Merrimack College is a midsized Catholic Augustinian College pursuing its historical service-based commitments while shifting priorities toward research. With limited time and resources, these two aims can create tension at institutional and faculty levels. This single institutional case study shares the work of faculty and College leadership to…

On average, only about 16 percent of annual union dues paid by members in 19 Massachusetts public school districts stayed with local union chapters. The remaining 84 percent of dues revenue went directly to the state (Massachusetts Teachers Association) and national (National Education Association) union affiliates. But what about public higher…

The author graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts from Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Although he was one of over a thousand students to graduate that day, his situation was a little different than those of his peers. The author is a full-time faculty member at NECC with a Ph.D. in organic…

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative (the Collaborative) report examines how faculty and staff at seven community colleges and two broad-access universities reconsidered students' online learning needs in the midst of the pandemic. The report focuses on a set of interconnected student mindsets and competencies that the authors…

This paper analyzes the processes and outcomes involved with mentoring junior faculty in the reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT) process at a comprehensive state university and creating a culture supportive of engaged research. Although the university in this case study is governed by a collective bargaining agreement that prohibits the…

Health professions students can increase their understanding of how social determinants impact health equity through experiential learning opportunities. Using key informant interviews with faculty and staff familiar with experiential education programs in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and social work, we sought to…

This paper examines how the structural features of engineering engagement programs (EEPs) are related to the nature of their service-learning partnerships. "Structure" refers to formal and informal models, processes, and operations adopted or used to describe engagement programs, while "nature" signifies the quality of…

Creating meaningful professional development opportunities for general education faculty can be particularly challenging at professionally-focused institutions where teaching liberal arts courses is sometimes viewed merely as a service requirement. Committing to sustained professional development for general education faculty can lead to…

The need for new and revised structures to reward new forms of scholarship is being examined nationally and globally. It is also being examined on campuses that make up the University of Massachusetts system, all which are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for Community Engagement. This paper reports on the collective exploration by the five…

Three authors describe a collaboration between a Massachusetts college and a nearby prison, which leveraged the volunteer efforts of a college professor by including incarcerated men who assisted in Spanish language teaching inside and outside the classroom.

The purpose of the "Bringing Theory to Practice" May 15th seminar was to examine and explore a wide range of faculty rewards (including promotion criteria, awards, faculty development support, and policies at various levels) that provide incentives and recognition to faculty for undertaking community-engaged scholarship (CES). The…

The civic mission of American colleges and universities has received renewed attention over the last decade. From the "engaged campus" designation now offered by the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching to the growth of Campus Compact (from 782 institutional members in 2000 to 1150 in 2012) to major institutional…

The responsibility for college success has historically rested with the student, but since the 1980s, educators have taken increasing ownership of this, designing structures that increase the likelihood of learning, success, and retention. These efforts have included a variety of initiatives--first year seminars, learning communities,…

In this article, the authors present the 2012 Campus Technology Innovators. These IT leaders have deployed extraordinary technology solutions to meet campus challenges. The authors also recognize the vendors and products involved in making these innovative projects a success. The 10 winners are: (1) University of Arizona (Student Systems and…

The practice of documentation is discussed as a means of making learning visible in the LC classroom. A documentation heuristic consisting of a four-stage cycle was used to capture, analyze and report what Bass and Eynon (2009) refer to as the "visible evidence of invisible learning" (p. 5). A variety of documentation samples are…