Service Learning Advisory Council
Present: Future Akins, Shannon Bichard, Joaquin Borrego, Kurt Caswell, Donna Davis, Birgit Green, Laura Lowe, Sara Smock, Robert Stewart, Reese Todd, Irene Arellano, Karen Meaney, Guest: Jacki Fitzpatrick
Absent: Heidi Brady, Carolyn Erler, Ralph Ferguson, Walt Oler, Doris Reding, Brian Rex, Larry Spain
Karen welcomes the council. Karen welcomes and introduces Rob Stewart, Senior Vice Provost, as the representative from the Provost’s Office. She also welcomes and introduces Jacki Fitzpatrick as the Spotlight guest speaker.
Jacki Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor (Human Development and Family Studies) was the spotlight guest speaker. She presented her Service Learning course, HDFS 3322. The course dealt with public policy. The course was designed to expose the students to the impact of policy in the lives of the designated community. Jacki stated the course has been made requirement for students and will be kept as a service-learning course. Jacki will present her service-learning study at a national conference.
The request was then made for approval of the September 15th minutes. Future motioned for approval, Sara seconded, and minutes were approved.
Kurt, Laura, and Reese provided an update on the S-Designation review process. Kurt mentioned that the committee met and reviewed the all the submitted courses. The courses were then divided between the committee members to write responses. All the course responses were sent to Irene to distribute to the assigned faculty in order to make revisions. Kurt mentioned that the deadline was extended to Monday, October 27th for revisions to be submitted to Irene. Laura stated there were 13 courses submitted. Three of courses received approvals. One course was denied. Nine courses needed revisions. The committee was concerned about a faculty member who submitted three courses. They suggested the faculty member only re-submit one of three courses. Reese stated the review committee worked well together to provide feedback to the faculty. The committee will meet on October 28th to make final decisions on the re-submitted courses.
Karen asked the review committee for feedback on the “S”-designation review process. The committee suggested that the Council revisit the “S”-designation process. The review committee thought that some of the applications were not thorough and professional. They suggested maybe rethinking the questions on the application or have faculty address the application questions in the syllabus. At the same time, the committee wants to keep the integrity of service-learning. Future mentioned a concern for the faculty is the current review process may cause faculty to be disconnected and not be enthusiastic about submitting their course. The suggestion was made to re-think the on-line process maybe change the application process to a word document. This should help with clarity and proof-reading.
Karen opened the question to the council: How could the Service Learning Program better communicate the “S”-designation process to the faculty? Some of suggestions were to provide a template: a different course sample, require a word minimum, and use laptops during presentations to guide the faculty during the “S”-designation workshops. It was also recommended that it would beneficial to have a hybrid or sample of the work. There was a recommendation of Service-Learning representative to attend faculty meetings in various areas and provide giveaways at the presentation. The presentation should consist of a video of students’ involvement with the service-learning course as well as a power point describing the benefits of service-learning.
The conversation of the benefits of service-learning brought to the table a discussion of “what are the incentives for faculty who integrate service-learning to their course”. Karen stated that in the past meetings discussions were made regarding increase workload policy. The Faculty Fellows Program offers stipends to the mentors and fellows. It was also mentioned that the Service Learning Program held a luncheon for the Deans last fall in an effort to educate them on the benefits of service-learning. The council mentioned that is important to have both the Deans and Chairs support Service-Learning. It was a general consensus that the Council determined that there is a lack of rewards for faculty to be recognized as being a part of Service-Learning.
Birgit announced ODE and the Provost’s Office will host a conference on March 22, 2009 with the focus to bring awareness of community engagement. One of the focuses will be service-learning and its connection to community engagement. It will have a faculty track on service-learning in regards to teaching and research. Birgit also mentioned Amy Driscoll with the Carnegie Foundation will be the guest speaker.
Irene provided the council with service learning updates. Two upcoming service learning events are “Service Learning: A Way to Build a Sense of Responsibility” and “Service Learning: Sharing Student, Faculty, and Community Partner Experiences” on October 21st and November 6th, respectively.
Karen briefly mentioned that the two items for the next meeting will be the discussion of the possibility of Service-Learning workload policy and re-examining the “S”-designation process.
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 pm. |