In his first inaugural speech, President Obama declared that "our schools fail too many" and an essential component of laying "a new foundation for growth" will be "to transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age." Concerns about our nation's position in the global education race have led to a focus on…

The University of South Carolina's "Green Quad" aspires to be a living-learning community that integrates sustainability into all aspects of its operations and serves as a model and advocate for sustainability on campus and in the larger community. This article outlines the general approach and specific strategies pursued by the Green Quad staff…

This article describes the opportunities and challenges encountered in the service-learning adaptation of an early childhood primary prevention program through the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston Auburn College. In the face of economic and social challenges confronted by many communities, service-learning models are proposed as essential…

An engaged metropolitan university can play a critical role in transforming its region by using its resources for the solution of problems and the improvement of the citizens' lives and livelihoods. California State University, Fresno has impacted its region through university-led collaborations and partnerships such as the Fresno Regional Jobs…

This issue of Metropolitan Universities includes papers emanating from the work of the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative, a three-year (2004-2007) initiative designed to build capacity for community-engaged scholarship (CES) in health professional schools. As the core principles and challenges of CES are similar across…

The findings of the evaluation of the three-year Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative are presented, describing changes in institutional capacity for community-engaged scholarship, and changes in promotion and tenure policies and processes. The change process in the participating institutions is assessed using the Kotter model of…

Community-engaged scholarship (CES) is gaining legitimacy in higher education. However, challenges of institutionalizing and sustaining it as a core value remain. Significant barriers exist for faculty choosing to incorporate CES into their teaching and research. Faculty development programs are a key mechanism for advancing faculty skills as well…

The Peer Review Workgroup of the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative developed a novel set of quality community-engaged scholarship characteristics and a resource package aimed at two primary audiences: faculty seeking promotion or tenure based on community-engaged scholarship; and review, promotion, and tenure committee members…

Communities across our nation--whether geographic, ethnic, or issue-based in their composition--are struggling to be healthy, to grow, and thrive. The production of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge by both the community and the higher education institution is the key to helping our communities improve. Retaining and valuing community-engaged…

While universities can play a major role in advancing research-based community development, academic discourses of rigor, quality and ethics often conflict with the participatory and collaborative approaches required by community development principles. While experienced academics often have difficulty negotiating these issues, they present…

As more and more institutions look outside the campus walls for opportunities to serve their surrounding communities, a need has grown for guidance in developing true partnerships. There is no template that can be applied to campus-community partnerships. Each situation will be different and require different strategies, but a look at some basic…

Prodigy is an example of a program that is successful due to its being a program that is community engaged. Prodigy is a community arts program, crime prevention and diversion program, serving ten thousand people in seven counties. This article discusses the roles, challenges, and successes of the partnerships with the School of Social Work at the…

In a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive higher-education environment, universities may grow or hold their own by taking degree programs and services to the students wherever, whenever, and however they need them--becoming more nearly a delivery system rather than a single location. Supporting and developing faculty is critical to…

Faculty may learn of new pedagogies through mass communication channels such as Web sites, journals, and workshops. Faculty are likely to be persuaded to try these new pedagogies, however, by interpersonal communication with an opinion leader. Using literature and exploratory data we contrast awareness and persuasion and suggest that opinion…

This essay describes how University of Alaska Anchorage (a) mapped academic-based engagement activities into its institutional context and mission and (b) explored academic and administrative leadership strategies to reflect its commitment to engagement. Higher education governing bodies, legislators, administrators, and faculty increasingly…