The Engaged University at a Crossroads

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The Engaged University at a Crossroads

• Presented at the University of Kwa-Zulu
  NatalConference on Community EngagementOctober
  8, 2009
• Jonathan K. LondonUniversity of California,
  DavisDepartment of Human and Community
  DevelopmentCenter for Regional Change

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Anatomy of a Journey

• Beginnings, endings, and the spaces in between
• Crossroads places of possibility, learning, and
  danger
• Transformation along the way

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My Journey
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The Land Grant Idea

• Open higher-education beyond elites for practical
  training (Morrill Act 1862)
• Develop Agricultural Experiment Stations (Hatch
  Act 1887)
• Extension Service for county-based education
  (Smith Lever Act 1914)
• Include Historically Black Colleges and
  Universities (Land Grant Act of 1890)
• Extend to first Americans (1994)

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• Land Grant Institution/ Agricultural Experiment
  Station
• Emphasis on multi-disciplinary research
• Collaborative structures (graduate groups,
  centers and institutes)

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• Engage research to help solve problems that
  matter to the region
• Create collaborative partnerships for mutual
  teaching and learning
• Emphasize rigorous research in support of social
  equity and sustainability.

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Regions of Change
Art of Regional Change
Healthy Youth/ Healthy Regions
Labor Studies
SCORECARD
SJV- Cumulative Health Impacts Project
Gifford Center
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SCORECARD
In partnership with the Sacramento Coalition on
Regional Equity (CORE).
Community Mapping
Regional equity indicators/ indexes
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Healthy Youth/ Healthy Regions

• Unprecedented exploration of disparities in youth
  well-being on a regional scale.
• Inform regional action to reduce disparities in
  youth health, education, civic engagement and
  employment.
• Unique partnership of UC Davis with the Sierra
  Health Foundation and the California Endowment.

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MOU San Joaquin Valley Cumulative Health
Impacts Project

• Value communities speaking for themselves.
• New funding sought by academics to be disclosed
  to, approved by, and non-competing with Valley EJ
  groups.
• UCD EJP and CRC will actively assist SJV CHIP to
  increase its capacity through funding
  prospecting.This will be a reciprocating
  relationship with SJV CHIP committing to the same
  activities and actions in support of UC Davis .
• When possible, funding should be awarded to
  community group partners academics can then act
  as a subcontractor.

• -- Allow community partners final product
  review, especially if they have been mentioned in
  the report or study.
• Appropriately compensate groups and individuals
  for advisory roles.
• Increase capacity of existing community groups, (
  train the trainers).
• Academics may be invited to give advice at SJV
  CHIP meetings, but they will not be given a
  decision-making role.
• -- Confidentiality and full disclosure of funding
  and publishing.

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• Public scholarship
• Scholarly and creative work jointly planned and
  carried out by university and community partners
• Intellectual work that produces a public good

• Artistic, critical, and historical work that
  contributes to public debates
• Efforts to expand the place of public scholarship
  in higher education, including the development of
  new programs and research on the successes of
  such efforts.

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AI Tenure Recommendations

• 1. Define public scholarly and creative work.
• 2. Develop policy based on a continuum of
  scholarship.
• 3. Recognize the excellence of work that connects
  domains of knowledge
• 4. Expand what counts.
• 5. Document what counts.
• 6. Present what counts use portfolios.
• 7. Expand who counts Broaden the community of
  peer review.

• 8. Support publicly engaged graduate students and
  junior faculty.
• 9. Build in flexibility at the point of hire.
• 10. Promote public scholars to full professor.
• 11. Organize the department for policy change.
• 12. Take this report home and use it to start
  something.

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Faculty Assessment Criteria

• Honors, awards, and other forms of special
  recognition received for community outreach
• Adoption of faculty members models for problem
  resolution, intervention programs, instruments,
  or processes by others who seek solutions to
  similar problems
• Substantial contributions to public policy or
  influence upon professional practice

• Evaluative statements from clients and peers
  regarding the quality and
• Significance of documents or performances
  produced by the faculty member
• Publication in journals or presentations at
  disciplinary or interdisciplinary meetings that
  advance the scholarship of community outreach

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Questions at the Crossroads

• How can we pursue public scholarship in a time of
  retrenchment of public support for education
  (primary, secondary and higher education) and a
  shift towards privatization?
• What are the implications of public-private
  partnerships for a social justice orientation to
  community engagement? (What community, what kinds
  of engagement?)
• How can we ensure the long-term and stable
  funding needed to foster and maintain
  community-university partnerships over time?

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You get what you pay for
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