It is imperative that community engagement in higher
education be further developed and sustained through reciprocal
community-campus partnerships. And yet, despite a major step forward in 2006,
with the recognition of seventy-six colleges and universities as
community-engaged institutions by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
for Teaching, significant challenges remain. Driscoll defines the problem as a persistent lack of evidence and
understanding of deep partnership work.
Most institutions could only
describe in vague generalities how they achieved genuine reciprocity with their
communities. Community partnerships require new understandings, new skills, and
even a different way of conceptualizing community. There are generally
significant barriers left over from both internal and external perceptions of
higher education as an "ivory tower" and those barriers must be addressed for
authentic community partnerships to develop (Driscoll, 2008).
Campus Compact has directed the integration of community
with academic study for over two decades. In recent years, other national
organizations such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities
(AAC&U), the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant
Colleges (NASULGC), and the American Association of State Colleges and
Universities (AASCU) have increased their support for this national engagement
effort. A common denominator to this national effort aligns with the landmark
W. K. Kellogg Commission report findings: consistent emphasis on the
characteristics of community partnerships, new roles for faculty, and new forms
of scholarship. It is telling that few graduate programs prepare future faculty
to develop or participate in community collaborations, however, and seldom is
an academic understanding of the community partnership experience described in
search and hiring criteria. Moreover, such engagement in the community/academy
nexus is difficult to document in the context of current expectations for
faculty scholarship.
This RFP is one component of the Center's new partnership initiative and is intended to build both the institutional and national knowledge base of partnership practices and understandings. The scholarship of partnerships is an important component of the university's strategy to achieve our priorities and elevate our profile through engagement. Your responses to this RFP can contribute to our priorities for "improved student success" and "expanded scholarship."
