A Changing of the Guard:
Presidents Beering and Jischke
As reported in the previous edition of this newsletter (April 2000, Vol. 2, No. 3), in the closing months of his time in office, President Steven C. Beering gave an important boost to citizenship education and the scholarship of engagement at Purdue University by signing the Presidents’ Fourth of July Declaration.
Happily, incoming President Martin C. Jischke also has a strong history of advocacy of campus-community collaboration. While at Iowa State University, President Jischke was a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges’ (NASULGC) Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities.
Created in 1996 with a $1.2 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the commission consisted of 25 leading university presidents. The commission was charged not only with defining and bringing to the public attention the kinds of changes occurring at public universities today, but also with analyzing necessary reforms and suggesting ways to accomplish them and to monitor the results.
President Jischke chaired the Kellogg Commission committee that produced its third report, “Returning to our Roots: The Engaged Institution,” published in February 1999.
Information on the Kellogg Commission can be found at the NASULGC website at URL: www.nasulgc.org/Kellogg/kellogg.htm . This web address also provides access to numerous reports and publications of the commission, including the third report on “The Engaged Institution” and the capstone sixth and final report (March 2000) on “Renewing the Covenant: Learning, Discovery, and Engagement in a New Age and Different World.” (Printed copies of the third and sixth reports of the NASULGC Kellogg Commission can also be made available on request from the Task Force on Citizenship Education.)
The preface of the sixth report of the Kellogg Commission of the NASULGC includes the following paragraph:
“With this letter, the Kellogg Commission recommits American public higher education to a new tri-partite mission of learning, discovery, and engagement in the public interest. We commit ourselves to educational opportunity that is genuinely equal; to excellence across the board in our curricula; to the civic purposes of higher learning; to complex and broad-based agendas for discovery, research, and graduate education; and to active engagement that brings the resources of our institution to bear in a coherent way on community, state, national and international problems. Finally, we commit ourselves to accountability that is public and effective, and we pledge to implement the agenda laid out by the Kellogg Commission in its first five reports.”
The preface of the “Renewing the Covenant” report concludes with the following paragraph:
“The dawning of the new millennium is the perfect time to renew the educational commitment that has spawned so many of the intellectual, material and economic benefits enjoyed by the citizens of the United States. It is just the right time to reclaim that heritage and, in doing so, to renew the faith of Justin Morrill and Abraham Lincoln, the fathers of American public higher education, that our institutions would truly be the “public’s universities.””
[See the third page of this newsletter for some extracts from the executive summary of “Returning to our Roots.”]
The Task Force thanks President Beering for all his past support, and welcomes President Jischke as a worthy successor in the area of the scholarship of engagement and the engaged institution.
The Office of Community Service Learning,
a.k.a. Boiler Volunteer Network
Hours: Mon. – Thur., 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Fri. 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.; closed, Sat. and Sun.
Location: Stewart Center G-4 (next to PSG offices).
Phone: 765-494-8864.
E-mail: .
Staff: Coordinator, Sara Solloway, Program Director, Purdue Memorial Union; Office Manager, Mary Sutter; GLVB staff person, Tiffany Burks; undergraduate assistant, Erin Taylor.
Other groups located in Stew G-4: Task Force on Citizenship Education assistants, the Service Learning Ambassadors Program, and Students Assisting Volunteer Efforts. (The Presidents’ Advisory Council on Retirement [PACR] is also a partner in this project.)
Website: http://www.housing.purdue.edu/BVN/
ICC News and Grant Opportunities:
It is expected that the newly-forming Iowa Campus Compact will soon join Indiana Campus Compact, Illinois Campus Compact, Michigan Campus Compact, and Ohio Campus Compact in the Midwest Consortium. Talks have also begun concerning the possible creation of a state-level campus compact in Kentucky.
The ICC has added several new grant programs in addition to past stable of opportunities.
* Student Citizen Fellowships : $2,000; deadline 10/13/00; students (as: leader of student service group or of a large scale service project; liaison between campus and a community organization; SL assistant to a faculty member or academic department; or developer of a community-based research project).
* Campus-Community Dialogue : up to $3,000; deadline 10/13/00; faculty or staff w/ K-12 or community partners; for group of diverse individuals who commit to a series of topical discussions about a commonly perceived issue facing the community.
