University of La Verne – Faculty Retreat 2011 – Notes Retreat Agenda Friday, January 14, 2011 9:00 a.m.: Depart by bus, Founder’s Hall 11:30 a.m.: Arrival & early registration 12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Main lodge) 1:15-1:45: Special Tribute to Steve Morgan (Pine View) 1:45-2:45 p.m.: Keynote: Provost Greg Dewey (Pine View) 3:00-4:00 p.m.: Breakouts (three simultaneous) (Pine View, Cedar, and Redwood) (1) Developing a common culture of research and scholarship (Pine View) Abe Helou and Christine Broussard (2) A common vision through community engagement (Cedar) Jonathan Reed, Jack Meek, Marc Roark (3) Facilitating a common culture of student-centered pedagogy AND Lifelong learning and rejuvenation (Redwood) Mark Goor, Allen Easley, Anita Flemington 4:15 p.m.: Group picture (front lawn) 4:30 p.m.: Personal networking free time 6:30 p.m.: Dinner (Main lodge) 8:00-9:30 p.m.: Very special film screening: “Voices Unbound” (Cedar) 9:30 p.m.: Follow-up and discussion with very special guest star Erin Gruwell (Freedom Writers) (Cedar) Saturday, January 15, 2011 8:00 a.m.: Breakfast, room checkout (Main lodge) 9:00-9:45 a.m.: Breakout session sharing (Cedar) 10:00-11:00 a.m.: Recap by Provost and Deans (Cedar) 11:00 a.m.: “Leopard Tales” story contest (Cedar) 11:30 a.m.: Faculty recap (Cedar) 12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Main lodge) 1:30 p.m.: Bus departs 3:00 p.m.: Bus arrives at La Verne
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University of La Verne – Faculty Retreat 2011 – Notes
Retreat Agenda
Friday, January 14, 2011
9:00 a.m.: Depart by bus, Founder’s Hall 11:30 a.m.: Arrival & early registration 12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Main lodge) 1:15-1:45: Special Tribute to Steve Morgan (Pine View) 1:45-2:45 p.m.: Keynote: Provost Greg Dewey (Pine View) 3:00-4:00 p.m.: Breakouts (three simultaneous) (Pine View, Cedar, and Redwood)
(1) Developing a common culture of research and scholarship (Pine View) Abe Helou and Christine Broussard
(2) A common vision through community engagement (Cedar) Jonathan Reed, Jack Meek, Marc Roark (3) Facilitating a common culture of student-centered pedagogy AND Lifelong learning and rejuvenation
(Redwood) Mark Goor, Allen Easley, Anita Flemington 4:15 p.m.: Group picture (front lawn) 4:30 p.m.: Personal networking free time 6:30 p.m.: Dinner (Main lodge) 8:00-9:30 p.m.: Very special film screening: “Voices Unbound” (Cedar) 9:30 p.m.: Follow-up and discussion with very special guest star Erin Gruwell (Freedom Writers) (Cedar)
Saturday, January 15, 2011 8:00 a.m.: Breakfast, room checkout (Main lodge) 9:00-9:45 a.m.: Breakout session sharing (Cedar) 10:00-11:00 a.m.: Recap by Provost and Deans (Cedar) 11:00 a.m.: “Leopard Tales” story contest (Cedar) 11:30 a.m.: Faculty recap (Cedar) 12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Main lodge) 1:30 p.m.: Bus departs 3:00 p.m.: Bus arrives at La Verne
Provost Greg Dewey
Creating a Common Vision – More than a WASC Mandate
(Notes by Paul Alvarez)
Following the last WASC visit, the University was charged with creating a common vision. Provost
Dewey visited various units both on and off campus and heard many, often similar descriptions of
what we do well. But that is a mission, not a vision. Having a common mission is not a common
vision. Therefore, the University does need to find a common vision, not just because WASC
mandated it, but also because it makes sense for the continued growth of the University.
Benefits of a shared vision include:
More cohesive planning and resource distribution
More cohesive marketing and fundraising
More distinctive image
A common purpose builds team and community relationships
La Verne appears to be a puzzle – different colleges, different students, the presence of RCA – that to
many appears jumbled. A common vision will help put the pieces together into one cohesive picture.
A common theme when Provost Dewey talked to the different units was the perception that “the tail
wags the dog”. In other words, the sense that units with less impact on the mission of the University
are promoted and supported over those unites that are perceived to be more mission-centered. But
who is truly the tail and who is the dog? In a complex organization, all are equally important.
Creating a shared vision:
Agree and prioritize the development of common building blocks – foundational language and components that are essential to all
Seek university-wide solutions to the problems in American higher education
Create distinctive shared programmatic approaches
So what are the common building blocks? What are the ingredients for success?
Quality of faculty. Quality faculty will support quality programs of distinction.
Quality of students. Programs of distinction will attract quality students, who will promote and expand the academic mission.
Quality of services. Both academic and administrative support services must be of the highest quality to support the efforts of students, faculty, and staff.
Quality of physical plant. Attractive, durable, and state of the art facilities further attract and support quality students, faculty, and staff.
These building blocks are the start point, the foundation of a quality institution. However, every
institution has these elements in their foundation. So where do we go from here to create a common
vision for La Verne?
Beyond the basics, there are two elements that distinguish one institution from another:
Distinctiveness – How are you different from peer institutions?
Distinction – What do you do better than anyone else? One way we can determine these is by looking at issues confronting American higher education.
Institutions are confronted with problems they must solve, both local and global. Local problems are
determined by institutional setting, history, configuration, etc. Global problems are common to all
institutions. Long-term problems are best solved through a shared strategic plan that addresses long-
term objectives. A working hypothesis – global problems are harder than local problems to solve.
However, if you work to solve global problems, you will also solve many local problems.
Global problems confronting American higher education include:
Accountability – standards, evaluations, etc.
Access – who gets in, who is kept out?
Relevance – are individuals educated to issues for the 21st century?
To become more accountable, we need:
Tighter program reviews and reporting
Stronger culture of service
Strong stewardship of intellection property
To address issues of access, we must:
Sustain our current population – we are already doing well
Promote strong fundraising for scholarships – our students need the resources
Address issues of quality and ethnicity in student admissions
To address issues of relevancy, we should:
Focus on theory and practice
Focus on an applied research mission
Emphasize student-centered learning
Promote social entrepreneurship
In creating program distinction, we need to distinguish ourselves from other institutions. In academic
settings, the emphasis is on Teaching and Learning, and Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work.
We can add Community Engagement to the traditional two cornerstones of academe’, and
distinguish ourselves.
Deconstructing who we are, or, an attempt to define our vision (note: I did not get the full
statement):
The University of La Verne is a private, comprehensive, liberal arts university
This reflects small class size, providing a comprehensive education
Faith-based
We have been given a moral compass derived from our Church of the Brethren roots
Educates a diverse community
Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and beliefs
Focusing on our core values of
Values Orientation
Community and Diversity
Lifelong Learning
Community Service
Why Community Engagement?
All units can participate
Appropriate for our students
Appropriate for our faculty
We are already doing it
Integrative role for RCA
We can be distinctive and with distinction
What does it mean?
There are educational, research, and community components
Form true partnerships with the community, not charity
Exchange resources with community
Share development and recruitment efforts
Breakout Session:
Actions to Achieve a Common Culture for Research and Scholarship
Facilitated by Abe Helou and Christine Broussard (Notes by Omid Furutan)
Kinds of Research
• Discipline Based Research--Discovery of New Knowledge
• Pedagogical Research—Discovery to Enhance Teaching and Learning Knowledge
• Technical Assistance Research—Application of Knowledge to Enhance Practice
• Community Based Research--Assistance & Discovery to Enhance Knowledge and Quality of
Life in Local Settings
Goals and Objectives
• University/College Goals
• Encourage and promote excellence in all kinds of research
• Provide the infrastructure and administrative support to promote quality in research
• Disseminate the impact of research to the community through diverse academic and
non-traditional means of communication
• Faculty Goals
• Identify issues and venues for collaboration and partnerships between La Verne and
stakeholders
Proposed Actions
• Attract, nurture and retain outstanding scholars in all areas of research
• Develop a Provost and Deans funds to provide monetary award for outstanding research,
scholarly and creative contributions
• Create Research Centers and Institutes to address Inter/multi-disciplinary research agendas
and questions
• Ensure competitive faculty compensation
• Attract, nurture, retain, and promote outstanding scholars in all areas of research
• Reduce administrative burdens on faculty
• Support graduate and especially doctoral programs
• Support efforts to attract outside funding
• Encourage productive and mutually beneficial research collaboration between faculty and
undergraduate students
Breakout Session:
A Community Vision through Community Engagement
Facilitated by Jack Meek, Jonathan Reed, and Marc Roark
(Notes by Loren Dyck)
1. How can La Verne live its mission through community engagement?
2. What do faculty view as potential avenues for community engagement?
3. What kinds of research – experiential, action, applied, or other – should be considered for
community engagement?
