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Three deans offer colleges their vision for outreach By Celena E. Kusch
Dr. Cheryl Achterberg (top), dean of The Schreyer Honors College; Dr. David Monk (middle), dean of the College of Education; and Dr. Robert Pangborn, interim dean at Penn State Altoona (July 1999 to July 2000), offered their perspectives on outreach during the annual University-wide Outreach and Cooperative Extension professional development conference. Photos by Dick Ackley—University Photo/Graphics	More than 350 of Penn State’s outreach professionals gathered in February for the annual University-wide Outreach and Cooperative Extension professional development conference. Addressing the theme “Pathways to Engagement,” faculty, administrators and outreach professionals at the conference discussed the next steps in expanding, enhancing, promoting and supporting Penn State’s outreach activities.   Penn State defines outreach as the process of extending the intellectual expertise of the University through the integration of teaching, research and service in order to address the social, civic, economic and environmental issues and opportunities of the Commonwealth, nation and world. It is a form of what the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities calls the scholarship of engagement.   During the conference, a panel of new Penn State deans offered their perspectives on outreach and its impact on the faculty, students and community members who participate in various forms of outreach scholarship. Panelists included Dr. Cheryl Achterberg, dean of The Schreyer Honors College; Dr. David Monk, dean of the College of Education; and Dr. Robert Pangborn, who served as interim dean at Penn State Altoona from July 1999 to July 2000.   Drawing upon his previous experience with outreach at Cornell University, Monk shared his vision for the role of College of Education faculty in producing outreach scholarship.   “Given my new role here in the College of Education, I find myself asking if there are any implications for how we operate as a college and also whether there is anything we might do as a college to be helpful to other outreach programs that are trying to strengthen ties with the faculty,” Monk said.   In facing the challenges of producing outreach initiatives, Monk stressed “good outreach programming presupposes a strong and enduring connection between the research side of the academic house and the outreach/teaching/dissemination side.” He emphasized the important responsibility of faculty in making that connection and of administrators in supporting and promoting it.   Monk offered four guidelines for enhancing faculty engagement with outreach forms of scholarship: Avoid outreach programs that are linked to a single member of the faculty. “At minimum, there should be pairs of faculty members, and ideally the members of these faculty teams should be at different stages of their careers,” Monk said. Make special efforts to work with junior faculty members. Monk reflected that more guidance with his own first outreach experience could have produced a different result. Clarify outreach aspirations with department heads as faculty positions become available. Emphasizing the connections between outreach and teaching, research and service, Monk argued that if it is reasonable to expect faculty at all levels to be responsible for teaching and research, it is reasonable to set expectations for integrating those functions through outreach whose purpose is “to better connect the world of practice with the new knowledge that is coming from cutting-edge research.” Provide support to faculty members who jump into an outreach role, particularly with adult learners.   Emphasizing the particular expertise of his college in providing leadership in adult education, Monk said, “I think it is important for the College of Education to be involved in these efforts.”   According to Pangborn, the impact of such efforts can make a positive difference in addressing community needs. Pangborn emphasized the role of the community in contributing to outreach. At Penn State Altoona, “the local community and greater service area really do look to the college as a key partner (and in many cases they count on us to take the principal leadership) in providing the programming that is critical to economic and workforce development in the region, citizens and their children.” Outreach, he added, is very tightly coupled to the mission of the campus.   “In a campus college environment, we do not have the sharp boundaries between resident instruction and continuing education and outreach. Rather the two enterprises tend to blur together, often engaging the same faculty, students and facilities,” Pangborn explained. As a result, outreach at Penn State Altoona enjoys “the enthusiastic support of the division heads, faculty and administration.”   This emphasis on the community has led to a successful University-community relationship. Pangborn noted, “Altoona area residents regularly attend campus cultural and educational events and highly value the local access to Penn State quality programs and education for themselves and family members. Business leaders know that this helps attract and retain their employees, and they see the potential of the campus to supply new members of the labor pool and update the skills of existing employees.”   In the newly opened Downtown Conference Center, Pangborn added, “we anticipate a wide array of programming, from professional and computer training to film series. In fact, two series — one featuring International Films and the other Jewish Films — are being offered this inaugural year and will familiarize a wide cross-section of the community with the new facility.”   