Outreach and Engagement and the Faculty Report of Professional Activities

From: Faculty and Research E-Memo (memofrom@Colorado.EDU)
Date: Fri Feb 05 2010 - 21:17:02 MST

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    Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 21:17:02 -0700 (MST)
    From: Faculty and Research E-Memo <memofrom@Colorado.EDU>
    Subject: Outreach and Engagement and the Faculty Report of Professional Activities
    

    TO: Boulder Campus Teaching & Research Faculty,
             Deans, Directors, Dept Chairs, System Administration

    FROM: Stein Sture, Interim Provost
             Anne Heinz, Dean, Continuing Education and Professional Studies
             Associate Vice Chancellor for Summer Session, Outreach and
             Engagement

    SENDER: Office for University Outreach, outreach@colorado.edu

    DATE: February 8, 2010

    SUBJECT: Outreach and Engagement and the Faculty Report of Professional Activities

    REPORTING OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

    As part of the campus' annual Faculty Report of Professional Activities
    (FRPA) process, faculty members have the option of identifying and
    describing outreach and engagement pursuits in the context of their own
    teaching, research, service and other scholarly activities.

    We encourage faculty to exercise this option. By including outreach and
    engagement endeavors as part of the FRPA process, faculty can help the
    campus to tell the story of how both the campus and out partners benefit
    from these relationships. The links among our mission, our exceptional
    faculty, staff and student resources, and the citizenry of Colorado become
    significantly more salient.

    Examples of faculty outreach and engagement may include applied research,
    technical assistance, demonstration projects, impact evaluations, or service
    learning. Work with schools and teachers, community groups, local
    governments, business organizations and the general public also represent
    outreach and engagement activities.

    REDEFINING OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT

    As part of the Flagship 2030 strategic planning process, CU-Boulder is
    redefining outreach and engagement. The goal is to create a more robust
    definition that clearly articulates the role and participation of our
    faculty, staff, and students. The outreach and engagement draft definition
    as of February 4, 2010 follows:

    At CU-Boulder, we define outreach and engagement as the ways faculty, staff
    and students collaborate with external groups in mutually beneficial
    partnerships that are grounded in scholarship and consistent with our role
    and mission as a comprehensive research university.

    For faculty, outreach rooted in scholarship enhances teaching, research,
    creative work and service while addressing larger societal issues. For
    students and staff, community engagement and service projects link campus
    teaching and learning to civic responsibility and community well being. For
    communities, partnering with CU-Boulder increases the capacity to address
    important social, economic and cultural issues. At their best, outreach and
    engagement activities provide significant learning and growth opportunities
    to faculty, students, staff and partnering communities.

    Whether through research projects, teaching activities, civic engagement or
    service learning, the reciprocal nature of outreach and engagement enriches
    both our academic mission and the communities we serve.

    OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT DATA AVAILABLE

    Six years ago we started collecting outreach and engagement data within
    Faculty Affairs' on-line report for professional activities (FRPA).
    Significant faculty response to the outreach feature has remained strong,
    with more than half of all FRPA respondents choosing to add outreach
    categories to their FRPA report. Further, every CU-Boulder department is
    represented in the outreach data, giving us a glimpse at how each is
    partnering with, benefiting from, and positively impacting groups across the
    state. In fact, every campus department and institute is conducting
    outreach within the context of its teaching, research, creative work, and/or
    service activities.

    A complete summary of the department and school/college outreach FRPA data
    from 2008 can be found at
    http://conted.colorado.edu/programs/outreach/outreach-data/.

    If you would like an individual department report or faculty highlights from
    the outreach data we have collected, please send your request to
    outreach@colorado.edu.

    Thank you for your continued support of this important work.


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