Self-Assessment Rubric For the Institutionalization of Community Engagement at the level of the College within a University

Background

Increasingly, universities are called upon to mobilize their intellectual and human capacity to address needs in their communities and beyond. In addition to the creation of a campus-wide coordinating infrastructure and strategic approach, it is important to account for the significant variation in, and quality of, community engagement that exists across academic units at a university. The unit of a college/school within a university should be developed as the locus of faculty and student engagement, and the proximity of engagement efforts to an academic unit emphasizes the importance of community engagement through teaching and learning and in faculty scholarship. Colleges/schools within a university often have their own well-developed missions and goals embracing community engagement; can be seen as hubs for innovation, pathways, or strategies for engagement; and have their own natural disciplinary base within the community for engagement.

Based upon a review of the literature on community engagement in higher education, organizational change, and the scholarship of engagement, this organizational assessment rubric is designed to be used by the unit of a college to examine structures, policies, and practices, with the goal of advancing community engagement within the college for the purposes of self-assessment and strategic planning.