Welcome.
This is the inaugural issue of a newsletter from the Purdue ad hoc Task Force on Citizenship Education. Further issues are planned throughout the academic year.
The Task Force emerged from the National Campus Compact movement, and specifically from events sponsored by the Indiana Campus Compact [ICC]. The Task Force mission relates to promoting citizenship education and service learning on the Purdue campus.
However success of initiatives promoting these forms of education is highly correlated with early, and significant, community involvement with the initiative. Effective service learning, addressing genuine community needs, requires strong, sustained campus-community collaboration. Thus the Task Force is committed to laying the foundations for strong campus-community partnership, and to bringing the voices of all the stakeholders into the conversation.
In sum, the Task Force has an interest in helping strengthen or develop campus-community partnerships that: (1) enhance the college experience for Purdue students; (2) meet community-identified needs; (3) maintain, for curricular activities, highest academic standards; and (4) reflect the spirit of Purdue’s land-grant mission and enhance the university’s reputation.
The ad hoc Task Force has been in existence only since June 1997. Purdue University has a proud tradition of volunteerism, and several excellent service-learning courses. Its land-grant status has led Purdue to an outstanding record of outreach activities. Moreover Purdue is located in the Greater Lafayette community, which exhibits tremendous community spirit and capacity for leadership.
What may have been missing is: an explicit articulation of the nature and value of citizenship education and a “scholarship of engagement;” explicit coordination between campus and community – and within the campus – in the areas of identifying and sharing resources and of identifying community needs; a central link on the Purdue side to facilitate course development, community contacts, and inventorying of resources; and an overall vision of the potential benefits of curricular and co-curricular involvement of the campus with the community of Greater Lafayette (and with other communities in Indiana and beyond).
During the 1998-99 academic year the Task Force seeks to promote campus-community dialogue, with an eye to laying the foundations for a sustained, and ever-growing campus-community collaboration.
This dialogue will occur in the context of a number of events, including half-dauy retreats, evening sessions, and brown-bag lunches.
Stakeholders in this process include:
Community leaders and community agencies, who would benefit from even greater access to Purdue resources and greater partnership;
Purdue students, whose academic and college experience will be enhanced by opportunities for experiential learning and community involvement;
Purdue faculty, whose range of teaching, research and service opportunities will be expanded;
Residence halls, ODOS, and administrators concerned with issues of retention and student satisfaction;
Retirees, alumni, and others interested in volunteering or in facilitating student learning;
Extension units, interested in adding curricular dimensions to existing or planned activities;
State and national groups interested in encouraging a volunteer spirit and an educational experience that values citizenship.
Please consider being part of this year’s dialogue, and part of an explicit campus-community collaboration that enhances all parties to the partnership.
Fast-Approaching Events.
Brown-bag lunch (campus). LAEB 1255, Tues. September 8, 1998, noon – 1:00 p.m.
“Citizenship Education – What Might It Mean for Purdue University?”
Discussion of the goals and activities of the Task Force, and the potential for growth and change at Purdue. Open to faculty, staff, students, and friends of Purdue from the community.
Brown-bag lunch (community). YWCA, 605 N 6th St, Lafayette, Friday, September 11, 1998, noon – 1:00 p.m.
“Citizenship Education at Purdue – How Might It Serve Greater Lafayette?”
A more community-focused discussion and explanation of the Task Force’s goals and the potential for campus-community collaboration. Open to anyone interested in discussing campus-community collaboration.
First Evening Session. Stewart Center, Room 322, Thursday, September 17, 1998, 7:00 – 9:15 p.m.
“Conflict Resolution.”
The first of a six-part series, designed to raise issues and stimulate dialogue about current and future campus-community collaboration, and about education, community, and citizenship.
Facilitators: Shiv Ganesh, Becky Herrnstein, Kate Laskowitz, Andy Mager.
What is Service Learning?
Service learning is a type of experiential learning that engages students in service within the community as an integrated part of a course. An effective service learning class involves students in course-relevant activities in partnership with a community organization, and structures opportunities for students to reflect on their service experience to gain a better understanding of course content and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. The students are actively involved in collaborative and inquiry-based learning experiences that meet identified community needs.
