This interactive discussion session focuses on the ways that higher education can promote the civic responsibility of college students and strengthen communities in the process. Drawing on his work in the field, and using concrete examples, Tom Ehrlich discusses how colleges and universities can equip students with the understanding, motivation, and skills of responsible and effective citizenship, and how communities and nonprofit organizations can benefit from neighboring institutions of higher education to promote their civic goals. The discussion includes teaching approaches such as community-service learning and community-based research; emerging issues involving the use of social media for promoting civic learning; and challenges facing community organizations in working with campuses.

1. Higher Education’s
Role in Fostering
Civic Engagement
CRAIGSLIST Boot Camp
August 14, 2010
Gerald Eisman
Director, Institute for Civic & Community Engagement
San Francisco State University

2. “So, professor. Which institute do
you belong to?”

3. Topics
 Changing Landscape in Higher Ed
 Methods for campus-community
engagement
 Experiences and Opportunities

4. Wingspread Declaration
on
Renewing the Civic
Mission
of the American
Research University
June 1999

5. Civic engagement is essential to a
democratic society, but far too many
Americans have withdrawn from
participation in public affairs. Higher
education can contribute to civic
engagement, but most research
universities do not perceive themselves as
part of the problem or of its solution.
Whereas universities were once centrally
concerned with “education for democracy”
and “knowledge for society,” today’s
institutions have often drifted away from
their civic mission.

6. The Research Universities
Civic Engagement Network
Arizona State University 2005
Brown University
Duke University
Georgetown University
Michigan State University
North Carolina State University
Ohio State University
Princeton University
Stanford University
Tufts University
Tulane University
University of California, Berkeley
….

7. Curricular Engagement includes
institutions where teaching, learning
and scholarship engage faculty,
students, and community in mutually
beneficial and respectful
collaboration.
2006

8. Methods
 Community Service Learning
 Participatory Research
 Social Entrepreneurship

9. Service Learning
Service learning is a pedagogy built on
the combination of community service
with academic learning so that each is
enhanced by the other.
9

10. SL Venn Diagram
internship
civics
class Academic
SL
Civic Experiential
volunteer
10

11. SL Venn Diagram Academic
Academic
SL
Civic Experiential
11

12. SL Venn Diagram Civic
Academic
SL
Civic Experiential
12

13. A Taxonomy of Engagement
Community Co-curricular activity for civic/political
(Civic) engagement.
Engagement
Ex: Student club invites head of Green
Service Peace to give a lecture on campus.
Learning
Political
Engagement
Service Learning Course with political
engagement outcomes.
Ex: Work with county food bank to enroll needy
Service Learning Courses without civic families in food benefits program. Reflect on how
learning outcomes. state programs are supported.
Ex: Tutor a child in reading. Reflect on
ability as tutor.
Service Learning Courses with civic but not
political learning outcomes
Ex: Work with environmental agency on
creek restoration. Reflect on elements of
teamwork.
13

14. CBPR
CBPR is a collaborative research approach
that is designed to ensure and establish
structures for participation by the three
groups involved in the project - communities
affected the research, representatives of
organizations, and researchers – in all aspects
of the research process to improve health and
well-being through taking action, including
social change.
14

15. Social
Entrepreneurship
The use of entrepreneurial practices to
develop a social good.
Whirlwind Wheelchair
International

16. How to work with
Universities
Faculty Expertise
University Engagement Centers
Student involvement

17. Faculty Expertise
… or why you should never ask a computer
scientist to format your disk
The story of the Shakespearean scholar
and the public housing complex.

18. http://www.sfsu.edu/~icce

19. “Professor Smith learns how not to get tenure.”

20. Discussion
• Experiences working with
universities
or
• Opportunities to explore with
universities

21. NEN University
NENu’s mission is to serve as a hub for
community-engaged scholarship in the Bay Area
by providing an infrastructure that facilitates
connections among local academic institutions and
neighborhood stakeholders so that they can
mobilize their combined assets to develop social
capital and advance community resiliency.
1:00 pm: Building Resilient Communities through
Multi-Sector Collaboration