Office of Engagement’s
Framework and Expectations
Engagement is the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity (Carnegie Foundation, 2008).
Let’s Get Into it
Our mission is to foster reciprocal relationships with external partners, leveraging university resources in teaching, research, and engagement to solve societal challenges. Ultimately, the Office of Engagement (OoE) plays an essential role in helping Purdue University advance the region, the state, and the nation.
We’ve Accepted
The Mission
Office of Engagement’s Functions
Fostering and supporting relationships with community, not-for-profit, public, private, and philanthropic partners.
Connecting, in a bidirectional way, community needs and opportunities with university resources in teaching, research, and engagement.
Providing resources and expertise to support Purdue faculty, students, staff, academic units, and colleges so they can engage in meaningful and scholarly ways with external partners.
Rewarding and recognizing engaged scholars, including faculty, staff, and students across all three mission areas.
Partnering closely with highly engaged units, like Purdue Extension, and lending assistance in the development of research and teaching proposals incorporating community engagement processes.
Tracking and assessing university-wide engagement and documenting broader/societal impacts with the goal of telling Purdue’s engagement story.
Collective Engagement Effort
Working Together for Better Engagement
The OoE partners closely with the Office of the Provost to support and build faculty capacity to conduct meaningful and scholarly engagement, as part of the promotion & tenure process, and in fulfillment of Purdue’s land-grant mission.
The OoE expects learning and research engagement to be mutually beneficial between faculty, learning, and research collaborators. While it is important for faculty and teachers to benefit from their teaching, discoveries, and professional publications, it is equally essential for research participants and learning collaborations to reap benefits from such endeavors. The OoE discourages non-bidirectional engagement, championing engagement that recognizes the contributions and knowledge of the communities involved.
The OoE recognizes, encourages, and respects that each college has its unique culture, and therefore, will operationalize engagement differently. OoE will work with each college through the engaged college program (ECP) to ensure the university helps advance the region, state, nation, and globe.
The OoE recognizes that “community engagement” is a broad term. For clarification, the OoE is charged to document and increase broader societal impact through community engagement.
The OoE has developed an engagement protocol to assist university faculty, students, and staff understand the university’s engagement principles, what is needed for meaningful and scholarly engagement, and more efficiently navigate the multiple entry points (e.g., service-learning, research) and ensuing processes.