Presented by the Greater Cincinnati Service-Learning Network.
Community engagement has deep roots in higher education. But over the last 40 or so years, it has been reimagined with more structure, including principles and pedagogy for service learning. As the ideas took hold, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching created its Community Engagement Classification to assess what’s happening and provide a common framework for best-practice community engagement. Universities began setting up community engagement and service learning offices to assure institutional support. James Votruba was involved in these efforts early in his career at Michigan State University and then, as president of Northern Kentucky University (1997-2012), he built community engagement into the institution’s DNA. A passionate, effective leader for this approach to education, Dr. Votruba has become a national voice for community engagement in higher ed. He will provide an overview of university community engagement, its history, and the factors associated with success and failure. He’ll offer some cautions but also some inspirations. Q&A and discussion will be part of this presentation. Dr. Votruba is the co-author of Becoming an Engaged Campus: A Practical Guide for Institutionalizing Public Engagement (Jossey-Bass, 2011).