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COPE Outcomes and Assessment Committee Progress Report
December 11, 2002
THE BASIC QUESTIONS
- In what ways are we relevant to the public, in our ongoing
teaching and research?
- How can we document and measure that relevance?
- How can we use those measures to track improvements in public
engagement?
OUR CHARGE IS TO DEVELOP
- specific short term and long term expected outcomes of COPE
activities
- ways that University of Minnesota would be different in five
years as a fully engaged university
- measures of public engagement as an indicator of institutional
performance
DOHERTY CLASSIFICATION
Prof. Bill Doherty has suggested a useful classification of three
categories of civic engagement, as they relate to faculty work.
- The ability of faculty to articulate the public value of their
work
- "Outreach", in which we bring our expertise to people
in ways that they see as relevant (the traditional notion of outreach)
- Collaborative working relationship with community partners
to define problems and work together to solve them. This often
necessitates bringing a comprehensive and integrated research,
teaching, and service scholarship portfolio to the situation.
The public should be fully and equally engaged in this process.
KELLOGG COMMISSION SEVEN-PART TEST
The Kellogg Commission's seven-part test for an engaged university
addresses issues that seem mainly directed at part 3 of the Doherty
typology, but which have some applicability to all three types of
public engagement.* Responsiveness: are we listening to the publics
we serve and responding to their needs? Do we provide space and
resources for community-university discussion of the public problems
that need to be addressed?
- Respect for partners: Do we encourage joint definition of problems,
solutions, and success? Do we respect the capabilities of our
public partners?
- Academic neutrality: Do we maintain our role as neutral facilitator
and source of factual information when public policy issues are
discussed?
- Accessibility: Have we made access to our expertise and resources
as simple and direct as possible? Is our expertise equally accessible
to all constituencies?
- Integration: Do we bring multiple disciplines together to work
toward solutions to interdisciplinary problems? Is there incentive
for faculty and students to be involved in engagement activity?
- Coordination: Do we know what each other is doing?
- Resource partnerships: Do we commit adequate resources to engagement
activity? Do we tap into various funding sources to get our work
done? Do we help our partners get necessary funds?
PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS ON OUTCOME AND ASSESSMENT MEASURES
With these general principles in mind, the Outcomes and Assessment
Committee has begun to develop three sets of outcomes and assessment
measures, one for each of the three Doherty categories.
Type 1: Regular faculty teaching and research
Five-year vision: In five years, it will be widely recognized both
inside and outside the University that public engagement, in its
various manifestations, is an integral part of our teaching and
scholarship, rather than the third of a three-part mission (teaching,
research, outreach). Not everyone will be engaged equally or in
the same way, but all will be cognizant of the ways in which their
teaching and research serve public purposes.
Some desirable outcomes:
- All departments, colleges, and campuses will include public
engagement in their mission statements. Effective public engagement
that enriches teaching and scholarship will be be recognized,
fostered, communicated, and rewarded.
- Faculty governance will be supportive of increased recognition
of public engagement as properly integrated faculty work.
- Faculty efforts in public engagement, even when indirect, will
be noted in annual reports and considered in merit reviews.
- Discussion of the public implications of scholarly work will
be common in departmental conversations, and an integral part
of the acculturation of new faculty and graduate students.
- Invidious distinctions between basic and applied research will
dissolve in recognition of a continuum of challenging problems
and important solutions, as appropriate to each unit.
- The U will be recognized as taking a long-term, objective position
on important but contentious issues. It will play a visible role
in facilitating dialog, as a convener of groups with different
interests.
- Our positive interactions with under-represented communities
will result in the admission of more minority students into our
undergraduate and graduate programs.
- The recognition that real social problems can rarely be solved
along strict academic disciplinary lines will lead to the development
of new interdisciplinary courses and research projects. Many of
these might bring together scientific and humanistic perspectives.
- University policies and budgetary mechanisms will be seen as
supportive of enhanced interdisciplinary activities.
- University Relations, in its role of communicating between
the public and the academic units, will be more effective in telling
the story of how fundamental research and scholarship serve important
public purposes.