This level of University-community interaction “takes effort on the part of the whole college,” Pangborn said. He discussed the importance of soliciting community input in developing new programs and praised the efforts of the CEO Council comprised of community leaders from the counties Penn State Altoona serves.   “We also maintain a presence through the faculty and administrative staff who serve on the local Chambers of Commerce, provide technical, marketing and other guidance to business and economic development groups and participate with local service groups and foundations,” he added.   Pangborn served as interim dean at Penn State Altoona from July 1, 1999, through July 31, 2000. He has resumed his position as associate dean for undergraduate studies and professor of engineering mechanics in the College of Engineering.   This community engagement supports the goals of a variety of constituencies, ranging from adult learners to undergraduates enrolled full time in resident education. The impact of outreach on first time undergraduates is perhaps most apparent in the work of The Schreyer Honors College.   During the panel presentation, Achterberg discussed her vision of The Schreyer Honors College in extending the benefits of outreach to the resident undergraduate students who participate in outreach programs. The Schreyer Honors College is the most comprehensive honors program in the United States. According to Achterberg, its three-part mission of academic excellence, internationalization and leadership naturally places an emphasis on civic and social responsibility that can be carried out through outreach scholarship.   At some level, the requirements for Honors Scholars echo the overall University missions of teaching, research and service: students conduct rigorous undergraduate research leading to a thesis, and they are encouraged to demonstrate civic responsibility and leadership through service, often leading to tutoring and teaching projects that address community needs. Likewise, faculty involved with the college and with the Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning often integrate teaching, research and service to produce service-learning opportunities for the Scholars.   One example Achterberg offered of such service learning is the Philadelphia Field Project led by Dr. Lakshman Yapa, associate professor of geography and recipient of the 2000 Award for Faculty Outreach. Scholars enrolled in this program spend four weeks in West Philadelphia conducting “action research” in the community. The students develop academic knowledge that provides insight into a specific shortage of community resources. When they prepare the work in a thesis and share it with community leaders, the research becomes a service to the neighborhood.   In addition to their participation in faculty-guided service-learning opportunities, Schreyer Honors Scholars are encouraged to develop new projects that are consistent with the five steps recognized as essential for service of significance: Community Voice, Orientation and Training, Meaningful Action, Reflection, and Evaluation.   As in faculty-led outreach projects, this emphasis on community-university exchange ensures that resources and expertise meet real community needs. Achterberg explained the important role of Community Voice in project design and fulfillment, saying, “Community Voice involves making contact with community members and listening to their needs and wants, then matching our resources as best as possible to address those needs and wants. It also means engaging community members in planning, implementing and evaluating programs.”   Many of those projects are developed through “Service Achievement Initiative Leadership” (SAIL), a volunteer component of The Schreyer Honors College, which encourages students to come forward with their ideas for service in the community and provides resources and guidance for Scholars to initiate, serve in and run volunteer efforts.   Achterberg notes that projects must balance “Achievement” and “Service.” She stressed that it is essential that all projects incorporate student expertise or require students to develop expertise through the project at the same time that they offer a service.   One such program is the Nutrition Service Project, a student-designed initiative to improve nutrition education for young people in communities surrounding State College. Students in all majors participate in a Spring Break Alternative trip to work in the schools of Mt. Union, Pa. Students help with fund-raising, recruitment, volunteer training, marketing, record keeping and Web design.   According to Achterberg, achievement takes place as students “learn how to adapt technical scientific information into lay terms and to develop exemplars specific to target audiences within the communities.”   Achterberg points to future plans for engaging Schreyer Scholars in University outreach. Those plans include the development of distance education courses to support study abroad, with critical courses as well as Cooperative Extension summer internships in which “students bring their subject matter expertise, energy and creativity to the Cooperative Extension county office for support and programming,” with the goal of developing this work into a thesis project.   “Outreach will continue to grow in breadth and depth in The Schreyer Honors College as more students become engaged in service learning in courses, extracurricular activities and thesis research at local, statewide and international locations,” Achterberg said.
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu