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Community-Engaged Scholarship Now Recognized in Faculty Promotion Guidelines
Community-engaged scholarship is now recognized explicitly in Barry’s rank and promotion guidelines, and faculty will be rewarded specifically for scholarly roles in community engagement.
Both the Faculty Senate and the faculty as a whole have approved a proposal from the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) to specify community-engaged scholarship and community-based research among the criteria for rewarding faculty. The CCSI had proposed related amendments to the Faculty Handbook.
“Barry University’s faculty approved the proposed amendments to the Faculty Handbook, effective immediately,” Dr. Victor Romano, chair of the Faculty Senate, announced on February 27.
In its proposal, the CCSI recommended that the criteria for promotion include faculty engagement in research – “whether traditional or community-based research” – and faculty pursuit of “community-engaged scholarship that addresses significant public problems and social issues.”
In addition, the CCSI recommended that maintenance of Barry University’s status as a community-engaged institution be mentioned in the Faculty Handbook as part of the rationale for recognizing faculty participation in the community.
“Specifying community-engaged scholarship in the faculty promotion criteria affirms Barry University’s continued commitment to community engagement,” said CCSI Executive Director Dr. Glenn Bowen. “Adding community-based research also helps us to position our university for a successful community engagement re-classification by the Carnegie Foundation in 2025.”
Barry attained the Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification in 2015. Only 361 institutions have earned that prestigious recognition.
The Carnegie Foundation acknowledged the “excellent alignment among campus mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement” at Barry. Nevertheless, in its proposal to the Faculty Senate, the CCSI said that rewarding faculty explicitly for roles in community engagement, and particularly for community-engaged scholarship, was necessary if Barry was to maintain its “engaged university” status.
According to Bowen, “Articulating policies and procedures that encourage, support, and reward faculty for this kind of work will help to ensure that community engagement becomes more deeply embedded in institutional practices and more clearly characterize Barry’s culture and identity.” He said Barry was “now poised to become a national model for community engagement.”
In announcing the results of the vote to amend the rank and promotion guidelines, Romano, the Faculty Senate chair, thanked the members of both the Handbook Committee and the Communication and Technology Committee for their assistance with the amendment process.
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Barry Students Welcome Refugees to Our Community
Barry students hung out the welcome sign the other day for 24 refugees from Afghanistan, Colombia, Eritrea, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia.
They gathered at Griffing Park in North Miami for the Welcome Day event organized by the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) in partnership with the local Church World Service (CWS) office, which provides refugee resettlement services.
“I come with a hunger to study and learn in the United States,” declared a Colombian refugee.
CWS representatives Israel Alonso, a resource developer, and Kenneth Fuentes, a caseworker, were on hand to support the recently resettled families.
This was the second time in five months that the CCSI organized a Welcome Day for new refugees. The first was in October on Barry’s main campus.
During the recent event, social work students Mercy Mtaita, Manuela Pierre-Pierre, Matenin Sheriff, John Thomas, and Sha’novia Warren served refreshments in a hospitable setting. Joined by a Barry Service Corps member, Laury Gaspard, the students also led fun-filled activities, and some of the guests joined them for a pickup soccer game in a grassy park space. The guests also received gifts such as toys, school supplies, and household items.
The participating social work students were enrolled in a designated service-learning course. Preeti Charania, the Service-Learning and Social Work Practice (SW 323) course instructor, participated alongside her students and delighted those who, like her, speak or understand Urdu.
The SW 323 students prepared for the experience with the refugee families by having an in-class presentation from Alonso, the CWS resource developer, who talked about the mission and work of the organization. In turn, the students visited the CWS Miami office in Doral; learned bus routes to help families navigate the Miami metropolitan area; and prepared welcome signs in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, and Urdu.
As part of their 45-hour service-learning requirement, the social work students also identify culturally appropriate community resources for the new residents, including houses of worship and food markets. In addition, they organize a furniture drive, sort various donations at the CWS Miami office, and engage in advocacy regarding refugee policy.
For Pierre-Pierre, one of the students, the service-learning project has so far provided “an incredible experience.”
Barry Service Corps Fellow Jennifer Sanhou also lent a helping hand at the Welcome Day event. CCSI staff member Liz James was the event coordinator.
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Four Community Partners to be Honored at Next Wednesday’s Awards
Four of Barry University’s community partners have been selected for this year’s Community Partnership Award. Gang Alternative, Miami Beach Community Church, Urban GreenWorks, and William H. Turner Technical Arts High School will be honored at the fourth annual Community Engagement Awards on Wednesday, March 29.
The Community Partnership Award recognizes exemplary partnerships between the university and community organizations that produce measurable improvements in people’s lives while enhancing higher education.
Dr. Patrick M. Green, director of the Center for Experiential Learning at Loyola University Chicago, will be the guest speaker at the awards ceremony, which is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. This event will follow the Community Engagement Symposium.
