Engaging Minds, Building Community:

Facilitating Community Engagement in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural

Resources

Kate Westdijk, M.S.

March 15th, 2008University Education in Natural Resources

Conference

Rubenstein School in Action:Cambridge Elementary School Garden

(Photo credit: Jessica Ridgeway)

Rubenstein School in Action:Recovery and Restoration of Altered

Ecosystems

(Photo credit: Marty Illick)

Rubenstein School in Action:Workshops at the Jericho Research Forest

What is Community Engagement?

research service teaching

communityservice - learning

community - basedresearch

(Figure adapted from Bringle et al., 1999)

Building Minds Building Community

• Partnership with the campus-wide service-learning office (CUPS)

Context

• One of 10 colleges and schools w/in The University of Vermont (UVM).

• Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (45 faculty, 500 undergraduate students, 100 graduate students)

How can we support community engagement in the Rubenstein

School?

Research Questions:

• What’s currently being done? (faculty scholarship)

• What are current attitudes?

• What are the barriers?

• What can be done to facilitate community engagement activities?

How can these data inform decision-making and action?

(Westdijk & Koliba, under review)

Research Methods

• Combined Quantitative and Qualitative Instruments

- Interviews (n=10; tenured=5, tenure-track=2, lecturers=2, research & extension=1)

- Online Survey (38/45 respondents; 84% response)

• Faculty perceptions as unit of measurement

Results: What’s currently being done?

• 80% of respondents conduct research with the community (n= 28).

• 100% of respondents serve on community boards and/or offer workshops, technical assistance, etc. (n=38)

• 74% of respondents teach or have taught community- based courses (n=38)

• Fun

• Faculty interested and supportive of community engagement in the School

Results: What are the opportunities?

Motivations:

• Improved Student Learning

• Improved Public Decision-Making

• Supportive Leadership

• Doesn’t conflict with scholarship responsibilities

• Increasing Public Awareness

Results: What are the barriers?

• Time Constraints

(Photo credit: Walter Poleman)

“For a faculty member, we’re already working at 150%. So, something’s got to give. If we do more community service, we need to do less of something else.”

- Assistant Professor

Results: What are the barriers?

• Time Constraints

(Photo credit: Walter Poleman)

- matchmaking/ communication

- “high stakes” teaching and research

- new methods/ pedagogy

Results: What are the barriers?

• Disincentives in RPT process

“I think that the service learning process should be valued highly... And I think it is at this university, from the top...

Where the rubber really hits the road, though, is in the committees that evaluate people for reappointment and tenure, and it really depends on the people on the committees.”

- Lecturer and PhD Candidate

What can be done to facilitate community engagement and

optimize its benefits?

Needs Differ Depending on Level of Engagement

• Need for Coordination, Structure, and Integration

• Community Engagement is a Priority

• Aim is Institutionalization

What can be done to facilitate community engagement and

optimize its benefits?

• Day to Day Support

• Curriculum Level Planning (for Service-Learning)

• Guide Policy Development

Bottom Up

Top Down

• Documentation and Multi-Constituency Evaluation• Strategic Planning

What’s next for the School?• Full-time Staff “Coordinator of Community-Based

Learning”

• Participation in New England Campus Compact’s “Engaged Department” Initiative

• University of Vermont Accreditation process in 2008-09 reporting to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)

• Other research on student experience

• NEW Office of Experiential Learning

What’s working for us?

• Focus on Faculty

• Use Action Research

• Provide Decentralized AND Centralized Support

• Link Service-Learning to Career Development in the Natural Resources

More Information and Resources for Administrators and Faculty

• Action Research Tool and Article (pdf)

• Full Report with Recommendations (pdf)

• UVM CUPS office: www.uvm.edu/partnerships

• RSENR Office of Experiential Learning: www.uvm.edu/envnr/partnerships

• State Campus Compact: www.compact.org/stateContact: katherine.westdijk@uvm.edu; (802)-

656-5480

Action Areas:

What is CUPS?

The University of Vermont office of Community- University Partnerships and Service-Learning

(Photo credit: Carlson)

• Foster UVM-Community Partnerships

• Support Faculty and Curriculum Development

• Promote Student Leadership Development

• Guide Development of University Policy

• Pursue Research and Evaluation

How can we maximize community engagement in the Rubenstein

School?

My Research:

• RSENR Community-University Partnerships Coordinator

• What’s currently being done?

• What are current attitudes?

• What’s working?

• What isn’t working?

• What can be done to facilitate and expand community engagement?

(New Graduate Assistantship)

What is Community Engagement?

• Community-Based Problem-Solving– Service-Learning

A form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development.  Reflection and reciprocity are key concepts of service-learning."

(Jacoby, 1996)

– Community-Based ResearchA partnership of students, faculty, and community members who collaboratively engage in research with the purpose of solving a pressing community problem or effecting social change. (Strand, et. al., 2003)

The Rubenstein School and Community Engagement

“…we are a School committed to dissolving boundaries: between the classroom and the natural world, the laboratory and the field, our School and the rest of this University; between teaching and research, student and professor, learning and service, environmental and social issues, science and humanities, knowledge and policy, academy and community, and the campus and the whole world beyond.”

- Dean Don Dehayes excerpt from RSENR report