udenver

THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
www.du.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

The University of Denver is an independent comprehensive institution with approximately
8,900 students of whom 3,200 are undergraduates. It provides undergraduate and graduate programs, including doctoral programs through six professional schools, as well as in variety of liberal arts disciplines. The University reports that is has long had a strong external orientation that predisposes faculty and students to a certain level of civic engagement. On the undergraduate level, civic learning and civic engagement have for some time been dominant themes at the University of Denver. While the University has implemented measures to raise faculty and student awareness on this subject, has instituted many academic and outreach programs with a community focus and has received significant recognition for its efforts, the University continues to face the challenges and opportunities to clarify and expand the role of civic education for undergraduates.
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Current Institutional Involvement and Commitment to Civic Learning

Since beginning his tenure in 1989, Chancellor Daniel Ritchie has led the University toward a focus on civic engagement. In 1991 the Chancellor established Operation Outreach, designed to encourage specific departments within the University to volunteer their individual and collective talents and resources to help ameliorate some of the pressing social, cultural, and emotional problems faced by the Denver community. Among the most successful outreach programs is the University of Denver/West High School VIP Partnership Program, which involves many faculty and staff in a variety of programs at the high school and on the campus and has brought 36 West High School alumni (most of them minority students) to DU on scholarship.

Other ongoing programs that link the University to the greater Denver community include the Bridge Project that operates in Denver's public housing projects; The Making of an Engineer summer outreach program; the Daniels College of Business GIVE Program (Graduates Involved in Voluntary Efforts); the Community Action Program (that engages approximately 2,000 faculty, staff and students in 20,000 hours of service each year); the Service Learning Program; the Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues; and a new Institute for Ethics and Values, supported with a private gift endowment.

Defining civic learning to mean service learning, the University indicates that civic learning is infused throughout the undergraduate curriculum in a number of ways. Some selected examples:

One of the guiding goals of the Daniels College of Business is training ethical business leaders, and all business undergraduates take a course in business ethics.

The University of Denver has in place four living/learning communities; Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP); Wellness; Internationalization; and Honors. The University plans to add a fifth community in Environmental Awareness in fall 2000 and a civic and urban education living and learning center with a community house component beginning fall 2001. Each community includes a service learning or community action requirement.

Faculty throughout the undergraduate curriculum, from the sciences and social sciences to philosophy and English, already integrate service learning into their courses or are interested in doing so.
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Proposed Activities to be Funded as Part of the Cluster

The University of Denver has proposed a civic learning transformation initiative which focuses on the development of a strategic alignment model. Through this model institutional commitment to civic learning is assessed in terms of strategy, structure, shared values, systems, and people. Building on the desired outcomes of civic learning articulated by C. David Lisman (leadership team co-leader, director of DU's Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement, and nationally recognized leader in the service-learning movement) and using assessment strategies identified by Frederick W. Gibson (leadership team member, faculty member in the Pioneer Leadership Program, director of assessment for the Living-Learning Communities, and former Chief of the Office of Quality and Assessment at the U.S. Air Force Academy), the University proposes a variety of changes to foster a more interconnected civic learning culture on the campus. Under the direction of the leadership team and an advisory committee of key stakeholders from across the campus, the University will evaluate its institutional change process using the strategic alignment model as a guide.
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Expected Student Learning and Institutional Outcomes

Among the institutional outcomes expected over a five-year period are the following:

Create a process whereby the civic mission of the University informs its goals and objectives.
Continue to expand and deepen community partnerships as the University develops more effective strategies to help promote sustainable democratic communities.
Enhance the civic learning and service learning characteristics of existing and planned living-learning communities.
Position the Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) as the clearinghouse for DU community research, internships, community service, and service learning and as the primary structure for guiding and monitoring volunteer/service programs.
Arrange for Service Learning credit to be available as a supplement to regular course credit.
Adopt more widely the Boyer Model of tenure reward.
Offer workshops to provide community members with greater competence in relevant areas, such as in Citizen Leadership and organizing.
Support efforts to enlist faculty to engage in public scholarship, such as providing increased opportunities for community research. The University plans to train community members in appropriate community research skills so that they can become more empowered to control the destiny of their own communities.