Some possible practical/quantifiable measures:
- teaching (classroom hours and credits, new interdisciplinary
courses, service learning, ...)
- students (classes, dissertations, ...)
- research and scholarship (papers, books, reports, interdisciplinary
projects, ...)
- funding (grants, gifts, contracts, ...)
- publicity (newspaper and magazine stories, TV and radio items,
...)
- contacts with publics (projects, lectures and performances,
...)
- cooperative interactions with other universities and colleges,
...
- increased recruitment of students from under-represented populations
Type 2: Traditional outreach and consulting
Five-year vision: In five years faculty and staff in all parts of
the University will have--to the extent they desire--interactions
with appropriate publics, through extension and consulting activities,
that enrich their teaching and scholarship while providing benefits
to constituents.
Some desirable outcomes:
- An updated vision for Extension will have been achieved, with
a sustainable division of labor and financial support between
university and MES assignments.
- The role of the College of Continuing Education in forwarding
the public engagement agenda will be clarified.
- Consultation with the private sector and with state and local
governmental entities will be recognized as an important part
of civic engagement.
Some possible practical/quantifiable measures:
- Constituents served
- Economic and social impact of services providedType 3: Community
partnerships Five-year vision: In five years, there will
be numerous long-term community-university research partnerships
in which the two are equal contributors, utilizing the strengths
and insights of both partners.
Some possible practical/quantifiable measures:
- Constituents served
- Economic and social impact of services provided
Type 3: Community partnerships
Five-year vision: In five years, there will be numerous long-term
community-university research partnerships in which the two are
equal contributors, utilizing the strengths and insights of both
partners.
Some desirable outcomes:
- There will be numerous formal and informal conversations between
university and community members, including external advisory
groups, leading to better understanding of the needs and priorities
of both sides.
- Through web sites, newsletters, meetings, call-ins, and community-based
staff, the resources of the University will be made better known
and more accessible to the public.
- Faculty and students will learn the difficult but essential
lessons of how to work patiently, respectfully and successfully
with community partners.
- The strengths that communities bring to these partnerships
will be broadly recognized.
- When possible, community members will be made part of research
teams, and will be appropriately trained and compensated.
- Community outreach projects will be viewed as opportunities
to recruit students from under-represented groups to the university.
- Service learning opportunities will be expandedin ways
that are not burdensome to community agenciesby careful
planning, training, and consultation; and will be as thoughtfully
evaluated as other educational activities.
- Faculty peers will take into account, during merit review,
the special challenges posed by properly collaborative community-based
research.
- The complexities of real-world research will break down disciplinary
barriers, producing new, rich interdisciplinary research and teaching
opportunities. New sources of funding will be found to underwrite
these ventures.
- There will be improved coordination among our various departments,
centers, institutes, and other offices to facilitate interdisciplinary
work with community partners.
- We will have better coordination with regional partners.
Some possible practical/quantifiable measures:
- Number of community-based projects, and number of people involved
and served
- Number of community people who gain or enhance useful skills
as a result of such projects
- Amount of new funding generated for these projects
- Number of under-represented minority students recruited to
the University
- Number of students involved in service learning projects, and
number of clients served thereby
- Number of new courses that are based on interdisciplinary,
community-related themes, and the number of students taking these
courses
- Number of papers and books published by faculty engaged in
community-based research, and external funding generated thereby
- Successful promotion and tenure cases of faculty engaged in
community-based research
NEXT STEPS
- Focus more sharply on the most important and feasible measures
of institutional performance, with the goal of recommending to
the Council and to the EVPP a set of assessment criteria that
can be used for the University Plan, Performance, and Assessment
Report.
- Develop and recommend sets of short-term, mid-term, and longer-term
outcomes for at least some of the items in each of the three Doherty
categories.
- Work with the Minnesota Extension Service and the College of
Continuing Education to expand and deepen the issues sketched
in the Type 2: Traditional outreach and consulting category.
- Identify others who might help us with these tasks, either
as committee members or as advisors
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