December 10, 2007

Report Calls on Research Universities to Break Out of Ivory Tower

A report released today lays out the promise and pitfalls to expanding and institutionalizing civic engagement within research universities.

The report, “New Times Demand New Scholarship II: Research Universities and Civic Engagement — Opportunities and Challenges,” calls on universities to become more community-minded by, among other strategies, offering incentives to faculty members who propose innovative courses on or research into civic engagement, appointing a senior academic leader to promote scholarship on pressing public problems, and establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial university-community partnerships.

Written by Timothy K. Stanton, a lecturer in public policy at Stanford University, the report is the result of discussions held by 23 universities convened by Campus Compact, a national coalition of colleges committed to advancing social responsibility and public service on their campuses. It also highlights existing models of community engagement. —Karin Fischer

Comments

1. I have been attempting to get the Land Grant University in our state to grasp the attempts of our underserved rural county to engage them in a partnership that would fulfill their outreach commitments and serve our area. While all those contacted seem open, progress is not yet tangible, and it seems as if the whole thing ultimately rests on whether the university can make money here—not whether they can sustainably serve our community. Any suggestions?

   — Joe Erwin    Dec 10, 02:22 PM    #

2. One possibile attraction of outreach may be if it could be cast as an interesting research question for which grants may be sought and publications produced.

   — Gavin Moodie    Dec 10, 05:09 PM    #

3. Right, Gavin, and this is one approach that I have suggested. Sadly, it got no traction at all. I’ve just about given up, and have started checking out prospects of administrative jobs elsewhere. I proposed all sorts of things that were no cost and no risk to the university. Ultimately, I negotiated away any incentive I had for doing this, so I guess the place can just stay underserved until someone comes along who can make the case better than I was able to do.

   — Joe Erwin    Dec 10, 05:29 PM    #

4. My experience has been the opposite, throw in the towel on trying to link outreach to research, universities are in the business of basic research. Sometimes, however, the university hires someone who has real policy outreach interests and a condition of attracting/retaining that person is absorbing some expenses associated with outreach. Another approach I have seen work is linking outreach to experiential learning for students.

   — Sam    Dec 10, 07:25 PM    #

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