Program
Engaged College Program (ECP)
Interested in participating or would like to know if your college/school has participated? Email Dr. Gallardo, vice president for engagement at engagement@purdue.edu
What is the Engaged College Program?
The Engaged College Program or ECP is designed for Purdue’s academic colleges and schools to reflect on the quality and depth of their engagement practices while receiving support from the Office of Engagement for establishing processes of continuous improvement. ECP allows colleges to customize their engagement objectives and expectations while aligning with the University’s engagement framework and protocol. The program has two main deliverables to be completed within 4 months: a college engagement self-assessment and a college engagement action plan.
Why is this important and why should my college participate?
First, this program will institutionalize engagement university-wide. We understand that each college does great work with community engagement, but we currently lack a university-wide process and/or mechanism to better measure impact and tell our story. This is critical since Purdue is a land-grant university.
Second, Purdue University is currently classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a “community engaged” university. However, Purdue needs to be reclassified as a “community engaged” university. This reclassification application is due in April of 2025. The ECP will help the university make a stronger case of the great work the university is doing around community engagement.
Third, the ECP was developed to support colleges with the resources to focus on community engagement priorities. This includes building/maintaining quality partnerships, assessment and tracking, bringing awareness to engagement opportunities, and recognizing and rewarding engagement activities.
Finally, this program will provide more visibility for engagement work, connection with other colleges working with specific engagement partners, and support for engaged research and teaching activities. Ultimately, it will help us continue to build trust with the communities we serve.
ECP Guidelines
Duration
Complete by Fall 2024; assessment and action plan will be submitted to the OoE for consultation (not approval). There will be some mandatory action items (e.g., data sharing) while others will be optional.
Task Force
Each college will set up a task force or adapt an existing one. This task force should consist of at least one representative from the following: administration, faculty, students (undergraduate, graduate, professional), and data-related position (e.g., College Success Managers). The assessment and resulting action plan need to incorporate external feedback as well from existing community partnerships or from communities with which the college regularly engages.
Financial Incentive
Once the action plan is agreed upon, each college will receive a financial incentive of $10,000 to start implementing the plan. Ideally these funds should be used to develop sustainable processes and actions that continue improving engagement.
Deliverables
Each college will submit its self-assessment as well as an action plan to be executed in no more than three years. Every three years, each college will reassess itself and update its action plan accordingly.
Data sharing
The college agrees to enter into a data sharing agreement with the Office of Engagement. This includes co-identifying metrics for reporting on during the span of the ECP to support progress on the college’s action plan. Data provided will be from existing data sources or collection processes (i.e., Elements, Academic Analytics, Salesforce, other database/system); the college will NOT be asked to develop new data collection plans. This data sharing agreement will allow OoE and the college to design and query these data sources on all engagement-related activities. The data sharing agreement will be evaluated/renewed on an annual basis after completing the program.
Resources
The OoE will conduct office hours on Mondays from 11am – Noon; a self-assessment and action planning guide will be provided with instructions for completing both deliverables. The shared templates should be completed and shared with the OoE. Email Dr. Gallardo, vice president for engagement, if you have any questions or comments: engagement@purdue.edu
