CCBP Reviews Carnegie Reaffirmation and SACS Renewal Steps; Sets Plans for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Awards Program
- February 20th, 2014
- in News
By Kirsten J. Barnes
CCBP Graduate Assistant
On February 12, the Council for the Center for Community-Based Partnerships discussed several upcoming events and deadlines, including the Carnegie reclassification application and updates on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) renewal process and 2014 Entrepreneurship Week events.
The Council also heard details of the upcoming Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Awards nominations, seed funding applications and poster presentation proposals.
The eighth annual Awards Luncheon will be held at 11:30 a.m., Friday, April 18 in Sellers Auditorium of the Bryant Conference Center, following Research Poster Presentations in the lobby that begins at 10 a.m.
The Center for Community-Based Partnerships will accept award nominations, poster presentation proposals and seed fund application until 5 p.m. Monday, March 31, 2014. The deadline to register to attend the awards luncheon is Friday, April 11. (For more details and to participate in these events, click on http://communityaffairs.ua.edu/awards/)
Dr. Jeffrey Parker, associate professor of psychology and research social scientist at the Institute for Social Science Research, is chair of the awards committee. Dr. Angela Paschal, associate professor in the College of Human Environmental Sciences, chairs the poster presentation committee. Dr. Laurie Bonnici, associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies, serves as chair of the seed funds committee.
“Dr. Bonnici got one of our earlier seed funds awards, and has actually turned it into external funding support,” said Dr. Samory T. Pruitt, vice president of Community Affairs, about selecting her to serve as chair of the seed funds committee. “That’s really what we want.”
Pruitt said this year the committees are pressed for time because of the weather delays. “With the snow and the holidays, it’s a tight deadline,” Pruitt said. “But we’re going to do all we can to get the information out. We want award nominations; we want poster presentations; we want applications for this year’s seed funding. We can’t give it away if we don’t have any applicants.”
Dr. Katy Campbell, dean of the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, Canada, will be the keynote speaker. The University of Alberta will host ESC this year in Canada. “The awards program is early, but it’s probably going to fill up quickly. If you want to make sure you have a seat at the banquet, go ahead and RSVP,” Pruitt said. Those wanting to attend should RSVP by 5 p.m. April 11 at community.affairs@ua.edu or call 205-348-8376.
During the November Council meeting, the group had discussed UA’s Carnegie reclassification application and some of last year’s recipients of the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award and the Most Visible Progress National Degree Completion Awards.
“In November, one of the things that we talked about was the University possibly moving forward and applying for awards in the upcoming year,” Pruitt said. “One of the awards is given to people who work in the area of economic development and innovation. So, Dr. Carl Pinkert, our new vice president of research, is chairing a team that will submit an application.”
Last year, Community Affairs submitted its Parent Leadership Academy for its Magrath application. Pruitt said the committee might resubmit the program because during the past 12 months, UA has expanded the program to include parents and teachers.
“We have more of a research framework. So, we may revisit that,” Pruitt said. “We do have a Magrath application that we will send.”
This year the PLA program has partnered with Johns Hopkins University and Pruitt believes that collaboration, as well as a new research model, will make the new application for the Magrath award stronger.
The Magrath Award is given by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Last year, APLU presented a new award, the Most Visible Progress National Degree Completion Award. “It is given to institutions which have done an outstanding job of recruiting and retaining underrepresented students,” Pruitt said. The award last year went to Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Dr. Elva Bradley, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, will put together an application for the MVP Award, Pruitt said. All of the award applications are up for discussion, he said, and he was bringing these ideas to the council so that its members could provide suggestions on programs and projects, which would make good applications.
Pruitt also gave details on Community Affairs’ application for the Carnegie classification. The reaffirmation will require updates as well as the university’s explanation of what it has done that is new and different since the first application, how it has grown, and how has the culture of engaged scholarship has grown at UA, Pruitt said.
Pruitt cited the work of Dr. Ed Mullins, director of research and communication at CCBP, and Dr. David Francko, dean of the Graduate School, that identified various engaged scholarship projects conducted by faculty at UA since 2007. Their work clearly shows an increase in these types of research initiatives.
“Sixty-one tenure team track faculty have been involved in engaged scholarship activities since 2007,” Pruitt said, quoting from the findings by Mullins and Francko. “That includes publications, presentations, grants and awards. Over that same time period six out of our thirteen deans have been actively involved in engagement scholarship.”
A preliminary survey by Mullins entitled “Engagement Scholarship at The University of Alabama: A Summary” shows that since 2007 42 UA disciplines and organizations have conducted engagement scholarship projects. In all, the survey turned up more than 150 examples of engaged scholarship. The organizations/disciplines with the largest number of projects were Community Affairs, Communication, Education, Engineering, New College, and Social Work, all with 10 or more instances of published research, conference presentations, or grants received.
Mullins said he would ask for updates of his finding soon, as some scholars did not respond to his request for their work. Pruitt asked the group to review the list and to send any additional information concerning other projects to Mullins at emullins@bama.ua.edu.
Additional presentations were heard concerning UA’s SACS reaffirmation project and the 2014 Entrepreneurship Week events. “We have a good team putting together the SACS information and we expect to have a strong reaffirmation application,” Pruitt said.
This is the eighth year that UA will celebrate Entrepreneurship Week, said Tommie Syx, who works with UA’s Alabama REAL (Real Entrepreneurship through Active Learning). This years week, will feature four events, two of which will be held at The Edge, UA’s small business incubator.
On February 25, there will be a Lunch & Learn: Crowd Funding Workshop from 12-1 p.m. at The Edge, followed by a Start-Up Talks event from 5-7 p.m. at Black Warrior Brewing. On February 26 there will be Entrepreneur Speakers from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Ferguson Center Theater. Speakers will be Michael Rosato, of Finn Apparel, Brian Adams, of BA Interests, and Edward K. Aldag Jr. of Medical Properties Trust.
In addition to these presentations, Dr. George Daniels, associate professor and assistant dean in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, reviewed progress in the Oakdale Elementary School journalism project, which led to two articles, one of them by the elementary school students, in a recent issue of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship. Daniels, who, with the assistance of other UA faculty and students, as well as some from Stillman College, helped the students produce the newspaper, said the paper is now self-sustaining and no longer relies on outside assistance.