Public Work and the Academy : An Academic Administrator's Guide to Civic Engagement and Service-Learning

Today's institutions of higher education find themselves in a struggle to rediscover their roots in civic engagement, and embed such values in their students through intentional leadership, service-learning, and community connectedness. Public Work and the Academy provides academic leaders with a resource to increase their fluency with and ability to lead service-learning and civic engagement efforts on their campuses, with their peers, and throughout their institutions in order to shape the future of higher education. It is written specifically for chief academic officers, provosts, deans, and division and department chairs, who have significant responsibility for their campus's academic programs.This book provides guidance on Using civic engagement to enhance the curriculum Examining the critical leadership role of the academic administrator Institutionalizing service-learning and civic engagement Using service-learning as means of advancing educational reform Faculty roles and rewards Employing service-learning to add depth to the education process It illustrates a wide variety of topics through 11 case studies drawn from two- and four-year institutions across the United States , allowing readers to focus on the specific issues and types of institutions most applicable to them. In addition, this book includes a resources section that lists relevant publications, web sites, consultants, and networks.Public Work and the Academy encourages both reflection and action on the part of academic leaders and their faculty and asks them to make service-learning and civic engagement part of their unique campus context.

MARK LANGSETH has served as founding executive director of Minnesota Campus Compact (1994-present) and founding director of the Minnesota Campus Service Initiative (1987-1994), the nation’s first such statewide effort. He initiated Minnesota campus Compact’s ground-breaking Chief Academic Officers’ Initiative for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in 1999.

WILLIAM M. PLATER has served as the chief academic officer at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) since 1987 and as interim president in 2002-2003. he has also served as dean of liberal arts and professor of English at IUPUI. He has written extensively on the changing nature of faculty work and, more broadly, higher education.

SCOTT DILLON is an undergraduate student in the college of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota and production assistant for the University of Minnesota Press. He is currently researching the importance of the written word in both literature and journalism.