Engaged Department Initiative

As part of IUPUI’s Commitment to Excellence, funds have been designated for faculty to design Engaged Department/School initiatives to be funded for at least three years starting. These campus funds, awarded through the Center for Service and Learning, are used to create new models for undergraduate student learning and civic engagement, and to develop staff infrastructure within academic units for collaborative work with community partners to address community issues.

These grants to Department/Schools support curricular reform and increased civic engagement. These funds are awarded competitively based on the degree to which the proposals represent coherent and innovative plans for developing infrastructure in units (e.g., new hires to support civic engagement of undergraduate students in service learning and internships) and curricular reform that reflects new community-based learning experiences for undergraduates ranging from first-year courses (e.g. Learning Communities, Thematic Learning Communities, Gateway courses) through Capstone courses.

The Center for Service and Learning works with departments and schools to approach this work through on-campus activities (e.g., Boyer Scholars Program, facilitated workshops, Engaged Department Institutes, strategic planning) and off-campus institutes (e.g., Indiana Campus Compact conferences and grants). Thus, Engaged Department/School initiatives are designed to:

• Increase opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in meaningful experiential education (e.g., internships, service learning courses, participatory action research) with organizations in the region to address community issues.
  
  
• Create new models for student learning through civic engagement that have (a) vertical distribution (first-year courses through Capstone experiences), and, in the case of a school, (b) horizontal distribution (not only within departments but also across departments).
  
  
• Increase the number of undergraduate students involved in multiple community-based learning experiences including curricular (e.g., Capstone, Gateway Courses Learning Communities, Thematic Learning Communities) and co-curricular (e.g., Federal Work-Study Community placements, student organizations, one-time service activities) experiences.
  
  
• Be accountable to good practice and to internal and external constituencies through systematic assessment of student learning outcomes and campus performance indicators for service learning and civic engagement.
  
  
• Assist schools and departments to develop strategies to (a) include community-based activities in both teaching and research (including student research), (b) include community-based experiences as a standard expectation for majors, and (c) develop a level of coherence within the unit that will allow them to model successful civic engagement and progressive change at the departmental and/or school level.

2004-2005 Engaged Department Grant Recipients
Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
Description: As part of the Department of Sociology’s Civic Engagement Initiative, civic engagement and community-based learning activities will be integrated throughout the curriculum. Students will provide supplementary services to the clients and staff of a variety of partner organizations, including Day Spring Center, Hispanic Center, and Family AIDS Network, and write descriptive reports and critical analyses of their experiences. In cooperation with the IUPUI Public Opinion Laboratory, a regular community survey will be done, to allow students to participate in gauging public opinion about local issues and assessing needs for social services.

Department of Visual Communication, Herron School of Art and Design
Description: Purposing the Strategies of Civic Engagement for a New Pedagogy in Visual Communication Design establishes a new curricular model for undergraduate design education by redesigning the syllabi of six required courses and five elective courses to achieve vertical integration of civic engagement. By Sping 2005, students in three trial classes will participate in social advocacy projects in collaboration with community partners. By Fall 2005, all eleven courses will be implemented for vertical integration. In Fall 2006, the project will focus on horizontal expansion of the model to other IUPUI school to intersect with other interdisciplinary campus-community partnerships.

2005-2006 Engaged Department Grant Recipients
Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Description: Building a Curriculum for Building Communities: A Proposal for Integrating Civic Engagement into the Department of Communication Studies Curriculum seeks to develop a department-wide “culture of civic engagement” that is vertically and horizontally integrated throughout the curriculum in the Department of Communication Studies through the appointment of a Coordinator of Civic Engagement, a Community Partner Advisory Board, and integrating service into gateway and capstone courses. Community partners include the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, Gleaner’s Food Bank, Indianapolis International Film Festival, and the Salvation Army.

Department of World Languages and Cultures, School of Liberal Arts
Description: Building Cross-Cultural Bridges through Language Service Learning will involve students, faculty, IPS the El Centro Hispano in cross-cultural communication through language-based civic engagement. Service initiatives will be embedded into intermediate-high to advanced-level Spanish, French, and German courses. Emphasis will be on mentoring children and adults, small-scale translations or interpreting projects servicing the literacy, health or legal needs of recent immigrants. A new course will be created to respond to the need of police, fire and rescue personnel for basic Spanish in emergency situations.

Department of Computer and Information Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Description: CIT Mentoring Program – A K-12 Community Outreach Project will engage undergraduate students in CIT undergraduate classes to partner with area high school students in the IPS and Warren Township systems, not only to assist them in their studies, but to inspire them to further their education. The project will begin with 200-level students the first year and expanding to 100 and 300 level courses in subsequent years. CIT students will engage in partnering and tutoring at the high schools to positively impact their mentees’ projects, assignments, and competitions programs in Information Technology.

School of Social Work
Description: Child Welfare Service Learning Initiative will increase educational preparation and service in the area of child welfare in Indiana through (1) development of child welfare service learning field units where faculty will supervise learning sites that will function as community-based learning labs for selected courses; (2) expansion of service-learning activities and assignments in the area of child welfare within current course offerings and (3) creation and implementation of a new course, Exploring Child Welfare, in Indiana for undergraduate and high school students interested in working with at-risk families and children. Community partners include the Marion County Office of Family and Children, the Children’s Bureau, Inc, and the Indiana Metropolitan Career Academy.