RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
www.rutgers.edu

Background
Current Institutional Involvement and Commitment to Civic Learning
Proposed Activities to be Funded as Part of the Cluster
Expected Student Learning and Institutional Outcomes
Ability to Provide Leadership for Additional Civic Learning Clusters
Leadership Team

 Background

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has three campuses.  The Camden campus serves an urban and diverse student body.  It is a comprehensive institution with approximately 4,800 students.  The main campus in New Brunswick is a Research I institution with a broad array of program offerings at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels and a student body of approximately 35,000.  The Newark campus also serves an urban and diverse student body of approximately 9,000.  It offers a range of liberal arts and professional programs, some through the doctoral level. 

Under the leadership of President Francis L. Lawrence beginning in 1990 Rutgers has been engaged in an intensive process of reflection and strategic planning that has touched all aspects of the University's life.  While research and infrastructure have received attention, intense energy has been focused on assessing and transforming the undergraduate curriculum and the implementation of the Rutgers teaching and service missions.  Central to this effort has been the articulation of a set of Rutgers University Learning Goals.  These goals will serve as the basis for the University's current commitment to making civic learning a core theme in the Rutgers undergraduate curriculum.
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Current Institutional Involvement and Commitment to Civic Learning

For over ten years the Rutgers Citizenship and Service Education Program (CASE) has been a major vehicle for addressing the University's commitment to develop students' "understanding of the political and policy making processes of the United States and of their role as citizens in a democratic society."   In the words of Rutgers President Francis L. Lawrence's November 18, 1999 "Engaging the Community" report given at the New Jersey statehouse, "The innovative goal of CASE is to integrate service learning directly into the academic curriculum of undergraduate education…It serves the dual function of bringing lessons of the classroom into the community while bringing the lessons learned in the community back to the classroom."  In its first decade CASE involved more than 10,000 future citizens who worked at more than 400 community partner organizations to which they contributed more than a half million hours of service.  Today, CASE offers approximately 65 courses on Rutgers three campuses, enrolling 2000 students annually.
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Proposed Activities to be Funded as Part of the Cluster

Through the proposed project CASE will be able to substantially increase the range of service learning courses offered at Rutgers.  An additional 45 courses will be added to the civic learning and service core.  This will be accomplished through a Civic Learning Faculty Development Program and a Civic Learning Instructor's Certificate Program.

 The civic learning courses added will support the University's four multidisciplinary civic education and community service clusters.

§ The "Access for All" cluster of courses address students' disconnect from the policy and political process, and their ignorance about how to become and be "public citizens".  Access course community placements support community advocacy, community development, and voter registration organizations. 

§ The "Bridging the Digital Divide" cluster will provide additional courses in areas related to computer and communications technology such as Computer Science, Graphic Design, and Management Information Systems.  Placements in these courses will involve students in developing web sites for nonprofits, and teaching children and their parents in the local community how to use the Internet. 

§ The "Service in/and Science" cluster focuses on science courses, with placements involving the provision of science instruction at local schools. 

§ The "Talking Across Fences" cluster reaches beyond the campus to deal with the problems and lack of resources of the institutions' host communities and is a means for sharing Rutgers physical and human resources with its neighbors.

The University plans to develop additional CASE courses by offering faculty incentives to adopt new approaches to teaching.  The University proposes the following strategies:

o Solicit applications for curriculum development grants from faculty in departments that complement plans to broaden and deepen course offerings in the four, multidisciplinary civic education and community service clusters; and

o Require that recipients participate in a semester long civic learning faculty and curriculum development seminar. 

The seminar will address civic education, learning styles, reflection techniques, course
design, the challenge of curriculum reform, and change strategies.  Recipients of the curriculum development grants will either develop a new civic learning course, or reformat an existing course to add a substantial civic learning and experiential component.

The University also will develop a three semester Civic Learning Instructor's Certificate program to train four cohorts of five Rutgers graduate students each in civic learning and service learning.  In semester one participants will attend a weekly seminar that will provide them with the basis for teaching a service learning course.  In semester two participants will be assigned as observers and civic learning assistants to experienced CASE faculty.  In the final semester, participants will be assigned by their departments to teach a civic learning course. 

An additional initiative proposed by Rutgers University is to expand and strengthen the New Jersey Civic Education Consortium for which it provides leadership.  In enhancing the scope of the Consortium, the University will increase the range of materials the Consortium can develop and distribute to school districts across the state.  A Civic Education Internet Clearinghouse will be developed to put civic learning best practices online.
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Expected Student Learning and Institutional Outcomes

As a result of participation in civic learning courses the University expects students to increase their understanding of their role as citizens in a democratic society and their sense of engagement with the community.  It expects students to understand the relationship of disciplinary issues discussed in the courses to community and societal problems.  It also expects student participants to engage in service to the community after course completion and after graduation.  The expected institutional outcomes will be a substantial increase in the number of civic learning courses available to students, and the increase in the percentage of Rutgers students who will take civic learning courses.  The University also will increase the awareness of faculty in the issues related to civic education and will involve a significant number of faculty in providing civic learning courses.

By the end of the grant the University anticipates adding a total of 25 civic learning courses to the curriculum.  In order to ensure that the program has a lasting effect, each faculty contract will require that the recipient agree to teach the course at least three times and that the recipient's department chair agree to make the course a regular department offering.

Through the Civic Learning Instructor's Certificate program the University will add 20 new civic learning courses to the curriculum and will develop a cadre of future faculty members for the nation who will be prepared to incorporate civic learning courses at the range of colleges and universities where they will be employed in the future.
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 Ability to Provide Leadership for Additional Civic Learning Clusters

The Rutgers CASE program is already a leader in providing technical assistance to service learning programs throughout New Jersey and across the United States.  CASE has a remarkable breadth of contacts among colleges and universities which would provide the basis for leadership in developing additional civic learning clusters.  At the state level, CASE is an active member of the New Jersey Higher Education Service-Learning Consortium.  Finally CASE operates njserves.org, the "virtual home" of 40,000 New Jersey civic sector organizations, which offers electronic outreach to partners of all types throughout the state.  Thus, Rutgers' CASE program is well-positioned to provide state and national leadership in transformation focused on serving students and society.
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Leadership Team

Barbara Bender, Associate Dean, Graduate School; Director, Teaching Assistant Project
Emmet Dennis, Vice President for Student Affairs; Dean of University College; Professor of Biological Sciences
Monica Devanns, Director of Faculty Development and Assessment Programs, Rutgers University Teaching Excellence Center
Susan Forman, Vice President for Undergraduate Education; Professor, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.
Ruth Mandel, Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics; founder/past director, Center for American Women in Politics
Barry Qualls, Dean for Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Michael Shafer, Professor, Department of Political Science; Director, Rutgers CASE and njserves.org
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