Outreach

In 1987 Ernest Lynton and Sandra Elman published New Priorities for the University, a landmark book about the importance of university faculty and student work in the community. The authors believe that a university needs to perform three functions if it is to work effectively with the community: an information/communication function, a brokering/negotiation function, and a delivery function. The authors stated that universities pursuing this mission will need to adapt staffing and promotion/ tenure criteria and create incentives for faculty engagement and mechanisms for multidisciplinary collaboration. They suggested that complexity, originality, innovativeness and thoroughness may be useful criteria for assessing faculty involvement in outreach projects.

In 1990 Ernest Boyer published a special report of the Carnegie Foundation entitled Scholarship Reconsidered that enlivened discussion about the importance of applied community-based work by university faculty and students. Boyer proposed that four forms of scholarship be recognized for promotion/ tenure consideration – the scholarship of discovery (research), integration (multidisciplinary collaboration), application (community service), and teaching. He stated that (community) “service activities must be tied directly to one’s special field of knowledge and relate to and flow out of this professional activity.” He believed that it was “serious, demanding work requiring the rigor and accountability traditionally associated with research.”

In 1999 a Kellogg Commission report on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities concluded that “with the resources and superbly qualified professors and staff on our campuses, we can organize our institutions to serve both local and national needs in a more coherent and effective way.” The Commission referred to institutions embracing this concept as “engaged institutions.” Engaged institutions are responsive and accessible to the community, integrate community service with teaching and research, facilitate interdisciplinary work among faculty and students, and commit the necessary resources to make it happen. Stated recommendations to universities that wish to “engage” included: making engagement a priority, encouraging multidisciplinary work, and creating new incentives for faculty to engage.

Further evidence that community outreach is an important topical issue in academia, is offered by a recent issue of Academe, the bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (2000), that was devoted to “civic engagement and higher education.” Several articles in this issue state that outreach activities are a catalyst for a) service learning that provides students with opportunities to engage in civic work at a time when many segments of society are disengaging and b) interdisciplinary activity among faculty at a time when universities tend to isolate individuals and ideas remain theoretical because they are not tested in real-world settings. Additionally, Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (2000) recently reaffirmed the important role that higher education can play in community development. HUD continues to provide funding for the development of Community Outreach Partnership Centers -- institutionalized functions in universities that promote community-based “service learning” opportunities for students, changes in curriculum to include community development issues, and applied research by faculty.

CCSU is following the advice of the 1999 Kellogg Commission report by making community engagement a priority, encouraging multidisciplinary activity, and creating new incentives for faculty to engage in community outreach work. Support for community outreach work is exhibited at the highest level as reflected by the university’s new mission statement which now includes specific mention of outreach activities and by the following public address made by former President Richard L. Judd (1998). “The needs of our communities are real and our faculty have a lot to offer in terms of research, training, and expert consultancy. CCSU has earned the reputation of a quality teaching school, I would like to see it known as a quality community outreach institution also. This vision will be well served by elevating the importance of applied work benefiting the community that is consistent with our high standards of academic excellence.”

Several incentives are offered that encourage faculty to engage in outreach activities. A mechanism for supplementing faculty salaries for outreach work that is performed in addition to their normal workload is included in the faculty union contract. Deans, at their discretion and with agreement of relevant department heads, can release faculty from teaching responsibilities by awarding “reassigned time” for engaging in outreach activities. Departments can then be “reimbursed” for lost teaching effort with part-time adjunct faculty if needed. In addition, based on Ernest Boyers Scholarship Reconsidered,  outreach activities are now considered in promotion/tenure evaluations.

Several programs at CCSU are specifically designed to link the university with surrounding communities. The Continuing Education Division of the university offers a large number of noncredit training programs. The School of Education operates a very successful Professional Development School (PDS) Network consisting of five school districts. Each PDS hosts CCSU student interns and has a CCSU faculty member assigned to it who assists with program development/evaluation efforts.  It is housed in the Office of External Affairs.  The community outreach mission of the Center was furthered institutionalized during the late 1990s as a result of a HUD funded COPC project. The Center, which has become an important component of the university’s outreach mission, facilitates multidisciplinary linkages among faculty and community groups. The CPPSR is following the advice of Lynton and Elman by performing an information/communication function, a brokering/negotiation function, and a delivery function.