Symposium looks beyond outreach to scholarly engagement
What are the rewards for the kind of teaching that has a direct and measurable impact on the surrounding community ... of research that is conducted in true partnership with the community ... and of scholarship that benefits all parties involved in that partnership?
Faculty members and administrators grappled with that open question throughout the day Oct. 22 at the first ever campus-wide symposium on the issue, entitled “Beyond Outreach to Scholarly Engagement.”
The social benefits and community development that grow from scholarly engagement in critical public issues can be profound, said faculty members at the symposium, sponsored by the Faculty Senate Outreach Council and UMass Amherst Outreach. The personal rewards and the support that comes from colleagues and community partners can be equally gratifying, they added.
But, too frequently, the professional rewards for such work are small to nearly nonexistent.
That was the consensus of representatives from all 10 schools and colleges who gathered for the all-day series of events. Many insisted that engagement and engaged scholarship need to be recognized concretely as important, effective and valuable in the academic enterprise – much in the same way that teaching and research are in tenure and promotion.
It’s time, said Provost Charlena Seymour, for academic departments to initiate, review, reflect on and ultimately reward the best in such engagement.
“This process has to begin at the department level,” said the provost. “We need to connect better around these issues. We need to go back to our departments with a real commitment to work through the hard discussions.”
Vice Provost Sharon Fross, who spearheaded the conference, told a breakfast audience that many large research universities have been having an extended dialogue about the nature and value of engaged scholarship for over a decade. She added that the discussion has been especially important at land grant institutions. UMass Amherst, she said, is in the very early stages of this discussion.
“All day, we will be asking whether engaged scholarship is important, and why it matters,” she said. The vice provost said that interviews with faculty members indicated that for many, engagement with the outside community goes to the core of their teaching and research, while for others it remains a matter of “passion and personal commitment.”
Interim Chancellor Thomas Cole said that engagement is a responsibility that matters now more than ever and is especially timely in Western Massachusetts.
Throughout the day, Lorilee Sandmann of the University of Georgia helped guide the proceedings through small group working sessions, a faculty panel discussion and a key note address. Sandmann, a faculty member in the department of lifelong education, administration, and policy, and co-director of the Clearinghouse and National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement, drew on the still-evolving land grant tradition to frame the evolving ways that scholarship is impacting communities as a part of two-way relationship with those communities.
Sandmann was quick to differentiate between traditional outreach, in which faculty knowledge and expertise is provided to communities and citizens; engagement, which is a deeper connection between the university and the community, characterized by mutual planning and shared benefits; and scholarly engagement that also meets rigorous standards for documentation and peer review of methods and outcomes.
Engaged scholarship is not a component that is added to the traditional triad of teaching, research and service by which scholars are judged, but is rather embedded in all three legs of the triad, she said.
During an afternoon faculty panel discussion, moderated by Commonwealth College dean Priscilla Clarkson, faculty members with particular experience in projects that exemplify engaged scholarship said that, despite a personal commitment to outreach, junior faculty members often cannot afford to work with communities unless that work is a valued part of the tenure process.
“For me, the research has to come first,” said Raymond La Raja, an assistant Political Science professor who works in campaign finance. “Research is the priority, and then I see what in my research will make an impact on the community.”
“I would like to see more institutional leadership. We should signal to people who are applying for jobs that this kind of engagement is valued,” he said.
Sandmann said that such steps have to begin at the departmental level, but that ultimately the value of engaged scholarship needs to be institutionalized across the university. She praised Seymour for encouraging that process and Fross for carrying the discussion forward. One step, she said, is to create annual reports that invite descriptions of such engaged scholarship.
Taking part in the faculty panel were La Raja, Elaine Puleo, Public Health; Nathaniel Whitaker, Mathematics and Statistics; Elizabeth Brabec, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning; and Jerri Willett, Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies.
Poster displays were presented by Cynthia S. Jacelon, Nursing; Todd Crosset, Sport Management; John Reiff, Office of Community Service Learning; Joseph Krupczynski, Art; and Brenda Philips, Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere.
Photos by Ben Barnhart
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October 30, 2007.
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