Carolina Center for Public Service - Public Service and Engagement at Carolina

About Engagement

Engagement

Engagement is one of the core components of UNC Chapel Hill’s current Academic Plan (2003), in part designed to reach beyond public service and to link research, teaching and creativity with needs of the state. In addition, the Chancellor’s Task Force on Engagement (2006) developed recommendations for three content areas (PreK-12 education, health and economic development) as well as for cross-cutting issues to be addressed by faculty to respond to the state’s challenges.

There are currently no universal definitions for the terms “public service,” “engagement” or “engaged scholarship.” To assure common understanding of the concepts, the Center adopted the following definitions for use at UNC Chapel Hill

• Engagement is public service that occurs in reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships between the university and the community.


• Public service is the application of knowledge, skills and resources for the common good.


• Engaged scholarship, while fully grounded as disciplined inquiry according to the highest academic standards, strengthens university-community relationships and contributes to the common good.

Additional Engagement Definitions

“Community Engagement describes the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.”

~ Carnegie Foundation

 

“Engagement – in which institutions and communities form lasting relationships that influence, shape, and promote success in both spheres – is rare. More frequently, there is evidence of unilateral outreach, rather than partnership based on mutual benefit, mutual respect, and mutual accountability.”

~ Kellogg Foundation

 

Read additional definitions related to service and engagement here.

Additional Readings on Engagement

1. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate, Ernest Boyer
   “The scholarship of engagement means connecting the rich resources of the university to our most pressing social, civic and ethical problems.”

   ~ Ernest Boyer




2. Returning to Our Roots: The Engaged Institution The Kellogg commission on the Future of Lang Grant and State Universities
   “Seven guiding characteristics seem to define an engaged institution. They constitute a seven-part test of engagement. 1) responsiveness, 2) respect for partners, 3) academic neutrality, 4) accessibility, 5) integration, 6) coordination, and 7) resource partnerships…”

   ~ Returning to Our Roots: The Engaged Institution