0.2 Holoman, h., & Yates, p. (february 2009). mining best practice  (Page 2/8)

If the chivalrous tone above does not stir to action, perhaps the increasing waves of accountability will. Accountability trends that begin with legislators and other citizens asking: How is the research in your university helping the community? Are you applying your research findings to improve our community? How is our local community benefiting from the university’s presence? Should the university define success in terms of local community success?

Community engagement defined

While some members of the academy deliberate between “the rock and the hard place”— significant community engagement efforts in higher education are being encouraged and supported across the country. In December 2006, the Carnegie Foundation introduced a voluntary Community Engagement classification, and highlighted the “substantial efforts invested by participating institutions.” For the purpose of institutional review, the Carnegie Foundation defines community engagement as “the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.” The value of community engagement and its scholarship varies among institutions. While some colleges and universities encourage and reward community engagement and its scholarship—other institutions continue to view it more through the traditional lens of service. These different institutional perspectives can and will have significant implications on a faculty member’s—especially a tenure-track faculty member’s—research agenda.

As a recently tenured professor and a current tenure-track professor, we offer our experiences and discoveries from an ongoing community engagement research project between a regional university and a small rural county in the southeastern United States.  The goal of this community engagement initiative is to make purposeful connections between research, best practices, community needs, and community goals. This paper provides the framework for the research we conducted—and the lessons we learned along the way.

Universities, it seems to me, should model something for students besides individual excellence…They should model social excellence as well as personal achievement…If institutions that purport to educate young people don’t embody society’s cherished ideals—community, cooperation, harmony, love—then what young people will learn will be the standards institutions do embody: competition, hierarchy, busyness, and isolation. Jane Thompkins, Duke University

Community engagement: university level

What does it look like when a large university and a small rural county form a successful partnership that constitutes an authentic community engagement model? How do they work together for the good of both parties? What types of projects should occur in such a community engagement model? These questions and many more were raised in the initial meeting between a large southeastern university and representatives from a small rural county in the eastern part of North Carolina in October 2006. During that meeting both parties agreed to formalize a partnership entitled the University/County Community Engagement Model. Community development constituted the core value for this community engagement model; however, educational advancement for the county was incorporated as well. As a vital partner the university pledged to provide support by granting release time for faculty members from various colleges within the university who then committed to partner with an agency and/or an institution in the county. Once these individual partnerships were established, numerous community development projects emerged. Collaborative projects ranged from a construction apprenticeship program, to the provision of walking trail lights in a local city, to a Best Practice Language research study within the county school system.