4. What kind of funding can be attracted to ensure quality and consistency of community
engagement research and actions?
Marc Rourke COL – How does interdisciplinary aspect work? What about the budget? If Law school
gets lion share of results should they pay more. Need to agree on these matters up front.
Wants to create a business incubator with CBPM and has had conversations with Abe. Who shares
burden of costs, academic resources? What do we do about academic resources?
Jonathon Reed – CAS – ULV values. Community engagement is based on mission statement. Poor job
of “curricularizing” the mission statement. Community engagement is a tool to curricularize the
mission statement. Start at beginning of all degree programs and throughout. Thinking about
values, community and service.
Believe it is part of mission statement.
How does com. Engagement relate to academic quality, academic research, ….?
How does community engagement relate to issue of diversity?
It can be complementary. It should not be seen at expense of academic quality/research/promotion
and tenure.
Jack – Attendees – what have we been doing and what can we do?
Homa – data collected on what the four colleges have done based on survey.
Aghop – N = 45
Ford – should develop registry
Kent – how are we defining community? He has put on numerous symposia/colloquia but is that a
part of the definition? Or is it working on project?
Paul – within training students need to spend clinical hours. Two-fold process in health care and
contact from community. Promote nature of major. Explains what students are learning and do?
Zandra – Helps make community arrangements. Community partners want to be in relationship with
us but our students come out with a degree but some semesters courses are not available. Not
continuing/ongoing structure. It is better to pick community partnerships that can continue over
the long term.
Marc – 1st year students did community service for four hours and that’s it. Need to restructure.
Another faculty stated in contrast that one of her students told her – “this is the most valuable part
of my learning”
Zandra – if students could see that they have made a difference – learn through it – ULV should make
a bigger contribution
David – theatre and community has done workshops in communities and highlighted stars in our
community. How you define community engagement is important. Is it disciplinary, promotion
and tenure, is promotion of ULV?
Another faculty member stated – some things done in our dept. are disrupted. There is no
infrastructure. Community engagement is done on a class-by-class basis. Now trying to develop
ongoing relationships. E.g. LA Opera. Give students tickets. Students see that. Culture arts society
of La Verne producing a season of productions with ULV students. If institutionalize community
engagement then it needs to be curricular, institutionalized, and ongoing.
George – communications – community service moves you to the real world.
Another faculty – we take care of maintenance of Fairplex learning center and we are doing research
with students.
Another faculty - don’t forget the staff!
Another faculty – PE example – ask client what they want. – offering classes versus recreational
mentors
Worry about stumbles can’t recover from.
Loretta – student life and campus life doing lots of outreach. Davenport example - 130 students and
their families.
Darj? Important to take steps to reduce student costs, lobby government for funding, show ULV can
doing something unique. Create a better image of university.
Sean – community garden – teaches a food related class. Class eats food and other food goes to
inland valley partners. Food drive raised a lot of money and food. Students heavily involved.
Daniel – met with reps from 7 colleges and universities that recognized by Carnegie as institute of
community engagement.
Themes:
1. Definitions are needed
a. What is community?
i. Which community?
1. Local, regional, national, international?
2. Student, business, or academic populations?
b. What is community engagement?
i. At what level do we engage?
1. Annual, occasional, ongoing?
2. Determine how community engagement fits into academic priorities
a. Ensure adds to academic quality
b. Ensure does not detract from academic research
c. Is it part of promotion and tenure?
d. How and to what level is it resourced?
3. Need to institutionalize or “curricularize” it once we figure out what it is!
a. Make it part of the ongoing curriculum
b. Ensure continuity between semesters
c. Work with companies for internships and course experiences to ensure continuity
4. Need to capture good examples that already exist
a. Especially within La Verne
i. Great examples were shared from each of the colleges
ii. Survey data collected from 45 ULV respondents
b. Colleges and universities already recognized as stellar examples of community