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Purdue president discusses ‘The Engaged Institution’ By Deborah A. Benedetti
Dr. Martin C. Jischke, president of Purdue University, discusses “The Engaged Institution: A View Beyond Penn State” during the Outreach and Cooperative Extension Leaders Retreat. Dave Shelly Penn State Image Resource Center “I see this new agenda of learning, discovery and engagement as absolutely key to reconceptualizing the roles of public universities in this new century — with implications for changing how we do our work.” —Dr. Martin C. Jischke President, Purdue University	Dr. Martin C. Jischke, president of Purdue University, spoke on the theme “The Engaged Institution: A View Beyond Penn State” during the Outreach and Cooperative Extension Leaders Retreat. More than 100 Penn State administrators, faculty and staff members attended the program.   “One of the most interesting and exciting issues facing public higher education in our country is the issue of engagement,” Jischke said. “The future of what we are about is wrapped up in that very interesting and stimulating word.   “I’m very impressed with what you are doing in engagement at Penn State. I understand a survey made several years ago indicated that one of four Pennsylvanians has participated in a Penn State outreach program in a given year. That’s an astonishing penetration and a remarkable testimony to engagement by this university. I understand that your outreach programs serve more than 5 million people. That’s quite impressive.   “You have begun to more carefully integrate engagement activities into the evaluation of faculty and particularly into the promotion and tenure process. Your World Campus is a very ambitious effort to bring learning and some of Penn State’s signature programs to users everywhere. Penn State has begun to accomplish the things that lie behind becoming an engaged university. It appears you are enriching the experience of your students by bringing engagement, as well as research, into the curriculum. And you have begun to bring your resources to bear on problems that your communities face. Penn State is already an engaged institution.”   Jischke chaired the Engaged Institution Agenda Committee of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities. He said the report Returning to Our Roots: The Engaged Institution, issued by the commission, was the most popular. It “struck an amazing resonant chord in American higher education,” because: Research universities were losing touch with the communities they serve. The expertise on campus was not being used to address the needs of communities and states. Universities were seen as detached and unresponsive, resulting in an erosion of state support. Organizations involved in engagement, such as cooperative extension, were experiencing a decline in federal funding. People in higher education began to realize engagement was crucial to reenergizing their outreach, education and research missions. They recognized experiential learning was a powerful tool to enhance learning. They viewed engagement as an effective way to bring experiential learning to students. There was a shift in the research agenda from defense-related research to a focus on economic development, which is a more local and statewide issue than defense.   A more fundamental set of questions emerged from these factors and trends: Who are our communities? What is our relationship to them? How can we tackle community issues?   Underlying the discussions was the understanding that “we need to partner and engage in order to build public support for these great universities. There was a sense in the mid-1990s that we really had to pay careful attention to this,” he said.   “For all of these reasons, this idea of engagement has enormous resonance. We’re moving from the old language of teaching, research and outreach to a new language of learning, discovery and engagement. They are more than words. There are powerful ideas behind them.”   Some of the changes taking place in American higher education include redesigning research and education programs to be more responsive to community needs, setting agendas with partners, reenergizing the role of extension and linking learning and engagement to enhance students’ learning and improve communities.   “All of this is making a fundamental change in higher education,” Jischke said.   He cited examples of Purdue University’s outreach programming, including the National Higher Education Treasury Academy, which provides training for people who manage treasury and financial resources; the Technical Assistance Program, which helps implement new technologies and solve technical problems for small businesses; the Center for Genetics Research in Hardwood, which assists the hardwood industry in breeding better trees; Engineering Projects in Community Service, which helps solve technical problems in delivering services to communities; and Reading Recovery, which helps children learn to read before they enter school.   What makes a successful engagement program?   “The best engagement efforts start with a real need in which the people who have the need have a clear interest and input,” Jischke said. “They help set the agenda. They help articulate what the problems are, and they identify the needs. It’s only then that the university can respond. The most successful engagement programs for universities like Purdue, Iowa State and Penn State build on the university’s capacity to solve problems. They build on its research capacity, in particular. They touch the real strengths of the university. There are opportunities for engagement all across the entire university. These successful examples of engagement have the kind of attractiveness that gives them financial leverage, which gives them the possibility of being sustainable.”   He added, “Engagement takes resources. It’s absolutely clear that we have the resources in our people — our faculty and staff. We can bring these capacities to bear on national, state and local needs in a more coherent and effective way. It’s imperative we do this. I see this new agenda of learning, discovery and engagement as absolutely key to reconceptualizing the roles of public universities in this new century — with implications for changing how we do our work. The institutions that capture these ideas and build them into their programs are the ones that are going to thrive in the 21st century.” An outreach program of the Office of the Vice President for Outreach and Cooperative Extension