Public Service: what does it mean at UNC?

1. Public Service: what does it mean at UNC? …and what does it have to do with you? N.C. Women in Municipal Government Breakfast Meeting October 24, 2011 Lynn White Blanchard Carolina Center for Public Service UNC-Chapel Hill

2. Overview • Background • Personal and theoretical perspectives • University public service: then and now • Engagement: connections to teaching, research and service • Making connections

3. Everything I needed to know… Brownie Troop 96 Raleigh, North Carolina (circa 1955)

4. Public Service: A theoretical perspective But what about the Felmans?

5. Public Service:Another theoretical perspective Responsiveness and Reciprocity!

6. Public Service by any other name Public service is the application of knowledge, skills and resources for the common good. Engagement is public service that occurs in reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships between the university and the community. Engaged scholarship, while fully grounded as disciplined inquiry according to the highest academic standards, strengthens university-community relationships and contributes to the common good.

7. Write to the University when you need help 1916

8. UNC Tomorrow 2007 • Initiative of General Administration • How can the university can respond to challenges facing the state through teaching, research and service? • Listening forums • 11 community forms (2,700 attendees) • 11 campus forums (1,000 attendees) • Online survey (6,700 responses)

9. UNC Tomorrow themes Global readiness Access to higher education Improving public education Economic transformation Health Environment University’s outreach and engagement

10. Community-Campus Partnership Campus-wide initiative to forge effective partnerships with economically distressed communities in North Carolina. Assembles multi-disciplinary teams of UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, students, and staff to work with and support community partners in a comprehensive way.

11. Community-Campus Partnership Lenoir County Common Ground • Caswell and Lenoir counties • Streetlights, economic plans, classes, dropout prevention, obesity reduction, greenways, science education …..

12. A Riddle What has more than 4000 legs, is Carolina blue and has grown almost 60 times its original size since 2003? Hint: Its native habitat can be found in 89 of 100 North Carolina counties, 40 other states, the District of Columbia and 24 other countries.

13. Answer:The Buckley Public Service Scholars Program of the Carolina Center for Public Service! • 2027 students representing more than 50 different majors have made the commitment to participate. • Since the program’s inception in January 2003, students in the program have contributed more than 743,875 hours of service. • 183,581 of those hours were completed during 2010 (68% of which benefited NC).* * Estimated value in 2010 of more than $3.9 million.

14. Buckley Service Scholar participants (Spring,2011) 40/50 states, plus DC 52 students representing 24 other countries

15. Buckley Public Service Scholar Participants(Spring,2011) 1,569 students from North Carolina, representing 89 of 100 counties

16. From teaching in South Africa… to classrooms in NC, every day Buckley Public Service Scholars are working to change the world.

17. Jock LautererFaculty Engaged Scholar • Community journalism project • Workshops around the state • Bucket Brigade • The Durham Voice

18. Engaged Scholars at work “ Launching the NECD Community VOICE has been the most satisfying and rewarding experience in my 27 years of teaching.” Union Independent School 2010

19. Living the State Motto Impossible to begin to capture the full range and scope of how Carolina connects to communities through teaching, research and service. Two examples of how we have been recognized Tips for possible connections

20. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Elective classification Community Engagement 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. 2006: UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State

21. President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll: 2009 Presidential Awardee • Highest federal recognition for • community service • One of six (out of 780 applications) • Only public four-year institution • Only research institution • Highlights of application • 1800 students engaged in academic • service learning • More than 19,000 students engaged • in community service • More that 1 million service hours • Three examples: Project Heal, • C.H.E.A.P., and UNC NOW • Honored at Radio City Music Hall

22. Academic Plan 2011:Reach Carolina “Because the University exists to serve not only its students but also the state, nation, and the world, Reach Carolina embraces enthusiastically a comprehensive approach to engagement that will recognize, stimulate, and reward excellence in teaching and research on the part of all members of the campus community.” (from Executive Summary)

23. Making connections(with UNC and other institutions) • Start with who you know and find out more. (Surf, explore and ask.) • Think of what you might need and what you have to offer. • Begin simply… and build. • Tie it to teaching, learning and/or research if possible. • Possible linkages: • Internships • Service-learning courses • Community service days • Research • Professional schools and programs

24. What’s in that water?