Initial curators: Kevin Kecskes, Portland State University

Introduction

To build and strengthen our communities as well as reinvigorate student learning to serve a public purpose, we must focus on engaging departments. There are two components of this: (a) establishing common goals within the department, and (b) effectively communicating these goals and the purpose of these goals with students and community partners.

Key resources

A) ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS

• Kecskes, K., Sumner, R., Elliot, E. & Ackerman, A. (2016). A year-long journey in the orchard: Growing community amid the brambles, in Wortham-Gavin, B. D., Allen, J., and Sherman, J., (Eds.) Sustainable solutions: Let knowledge serve the city, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK
• Kecskes, K. (2015). Collectivizing our impact: Engaging departments and academic change. Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, (6) 3. Greensboro, NC ISSN: 1944-1061
• Kecskes, K. (2013) The engaged department and higher education reform: Research, theory, and transformation of the academic unit, in Clayton, Bringle, & Hatcher, (Eds.) Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment, Stylus Publications, 471-504.
• Kecskes, K (2011). Engaging departments in the game: Increasing awareness and assessment for the academic unit, in J. Saltmarsh and E. Zlotkowski (Eds.) Higher Education and Democracy: Collected Essays on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement. Temple University Press
• Kecskes, K. (2006) Engaging departments: Moving faculty culture from private to public, individual to collective focus for the common good (pp. 219-242). Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.
• Kecskes, K. (2006) Department-Wide Engagement: Creating and Supporting Durable Structures for Campus and Community Change, In Perry, J., Jones, S. (Eds.) Quick Hits for Educating Citizens. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN 82-84.
• Kecskes, K., Gelmon, S., Spring, A. (2006) Creating Engaged Departments: A Program for Organizational and Faculty Development. To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional and Organizational Development, (24), 147-165.
• Lake, D., Mileva, G., Carpenter, H., Carr, D., Lancaster, P., & Yarbrough, T. (2017). Shifting Engagement Efforts Through Disciplinary Departments: A Mistake or a Starting Point? A Cross-Institutional, Multi-Department Analysis. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 21(3), 135-164.

B) PLANNING AND ASSESSEMNT SUPPORT TOOLS

• Kecskes, K. (2008). Creating community-engaged departments: Self-assessment rubric for the institutionalization of community engagement in academic departments
• Characteristics of Engaged Departments Framework: Four Perspectives: Useful framework for departmental planning.
• Battistoni, R. M., Gelmon, S. B., Saltmarsh, J. A., Wergin, J. F., & Zlotkowski, E. (2003). The engaged department toolkit. Providence, RI: Campus Compact.
• Engaged Department Planning Tool (Portland State)

Exemplars

A) INSTITUTIONAL EFFORTS

• Engaged Departments, Center for Community Engagement at California State University

B) EXAMPLES OF ENGAGED DEPARTMENTS

• Communication Studies at Samford University
• Geology at Orange Coast College
• Art at Portland State University
• English at Chandler-Gilbert Community College
• Social Work Education at Widener University
• Sociology and Anthropology at Spelman College
• Nursing at Case Western Reserve University
• Communication at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst
• Sociology at Georgetown University
• Chicana and Chicano Studies at the UCLA
• Educational Psych and Counseling at CSU – Northridge

Other Useful Information

• List of publicly available publications by Kevin Kecskes