[Key phrases here include: “an integrated part of the course;” “course-relevant activities;” “in partnership with a community organization;” “opportunities … to reflect;” “actively involved;” and “that meet identified community needs.”]
What is Campus Compact?
The National Campus Compact was formed as a consortium of colleges and universities around 1985. This was in response to the late Ernest Boyer’s call for a “scholarship of engagement,” where the resources of higher education could be deployed to address pressing needs in our communities. The National Campus Compact currently has over 600 members.
Indiana Campus Compact (ICC) is one of over twenty state Campus Compacts. (ICC currently works very closely with the Campus Compacts in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois.) ICC is a consortium of nearly 30 higher education institutions, including the entire Purdue University system. The ICC offers grants for: institutional development projects; development of service-learning courses; philanthropic or service projects by campus organizations; and for faculty fellows. The ICC, under its Universities as Citizens program, runs colloquia, workshops, and summer planning institutes, as well as serving as a resource for campuses within the consortium. The ICC offices are located on the IUPUI campus.
What is the ad hoc Task Force?
Three Purdue (WL) attendees at the 1996-97 ICC Universities as Citizens colloquia helped form a ten-person team at the inaugural ICC Summer Planning Institute of June 1997. This team returned to campus, recruited some new members, and created the Task Force.
In the next six months the Task Force: composed a Mission Statement and a supporting rationale statement, a Vision Statement, and a statement of Goals and Objectives; held seven focus groups for faculty, administrators, students, and community members; did a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis on the focus group outcomes; co-sponsored a campus presentation by a nationally-recognized expert in service learning; and was part of a presentation to a group from the purdue Board of Trustees.
Supported by funds from the office of the President, and by the encouragement of the Director of the Undergraduate Studies Program, Dr. Richard E. Grace, the Task Force gained the services of temporary administrator. This allowed the Task Force to survey the entire campus both for service learning courses and for reports of volunteer activities by faculty, staff, and students. From this came the June 1998 “Inventory of Service Learning Courses at Purdue University, West Lafayette, 1998.”
The temporary administator also led coordination of an “Enhancing Student Learning Day at Purdue” on April 8, 1998. Service learning coordinators, faculty members, and students from Michigan State and IU Bloomington participated on the program along with representatives from some leading service learning courses at Purdue.
The Task Force was then successful in applying to send a team to the second (four-state) Campus Compact Summer Planning Institute at Columbus, OH, in June 1998. From that second team, working with other Task Force members, has come a project to develop a campus-community dialogue, and a curriculum of retreats and evening sessions, augmented by brown-bag lunches and visiting speakers. These events, and the dialogue they will generate, are designed to enhance understanding of the foundations of citizenship education and the issues involved in implementing service learning projects. It is hoped that these activities planned for 1998-99 (and beyond) will mold even stronger links between campus and community, which in turn can be the basis for: additional service learning opportunities (and other forms of community outreach); greater campus-community collaboration; and the evolution of suggestions as to how to integrate these activities effectively into the fabric of the university and the community.
Plans for 1998-99.
The Task Force plans three half-day retreats, currently scheduled for the mornings of: October 17, 1998; February 20, 1999; and April 17, 1999. The first retreat is intended to bring together faculty, members of community agencies, and students to discuss both the nature of service learning and experiences within specific courses and agencies. This will be an opportunity to share information, and to learn more about strengths and weaknesses of SL practices.
The focus of of the second retreat will be on Campus-Community Collaboration – what is involved, and how best can increased collaboration be encouraged (both by formal institutional links and by proactive attitudes and informal channels)? The final retreat will assess the 98-99 events and encourage brainstorming the next steps.
The six evening sessions are scheduled for Thursdays, 7:00 – 9:15 p.m. on: September 17, 1998; October 15, 1998; November 12, 1998; January 28, 1999; February 25, 1999; March 25, 1999. These sessions have multiple goals.