The University expects five broad civic learning outcomes for students through curricular and co-curricular service-learning activities: (1) acquire civic values, (2) obtain civic knowledge, (3) develop civic skills, (4) demonstrate civic efficacy, and (5) incorporate civic commitment to be active democratic participants. To more fully insure that DU students develop these civic values, the University indicates that it needs to include the development of values associated with multiculturalism, social responsibility, ethics, collaboration, service and communitarian ideals. This view guides the institutional efforts to cultivate active, effective citizens.
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Ability to Provide Leadership for Additional Civic Learning Clusters

The University of Denver expects to provide leadership for additional civic learning clusters through a number of current initiatives and affiliations. The University indicates that it is positioned to be a leader in the Rocky Mountain region and the Southwest to assist other colleges and universities in projects that enhance their civic mission and civic learning. Among the proposed activities for the Civic Learning Cluster project, the University plans to host two regional institutes on service learning/civic engagement (with 10 additional schools participating) which will provide a basis for leadership in building new civic learning clusters.

The University's Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement is involved in several grant-supported projects in which its partners have indicated an interest in participating in new and expanded versions of current activities. These initiatives include the following:

The University-Assisted Community School Project. The University provides service-learning support for the Horace Mann Neighborhood Center's after-school program at Horace Mann Middle School in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's WEPIC project, funded through the DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Fund and the Corporation for National Service. It is one of seven colleges and universities in this consortium providing such resources.

The Community-Research Project. Through a grant with the Bonner Foundation, the University has provided resources to faculty interested in doing community research projects in support of the needs of community-based organizations. It is part of a consortium of several colleges and universities in this initiative, including Concord College, Depauw University, Georgetown University, Guilford College, Mars Hill College, Occidental College, Princeton University, University of Louisville, and University of Michigan.

The Colorado Department of Education Service Learning Consortium. The University is one of five regional actions teams doing service learning out of Colleges of Education.

The International Civic Democracy Initiative. The University of Pennsylvania has invited the Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement to participate in a study initiative involving international efforts to promote civic engagement. This study effort will culminate in a national meeting to explore ways that universities in this consortium can more effectively help promote civic democracy internationally.

DU hosts the Colorado Campus Compact, which positions it to work closely with this group in collaborative efforts. It will leverage these resources as a vehicle for forming a potential alliance to realize the Kellogg goals.
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Leadership Team

Team Leaders:
Roscoe Hill, Associate Professor, Dean Emeritus, Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences
C. David Lisman, Director, Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement

Team Members
Frederick W. Gibson, Director of Assessment, Living-Learning Communities
Eric Gould, Professor of English
Robert Christie Mill, Professor of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, Daniels College of Business
Peggy Reed, Institutional Research Coordinator, Office of the Provost
Roberta Waldbaum, Assistant Professor, Languages & Literatures
Sheila Phelan Wright, Vice Provost, Undergraduate Studies, Wellness & Campus Life

Advisory Committee

Janette Benson, Associate Professor of Psychology
Nicolas Cutforth, Assistant Professor, College of Education
Maria de Santis, Associate Dean, Director, Center for Academic Resources
Glenn Fee, Director, Community Action Program
Julanna Gilbert, Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry; Director Center for Teaching and Learning
Richard Lamm, Director, Center for Public Policy & Contemporary Issues
Carl Larson, Professor of Human Communication Studies
Deborah Luchsinger, Assistant Professor of Geography
Todd Olson, Associate Vice Provost, Campus Living
Steven McCarl, Chair/Associate Professor of Political Science
Paula Nesbitt, Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology; Director, Institute of Ethics and Values
Gregory Robbins, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Catherine Sweeny, Director, Pioneer Leadership Program
Sheila Summers Thompson, Director, University Assessment
Kristin Wehner, Coordinator of Student Wellness
Margaret Whitt, Associate Professor of English; Director, First-Year Writing Program
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