcomes over a three-year period (2007-2010):

• Twenty universities, in collaboration with their community partners, will design innovative competency-based models of CES faculty development and six will have implemented, evaluated and disseminated them
• Community-engaged faculty members will regularly submit products of CES to our online clearinghouse for peer review, publication and dissemination
• Community-engaged faculty members being considered for promotion and/or tenure, provosts, deans and department chairs will routinely consult our searchable online database for external peer reviewers
• Partnerships will be in place with national professional associations to facilitate ongoing use of and support for both the online clearinghouse and external reviewer database
• "Peer" in CES will be redefined to include community partners.

Leadership Team

Director: Sarena Seifer, Executive Director, CCPH and Research Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Washington

Co-Directors: Lynn Blanchard, Director, Carolina Center for Public Service, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & Cathy Jordan, Director, Children, Youth, and Family Consortium, University of Minnesota

Deputy Director: Piper McGinley, Senior Consultant, CCPH

Evaluator: Sherril Gelmon, Professor of Public Health, Portland State University

Faculty Development Charrette

In January 2008, we released a Call for Applications to participate in a faculty development charrette from May 28-30, 2008 in Chapel Hill, NC. A charrette is an intensely focused multi-day session that uses a collaborative approach to create realistic and achievable designs. Charrettes have mainly been used in architecture, urban planning and community design projects. In our case, we will convene campus teams, project leadership and expert advisors to collaboratively design innovative models of CES faculty development.

Over 100 applications were received for the 20 available slots. Each application was assessed by three reviewers, with geographic and institutional diversity considered in the final selections.

Click here for a press release announcing the twenty colleges and universities that will be participating in the charrette.

Click here for a summary of reviewer comments on applications that were not selected.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for answers to frequently asked questions about the faculty development charrette component of the initiative. This document is updated periodically. If you have a question that is not answered here, please email it to fipse2@u.washington.edu.

Click here for answers to frequently asked questions about community-engaged scholarship. These were developed by the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative. If you have a question that is not answered here, please email it to fipse2@u.washington.edu.

Related Resources

Visit these CCPH webpages for related resources:

Community-Engaged Scholarship
Community-Engaged Scholarship Toolkit
Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions
Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative
Community-Engaged Scholarship Listserv
Engaged Institutions Initiative

For More Information

We welcome your suggestions of key articles, reports, people and programs that should be considered for this initiative. You may send questions, comments, citations or full-text materials by e-mail or by mail: UW Box 354809, Seattle, WA 98195-4809.

To receive periodic initiative updates and announcements, join the Community-Engaged Scholarship listserv. This electronic discussion group provides a venue for sharing information and resources concerning the academic review and reward system for faculty involved in community based participatory research, service-learning and other forms of community-engaged scholarship.

For additional information, please contact Deputy Director Piper McGinley.