OSUN

Applications Open for OSUN ExEd Hub Course in Managing Civic Engagement

Applications are now open for the OSUN ExEd Hub Professional Development Program's first course for the current academic year. The course is titled "Managing Civic Engagement: Universities and Civic Actors" and is led by Jonathan Becker, Bard College.

The course runs from October 27-November 19, 2021 (Wednesday and Saturday, from 8.30 A.M. New York time).

Course description for "Managing Civic Engagement: Universities and Civic Actors":
Universities have traditionally perceived education and research as their main missions and dedicated their core resources to building and supporting excellence in these areas. Recent decades have seen a growing focus on the “third mission” of higher education as well: impacting the universities’ immediate social and economic contexts, serving communities and addressing broader societal needs, locally, nationally, and globally. Civic engagement is increasingly the focus in universities’ internal strategic planning and external partnerships, as well as a factor that significantly influences their curricular, pedagogical and research agendas.

Universities direct resources to new types of activities that include volunteer programs, student-led programs, community-based learning, access programs, action research, and life-long learning opportunities. Civic engagement can provide students with unique learning environments that give them a sense of agency while allowing them to learn with and from community actors. In addition to serving the needs of local communities, civic engagement programs provide new opportunities for students to acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to understand social dynamics in the society contribute to real-life analysis and problem solving and become engaged citizens. Finally, it provides institutions the opportunity to break down traditional “town/gown” barriers and while becoming civic actors in their own right.

This course offers its participants an opportunity to:
-develop a systematic understanding of the principles and challenges of civic and community engagement,
-share and enhance expertise on policies, planning, resourcing and implementation of relevant programs, be they student-led or institutionally based,
-develop community action plans for their institutions,
-learn from good practices by exploring case studies of specific signature initiatives within and beyond the OSUN network, and
-elaborate and refine the ideas, formats and practicalities of existing or new programs and collaborations in the area of civic and community engagement at the course participants’ institutions.

For any questions regarding the OSUN-CEU Professional Development Program for University Administrators, please reach out to the Program Lead, Pusa Nastase at [email protected]

Apply for the course here.

Deadline for applications is October 20, 2021

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