Conference to Focus on Improving University-Community Engagement
Contact: Kathryn Hunt, (207) 581-1553
The University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and Center for Teaching Excellence, in partnership with Maine Campus Compact, are inviting educators, policy-makers and members of the public to a day-long conference, “Strengthening Universities and Communities through Engagement,” Sept. 26 at the Morgan Hill Event Center in Hermon.
The conference is designed to explore how colleges and universities nationwide are embracing “engaged teaching and research” as a means of enhancing scholarship, student learning and community outcomes. The conference is 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
According to co-organizer Kathryn Hunt of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, colleges and universities are exploring new methods of teaching, scholarship and providing public service, and this conference will address many of those issues.
“Nationwide, colleges, universities and the communities are facing a need to become more relevant and connected to the communities and regions in which they’re located,” she says. “This has contributed to a widespread movement to strengthen the civic mission of colleges and universities, a movement that is exemplified by the new Carnegie Classification for Engagement. Our goal is not only to strengthen student learning and faculty scholarship but, more importantly, to better bring the assets of higher education to bear in solving pressing community problems.”
Conference speakers include keynote presentations from national experts. They are:
Lorilee Sandmann of the faculty at the University of Georgia, a post to which she returned to after 21 years in administration at leading universities. Sandmann co-directs the award-winning Clearinghouse and National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement, initially sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She played a key role in establishing the Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification and currently serves on its National Advisory Committee, which assesses faculty and institutional performance on indices of engagement.
Linda Silka, director of the Center for Family, Work and Community, who serves as special assistant to the provost for community outreach and partnerships at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Silka also serves as the evaluator of numerous efforts across the United States to strengthen community-university partnerships. Among many publications, she edited the newly released Scholarship in Action: Applied Research and Community Change, published by the Office of University Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And Armand Carriere, the executive director of the Worcester UniverCity Partnership, an organization founded by Mayor Timothy Mayer to serve as a catalyst for long-term economic growth and prosperity by facilitating communication among businesses, city government, neighborhood groups and non-profits organizations, and the colleges and universities in the Worcester area. Prior to assuming his current role, Carriere directed the Office of University Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
A chancellor’s roundtable on engagement, involving chief academic officers from Maine campuses and moderated by UMaine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude, also is part of the conference activities.
Afternoon panel sessions are scheduled on:
1-Getting Tenure or Promotion with a Community-Engaged Portfolio
Nationwide, increasing numbers of colleges and universities at all levels of classification are recognizing community engaged scholarship and teaching in tenure and promotion decisions. Panelists will share their experiences and wisdom in presenting “engaged portfolios” for tenure and promotion. Following brief remarks from each of the panelists, the session will open to discussion among conference participants with a focus on identifying successful individual and institutional practices and resources available for strengthening engaged scholarship.
Panel speakers include: Lorilee Sandmann, University of Georgia (moderator), co-director, National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement; Michelle Vazquez Jacobus, associate professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern Maine; Joseph Bandy, associate professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Bowdoin College; Lois-Ann Kuntz, associate professor of Psychology, University of Maine at Machias; and Brad Kinsey, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Hampshire.
2-Teaching through Engagement
Across the nation at all levels of education there is a push to bring relevancy and real-life applications into the teaching and learning process. This trend is also evident at higher education institutions. Engaged teaching and learning has been recognized as important not only to academic performance and student retention, but also to community outcomes. Panelists in this session will share models of good practice and strategize with participants about how to better integrate engagement across higher education curricula.
Panel speakers include: John Saltmarsh, (moderator) and professor, Department of Leadership in Education, University of Massachusetts at Boston, and president, New England Regional Council on Higher Education; John Ting, dean, College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Lowell; Kathleen March, UMaine professor of Spanish; and Mark Kavanaugh, social science instructor and director, Kennebec Valley Community College Center for Civic Engagement.
3-Engaged Research Initiatives: Moving from Stakeholder Involvement to Partnership
Academic research that takes place outside the laboratory is becoming an increasingly important force in addressing and helping communities solve local problems. While common sense might dictate that research, whenever possible, be approached in an engaged fashion. This is not always the case. Institutional and cultural barriers to applied research must be overcome before community-higher education partnerships can achieve their full potential. This session will explore successful approaches to mutually beneficial partnership building and how they have helped to bring rigorous research to bear in solving pressing problems faced by communities.
Panel speakers include: Glenn Beamer, director, Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and David Hart, director, Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research, as co-moderators; with Linda Silka, director, Center for Family, Work & Community, University of Massachusetts at Lowell; Chris Carrick, lecturer in sociology and associate for Community Based Research, Harward Center, Bates College; Rob Lilieholm, UMaine E.L. Giddings Associate Professor of Forest Policy; and Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator.
For more information and to register, go to www.umaine.edu/mcsc/COPC/.