The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) is host of both events.
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Registration for Community Engagement Symposium in Full Swing
Registration for Barry University’s fourth annualCommunity Engagement Symposium is in full swing. The symposium will be held on Wednesday, March 29, on Barry’s main campus.
Faculty members are encouraged to take their students to symposium sessions.
The symposium agenda includes a short opening session set for 9:30 a.m., two workshop/seminar sessions by the lead presenter, two concurrent sessions featuring presentations based on peer-reviewed proposals, a poster session, and a community partner showcase.
Dr. Patrick M. Green, director of the Center for Experiential Learning at Loyola University Chicago, will be the lead presenter at the symposium. He will conduct a 10:00–11:00 a.m. workshop on the topic, “Reflecting on Community Work: A Framework for Meaning-Making,” and a lunch-hour (12:30–1:30) seminar titled “Leading with Community: Emphasizing Community in Community-Based (Experiential) Learning.”
The poster session is scheduled for 2:45–3:45 p.m. in Andreas 112. Posters are still being accepted.
For details of the poster submission process, contact Liz James, experiential learning coordinator, at ljames@barry.edu or 305-899-3728.
For additional information regarding registration for the symposium, contact Alicia Santos in the CCSI at asantos@barry.edu or 305-899-3696.
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Social Work Dean Highlights Challenges Facing Education of African Americans
Barry University partnered with the City of Hollywood to celebrate Black History Month (February). The two-part celebration, whose theme was “The Crisis in Black Education,” included presentations by academic administrators, motivational talks, and a spoken word/poetry contest.
In Part 2 of the celebration, on February 22, Dr. Phyllis Scott, dean of Barry’s School of Social Work, made a presentation titled “Educating for the New Workforce.”
Scott pointed out that 4.2 million black children remained in poverty, manifested in hunger, poor housing, violence, substandard education, and the “school-to-prison pipeline.” She said “poverty hurts all of us.”
Further, Scott noted that more than 4.5 million African Americans now hold a college degree. She called this “great but not so great” when one considered that the U.S. black population was over 37 million.
Scott pointed to the need to close the educational achievement gap between African-American students and white students. College education needs to be made more affordable for African Americans, she said, and both college and career readiness should be emphasized.
She identified a number of 21st-century jobs, including biochemical engineer, medical scientist, nanotechnologist, robotic technician, and software developer. To prepare for the new workplace, she said, students should learn “beyond-the-book skills for high opportunity” such as effective oral and written communication, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, and innovation. Integrity and the ability to deal with failure are also important, she added.
Scott called for the “recharging of public education, parents, and communities.”
Dr. Glenn Bowen, executive director of the Center for Community Service Initiatives, coordinated Barry’s participation in the celebration.
In a brief presentation on the Black History Month theme, Bowen outlined problems affecting black education, including a lack of resources in inner-city schools and severe financial challenges at many historically black colleges and universities. He also mentioned “failure to teach correctly, if at all, the experiences and contributions of African Americans to this nation.”
Bowen, who introduced Scott for her presentation, later introduced Kevin Blake, a certified life coach, who gave a motivational talk, and Pastor George Rich, who emceed the spoken word/poetry contest billed as the Talented 10th Poetry Slam.
Erika Demetrius of Hollywood Hills High School and Fenia St. Charles of Miami Lakes Educational Center were awarded Kindle tablets from the AT&T Pioneers, a volunteer network of active and retired AT&T employees dedicated to improving the quality of life in local communities.
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Next Deliberative Dialogue will be an Earth Month Event at Barry
The next forum in the CCSI’s Deliberative Dialogue Series will be an Earth Month event at Barry.
“Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant: Endangering the Environment for Cheap Energy?” is the title of the 90-minute forum. It is scheduled for April 11 in Room 112 of the Andreas Building, beginning at 4 p.m.
Barry’s mission statement includes a commitment to recognizing the sacredness of Earth and engage in meaningful efforts toward social change. The Office of Mission Engagement is coordinating Earth Month activities. A statement from the Student Affairs-based office says “a full calendar of events will provide opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to actively engage in environmental sustainability efforts on campus and beyond.”
The CCSI has adapted deliberative dialogue as a method of civic learning and engagement. Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members work toward a shared understanding of social issues, practical solutions to those issues, and recommendations for workable public policy.
The topic of the most recent forum was LGBTQ Rights vs. Religious Freedom. Participants discussed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and its current applications as well as its effects on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning citizens. Several students and faculty members weighed in on the issue of legal limitations on the rights of those citizens.
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Next Faculty Learning Community Meeting Scheduled for April 24
The next meeting of the Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship will be on April 24. The CCSI will host the meeting from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in Adrian 208.
Any faculty member may join the FLC and attend meetings and seminars throughout the academic year.
FLC members will participate in the university’s Community Engagement Symposium on March 29.
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CCSI Newsletter
Posted On : March 20, 2017
