Subcommittee on the Civic Mission of Higher Education Meeting Minutes: 11/19/04

 

Present: Amanda Coffin, Tamara Heligman, Kathryn Hunt, Dara Kidder, Holly Lasagna, Liz McCabe Park, Stacy Smith, and Janet Sorter by phone.

Next Meetings: Dec. 13, 9-11 a.m. Room 534 Cross Bldg., and Jan. 14, 9-11 a.m., Room 536 Cross Bldg.

 

KEY GOALS AND ACTION STEPS

 

Goal 1.  Engage leaders of the EMCC System in a dialogue about including in the System's mission a statement about the importance of citizenship education (or, reframed, the importance of developing engaged citizens).

 

Goal discussion:  Subcommittee members had informal discussions with three Community College presidents. Presidents advise linking this goal with campus conversations about citizenship education.  All Community Colleges need to develop learning outcomes for accreditation from NEASC.  In order to have these conversations we need to have John Fitzsimmons in the loop, and Academic and Student Affairs Deans in the loop.

 

Action Steps: 

  1. Bring Patrick, Barbara Woodlee, and maybe Bob Woodbury to talk with John Fitzsimmons about how best to proceed (Liz).
  2. Gather information on accrediting standards for community colleges (Janet)

 

Goal 2.  Carry out some fact finding regarding what is happening on college campuses in Maine at present (through surveys, interviews, and review of secondary data).

 

Goal 3.  Create a set of multimedia marketing products that can be used to stimulate dialogue among faculty and administrators of higher education institutions in Maine about the importance of citizenship education (in its many forms).

 

Goal 4.  Sponsor campus-wide conversations about citizen education (or, more broadly, the importance of student learning opportunities directed at becoming a fully engaged citizen).

 

Goals discussion:  The subcommittee discussed gathering examples of policies, programs, learning outcomes, curricula, best practices of citizenship education to put together into a resource for campus conversations, public relations, etc.  We can also look at best practice publications from NSF, HUD’s COPC program, and possibly the EPA.

 

Action Steps:

A.  Gathering Examples: we need examples of policies supporting citizenship education, programs, learning outcomes, curricula, and other best practices.

 

Action Steps, continued.

 

  1. Holly gathers examples of citizenship education from Central Maine CC, and co-curricular examples from Bates and possibly others.
  2. Janet gathers examples of citizenship ed from Washington County CC and Southern Maine CC
  3. Dara gathers examples of citizenship ed from Northern Maine CC, and co-curricular examples from U Maine.
  4. Kathy gathers examples of citizenship ed from Central Maine CC, and examples of how citizenship education is integrated into the agendas of research universities, and will look into public policy at U. Maine for examples of ways to get data (can’t quite remember what this is! – Liz)
  5. Liz gathers examples of citizenship ed & learning outcomes from York County CC
  6. Mark? Gathers examples of citizenship ed and learning outcomes from Kennebec Valley CC
  7. All subcommittee members will try to gather compelling stories of citizenship education in higher education in Maine.

 

B. Approaches for Organizing the Material

  1. Liz emails members the Engaged Campus Assessment Tool from national Campus Compact
  2. Kathy will bring an organizer from U Mass Lowell about research agendas

 

AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING

Review Draft budget for Subcommittee activities

Draft Public Relations/Communications plan for Subcommittee activities

Draft Time Line for Subcommittee Activities