* Community Service Director Fellowship : $2,000; deadline 10/13/00; staff or faculty member in CSD role; to allow personal or institutional growth.
* Community Engagement Grants : up to $2,000; deadline 10/13/00; faculty w/ community partners; issues-based grants for the development and implementation of a partnership between a faculty member and a community organization or K-12 school.
* Scholarship of Engagement Mini-Grants : $1,000 - $3,000; deadline (round 2, 2000) 10/6/00; faculty involved in academic courses, research projects or professional service activities that engage the faculty member in the community (especially those who teach first-year courses and/or work with community partners serving youth).
* Community Service Mini-Grants : up to $1,000 (usually about $500); rolling deadline, on the 15th of every month; student groups undertaking service projects and employing the COOL model (emphasizing: community voice, training and orientation, meaningful action, reflection, and evaluation).
* Faculty Fellowships : $5,000; next deadline in early 2001 for class of 2001-2002; faculty who will teach a SL course, perform professional service for a community organization, and design a research project relating to the professional service or to the practice of SL.
The ICC can be contacted at 317-274-6500; Fax 317-274-6510; website URL: http://www.iupui.edu/~icc/ ; e-mail for office coordinator: ; mailing address: ICC, c/o University Place Conference Center, 850 W. Michigan Ave., Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46202.
The ICC can offer workshops for student groups interested in applying for community service mini-grants. It also operates the Indiana Reading Corps and a program on Embedding Service Learning in Student Teacher Education.
The OCSL/BVN Update:
The Office of Community Service and Learning, a.k.a. the Boiler Volunteer Network, operated on a limited schedule over the summer while preparing for its first full academic year. Help from many directions, including painting the office in Stewart G-4, and provision of desks, other furniture, and computers, is greatly appreciated.
On Wednesday, August 30, 2000 the OCSL/BVN held an open house from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. About fifty or sixty people attended, representing the community, retirees, students, staff, administrators and faculty. Brief welcoming remarks were offered by: Esther Chosnek, past Executive Director of GLVB; Betty Suddarth, of the Executive Committee of PACR; Erin Taylor, President of SAVE and of CMFK; Harry Brown, current Executive Director of GLVB; Sara Solloway, head of the OCSL; and John Pomery, CSD and Task Force chair.
On Wednesday, September 6, 2000, some thirty or more community agencies were represented at a BVN-sponsored Community Service Fair, held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. between Stewart Center and the Memorial Union.
The BVN is planning a series of one-day service events, on about a dozen Saturdays throughout the academic year. It hopes to encourage individuals and groups to commit to participate in one or more of these events. For more information, see the OCSL/BVN website under Upcoming Events.
Task Force and/or OCSL/BVN presentations:
At the start of the Fall Semester, 2000, members of the Task Force and staff of the OCSL/BVN made a number of presentations in the areas of service learning, community involvement, and service projects.
Groups involved included residence hall counselors from Meredith, Harrison, Wiley and Earhart residence halls. In addition a five-member team gave a presentation on “Building Community Bridges Through Service” at the ODOS-sponsored leadership retreat at Camp Tecumseh.
Another presentation was made at the Learning Communities Instructional Workshop, run by the Living Learning Communities component of the Lilly Endowment Retention Initiatives.
Task Force contacts:
* John Pomery, Community Service Director and Task Force Chair, 494-4515,
* Ed Wiercioch, SL Ambassador Program and Task Force Coordinator, 494-8864,
* Eva Ross, Task Force graduate assistant, 494-8864,
* Brenda Allie, Task Force secretarial assistant, 496-6912,
The Kellogg Commission’s Third Report – “Returning to our Roots: The Engaged Institution” :
Excerpts from the Executive Summary:
“ … this Commission concludes that it is time to go beyond outreach and service to what the Kellogg Commission defines as “engagement.” By engagement, we refer to institutions that have redesigned their teaching, research, and extension and service functions to become even more sympathetically and productively involved with their communities, however community may be defined.
“Engagement goes well beyond extension, conventional outreach, and even most conceptions of public service. Inherited concepts emphasize a one-way process in which the university transfers its expertise to key constituents. Embedded in the engagement ideal is a commitment to sharing and reciprocity. By engagement the Commission envisages partnerships, two-way streets defined by mutual respect among the partners for what each brings to the table. An institution that responds to these imperatives can properly be called what the Kellogg Commission has come to think of as an “engaged institution.”
“We believe that an engaged institution can enrich the student experience and help change the campus culture. It can do so by enlarging the opportunities for faculty and students to gain access to research and new knowledge and by broadening access to internships and various kinds of off-campus learning opportunities. The engaged institution must accomplish at least three things.
“1. It must be organized to respond to the needs of today’s students and tomorrow’s, not yesterday’s.
“2. It must enrich students’ experiences by bringing research and engagement into the curriculum and offering practical opportunities for students to prepare for the world they will enter.
“3. It must put its critical resources (knowledge and expertise) to work on the problems the communities it serves face.”
The above excerpt from the Executive Summary is followed one paragraph later by the paragraph below:
“Preparation for Life. The Commission believes that one of the best ways to prepare students for the challenges life will place before them lies in integrating the community with their academic experiences. Students are one of the principal engagement resources available to every university. Service-learning opportunities undoubtedly help everyone involved – student, community, and institution. Nor should we overlook the opportunities to improve students’ exposure to research in this service endeavor. There should be little distinction between the benefits of students participating in research and in public service.”
Service-Learning Courses at Purdue:
The Task Force website includes an electronic version of the entire 1998 Inventory of Service Learning Courses at Purdue University, West Lafayette. Since such inventories are prone to become outdated quite quickly, descriptions of a number of current SL courses are also to be found at the website, URL: http:/www.mgmt.purdue.edu/centers/citizen_ed/
MGMT 190S, “Intro to SL,” Spring 2001
Mgmt 190S, “Introduction to Service Learning,” currently offered only to participants in the Leadership and Service Learning Scholars learning community (of the Lilly Endowment Retention Initiative), will be offered in Spring Semester 2001 for open enrollment (cap of 25 students). Mgmt 190S is a 2-credit course, and will meet on Fridays, 8:30 – 10:20 a.m., during Spring 2001 in the Earhart Residence Hall conference room. The instruction team, as in Fall 2000, will include: Brad Balser, assistant manager of Wiley Residence Hall; Ed Wiercioch, coordinator for the Task Force and for the SL Ambassadors Program; and John Pomery, Associate Professor of Economics, Community Service Director, and Task Force chair. It is expected that SL Ambassadors will also assist as mentors and facilitators.
Other Task Force activities:
Apart from assisting the staff of the OCSL/BVN in preparing for the Fall Semester, and making presentations to a number of groups (see elsewhere in this edition), the Task Force on Citizenship Education has been particularly active on two fronts.
The Service Learning Ambassador Program, headed since April by Ed Wiercioch, is in full swing with a pilot group of ambassadors. This program has been funded by USA Group Foundation, through the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, for three years. Four ambassadors have been selected for the first class of 2000-2001. Orientation was in mid-September, and two ambassadors, Amanda Brown and Erin Taylor, have been assisting in the first Mgmt 190S course.
A subcommittee, headed by doctoral student Eva Ross, who joined the Task Force as a graduate assistant on July 1, 2000, has been developing a strategic plan for the Task Force. It is expected that this will be completed by the end of September 2000, and that it will call for an Advisory Board for the Task Force, consisting of community members, administrators, faculty, staff and students. Others assisting on the subcommittee include: Tiffany Burks, Susan Hychka, John Pomery, Tamara Rice, Erin Taylor, Jack Tedeski, and Ed Wiercioch.
Miscellaneous News:
** The Task Force website, with modified URL: http://www.mgmt.purdue.edu/centers/citizen_ed/
has been updated. The Task Force is very grateful to Jack Tedeski for his volunteer work in this area. Jack was also responsible for building the OCSL/BVN website.
** Students Assisting Volunteer Efforts (SAVE), formed in Spring 1999 with an Indiana Campus Compact mini-grant, will have its Fall semester callout on Tuesday, September 19, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. in University Hall 101. A primary role of SAVE is to be the student organization partnering the OCSL/BVN, and facilitating volunteer and service-learning opportunities for members of the Purdue community.
** Make a Difference Day 2000: Brad Balser, assistant manager of Wiley Residence Hall, will be arranging another set of activities for students on Make A Difference Day 2000. About one hundred students participated in 1999.