One goal is to bring together a core group of campus and community people who have developed some common understanding of issues of community, collaboration and education. It is hoped that many members of this core group will take a leadership role in further developing service learning, citizenship education and campus-community collaboration.
Second, the curriculum of these evening sessions is intended to be a basis (an “alpha model”) that, after refinement, could become a way to introduce additional faculty, staff, students and community members to issues of citizenship and collaboration.
Third, the evening sessions are intended to be informative and interactive, without attempting to make participants into “instant experts” and without degenerating into unstructured venting of frustrations.
Topics planned are: Conflict Resolution (9/17/98); Mental Barriers to Common Ground (10/15/98); Experiential and Tranformational Education (11/12/98); Diversity (1/28/99); Ethics and Community (2/24/99); Dialogue, Education and Community (3/24/99). Our goal is to have many of these sessions co-facilitated by campus and community members.
The brown bag lunches are intended to encourage further interaction amongst those supportive of Task Force activities, as well as a place for those interested to learn about the Task Force, service learning, citzenship education, and campus-community collaboration. Locations of the lunches, as well as for events, will be rotated both between campus and community locations, and among both types of locations. The first two are planned for Tuesday, September 8, 1998 (on campus) and Friday, September 11, 1998 (in the community).
Questions?
The Task Force on Citizenship Education includes faculty, administrators, and students at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus and also several key persons from the community in the areas of volunteerism and community leadership promotion. Your input is always welcome.
We are at a very early stage in terms of identifying, deepening and extending the campus-community links that often have been in existence for many years. Many, many potential stakeholders are involved. There are issues of: (1) effective learning experiences for students; (2) maintaining academic integrity for curricular activities; (3) developing true campus-community partnership, so that community needs are identified and campus resources used effectively; and (4) enhancing the reputations of both Purdue University and the Greater Lafayette community.
Combining a world-class land grant institution with an All-American city and with a proactive and caring community, the potential benefits for community needs, student experience, curricular enrichment, and institutional reputation seem almost unlimited. Please contact a Task Force member , or a friend of the Task Force, if you would like more information, or would like to be involved in this initative at the grass roots level.
Names of Contacts:
[including a selection of Task Force members and friends of the Task Force]
Purdue University:
Faculty
Bob Chalmers, Pharmacy Practice
Linda Chezem, Director, 4-H
Ed Coyle, Elec. & Comp. Eng.
Al Crispo, OLS
Janet Hortin, PU Medical Program
Leah Jamieson, Elec. & Comp. Eng.
Kate Laskowitz, OLS
Lynn Nelson, Ackerman Ctr Director, Curr. & Instr.
John Pomery, Economics (chair)
Mary Pilat, 4-H/Youth Development*
Administrators
Laura Downey, University Development Office
Becky Draves, Asst. Manager, Hillenbrand Hall
Dick Grace, Director, Undergraduate Studies Program*
Becky Herrnstein, Director, Womens Resource Off.
Susan Hychka, SLA Advising
Scott Rumble, Tipp. Co. Extension Service*
Mike Sheahan, Executive Education, Krannert Sch.
Graduate Students
Shiv Ganesh, Communication
Amna Jameel, Consumer Sciences & Retailing*
Sharon Parkinson, Sociology*
Caryn (Kikta) Vazzana, Economics
Dan Vazzana, Economics
Greater Lafayette
Esther Chosnek, GLVB
Jane McCann, Lafayette Crisis Center
Christy Smith, Leadership Lafayette
Lois Wark, Leadership Lafayette
For more information, contact one of the above, or John Pomery at 765-494-4515 (phone and voice mail), 765-496-1778 (FAX); (e-mail).
Future issues may include: news about Task Force and related activities; brief articles that introduce specific service learning courses on campus, or specific community agencies; information benchmarking on ‘best practices’ in citizenship education, service learning, or campus-community collaboration at other institutions of higher education; information on web sites or books and articles in the areas of citizenship education, service learning, or campus-community collaboration; information on grant,workshop and other opportunities from Indiana Campus Compact or other sources.