Director's Message"My vision is of a university so thoroughly engaged with its community...that people throughout the region refer to it as 'our university'." - PSU President Daniel O. Berstine The 2004 Wingspread document "Calling the Question" asks, "Is higher education ready to commit to community engagement?" PSU's resounding response is "Yes, absolutely!" Indeed, for well over the past decade, PSU's understanding of itself as an urban institution, committed to educating socially responsible students and to supporting engaged research and scholarship, has guided us. The impact has been substantial; in the 2003-04 academic year, student enrollment in formal community-based learning courses was 7,789 students, involving several hundred faculty and even more community partners. Several years ago, students coined the phrase "let knowledge serve the city", and today that motto comes to life in every corner of the campus. PSU is nationally recognized for its deep institutional commitment to community-university partnerships and to ongoing curricular innovation. The Center for Academic Excellence supports these efforts on three levels: 1) individual faculty consultation; 2) cohort learning and development opportunities for faculty and students; and 3) institutional events such as the Civic Engagement Breakfast Series and Awards Celebration, the GIS-supported Community Partnership Map, and the statewide Oregon Civic Solutions program. We hope you find these web resources useful and welcome your feedback. Please contact us with any questions or comments. We are happy to assist in any way possible. Inside you will find a few of the ways that we help make President Bernstine's words come alive. Best regards,
Kevin Kecskes, Director
|
 |
