LISTSERV 16.5 - CAMPCOMM Archives

UT-REACH is published by The Office of Community Engagement & Outreach (OCEO) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

“Public engagement is, and always has been, an essential part of the mission of higher education. The trouble is: Lots of people inside and outside of academe just don’t believe that.”

We have a problem with how we define and value the many ways in which faculty members already engage with the public. Emphasizing the potential of public engagement does not have to diminish the vast social good that comes from our core activities of teaching and scholarship. In fact, publicizing the importance of college teaching and specialized scholarship is a major aspect of the scholarship of engagement. (H/T Engagement Scholarship Consortium)

The Knox County Health Department asks local organizations that may be planning mission trips or outreach efforts in the Caribbean, especially Haiti, to take precautions against chikungunya, a virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes. Knox County Health has posted information about the virus along with precautionary measures travelers should follow on their website, below.

The Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee (CAC) seeks applicants for its 28th Community Leadership Class. Eligibility incudes current and emerging leaders who live, work or volunteer in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods and groups.

The Centennial Annual Meeting of the AAC&U, to be held January 21-24, 2015 in Washington, DC, will both highlight and explore the intensity and inventiveness with which educators are working to prepare today’s diverse students for a world of global interconnection—in the economy, society, and their own lives. We will celebrate the ways that members are using AAC&U’s long-term initiative, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP), to drive creative educational change, support greater student success, connect college learning with the wider society, and raise the level of both inclusiveness and quality.

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program is intended to enhance faculty collaboration that stimulates scholarly initiatives between SEC universities. Grants cover travel related costs for faculty to visit another SEC campus to exchange ideas, develop grant proposals, conduct research, consult with faculty and/or students, offer lectures or symposia, or other collaborative activity. Travel dates for these visits are between September 1, 2014 and July 31, 2015.

The deadline is approaching for applications for the 2014 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. The award, which includes a cash prize of $100,000, seeks to recognize existing nonprofit programs that make a difference in the lives of community members and demonstrate a commitment to innovation.

UT-OCEO just tried out this new tool (developed with an NSF grant!) and was quite impressed with the results: a serviceable outline one could use to begin planning and drafting the broader impact component of an NSF proposal. The wizard uses a set of if-then questions, short videos, examples, calculators and prompts to guide users through a series of interactive modules. In the end I had defined an audience, an activity, my partners, a project description, an evaluation plan, a budget, final notes, and even a short list of relevant literature.

An extensive list of resources provided by the National Girls Collaborative Project, this website includes a webinar archive, research, demographic data, and many projects that share exemplary practices for engaging and serving girls who are often most underrepresented in STEM.

The nation is becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse, but programming demands often leave little time for synthesizing or sharing information about working with specific culturally diverse audiences. This engaging report, published by Oregon State University Extension Service, highlights effective strategies for engaging Latino Youth in Community-Based Programs.

Ed Morrison and Scott Hutcheson, from Purdue’s Center for Regional Development, are using “Strategic Doing” to produce collaborations that are replicable, scalable, and sustainable. Their approach formalizes these factors for success: