2011

The Engaged University 2011, A Year In Review

In this last year of my tenure as the Vice Chancellor for Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development, we have followed up on many of the successes and programs initiated in 2010 and earlier years.  We also want to recognize the activities of the University’s colleges, centers, and institutes that resulted from their close collaboration and engagement with community partners. 

Follow up on 2010 Activities in 2011

C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award

• The Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) recognized Professor Jay Levine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, for his partnership with the City of Jacksonville and local community in creating “Riverworks at Sturgeon City.” NCSU received the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award at the Annual Meetings in 2010.  In January 2011,  Dr. Levine and I presented the award to the Jacksonville City Council and Onslow County Commissioners and recognized the community in this great partnership.  We gave them the award sculpture and the check for $20,000 to strengthen the programs at “Riverworks at Sturgeon City.”

Manufacturing Makes It Real Tour 

• This tour in 2010 resulted in an invitation by the North Carolina Museum of History for numerous manufacturing firms to provide examples of their products for a show on Manufacturing in the 21st Century.  Holly Aiken, a graduate of NC State’s College of Design, created a company called Holly Aiken Bags and her handbag designs were selected for this exhibit.  The News and Observer ran a story called “Designing History is Her Bag,” on February 16, 2011, highlighting both the design and manufacturing of this young entrepreneur’s company.

The Raleigh Colleges and Community Collaborative (RCCC)

• The Collaborative won a $100,000 planning grant in 2010, and then in 2011 received the $1.3M implementation grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase access and success of low income urban youth in postsecondary programs.  This collaborative includes the six colleges in Wake County, the Wake County Public School System, The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, and numerous educational, business, faith-based and non-profit agencies.  In order to achieve the goal, the Collaborative will work to strengthen the leadership and capacity in these organizations, the ability to quantify and measure the impact of the programs, and reinforce the partnership between the private sector and higher education.  The Collaborative held its kick-off session on October 31 and committed to The Raleigh Promise, which includes a Raleigh Fellows Program for high school students, Raleigh Scholars for college students, and the Raleigh College Center  program to bring access to higher education into the local communities.  On January 30, the City and the RCCC will dedicate the first site of a Raleigh College Center at Chavis Community Center.

Economic Metrics

• Over the last three years UNC General Administration has been collecting county-by-county data on the social, economic, educational impacts of UNC campuses and we have prepared regional reports for use by the Chancellor in his regional visits.  This last year the focus was on the economic impacts of educational, research and engagement programs.  The NC State University report was highlighted in the Triangle Business Journal, June 29, 2011, with an article titled, “In Tough Times, Businesses reach out to  NCSU for Help.”  Over 33,000 citizens participated in professional development and economically beneficial certification and training programs.  We sent  617 students as interns in businesses, and 423 businesses contracted with NC State University for technical assistance and training programs, including Sixth Sigma, and Lean Manufacturing from IES.

Community Engaged Faculty Fellows (CEFF)

• The EDGES program, Education and Discovery Grounded in Engaged Scholarship, completed its faculty development curriculum and the Provost named twenty faculty as Community Engaged Faculty Fellows (CEFF).  The Community Engaged Faculty Fellows each received a small professional development grant from the Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development to assist them developing their civic and community engaged courses and increase the number of students engaged in community-based research.  These Fellows have committed to serving as mentors to other faculty who might develop service learning and civic engagement curricula.  Additionally, the Provost  and I appointed a faculty task force to review the criteria for developing service learning and civic engaged courses, gaps and opportunities in such courses, and mechanisms for recording the completion of courses for students.

Imagining America and Urban Programs

• Much of the urban design work funded through the office was completed, and books resulting from this scholarship were published by Tom Barrie and Georgia Bizios.  Celen Pasalar and Kermit Bailey also described their work at the 2011 Imagining America Conference in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Highlights of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development Programs – 2011

• Grants and Contracts.  In the fiscal year 2011, faculty and extension professionals successfully competed for over $46M in public service/extension grants and contracts and added value to many research projects by integrating the engagement function with the research or instructional activities.
  
  
• Triple Helix.  For the last three years, NC State University faculty and administrators have participated in the annual conference of the Triple Helix organization.  We have highlighted the impact of seed grants, our organizational structures that contribute to innovation, the public-private partnership of the Centennial Campus, and the way we do business to stimulate and support partnerships among the private sector, government, and the University (Triple Helix).  In 2011 a special session was organized at the Triple Helix meetings at Stanford University that included Charles Hayes, Research Triangle Regional Partnership, John Harden, NC Department of Commerce, Liz Rooks, The Research Triangle Partnership, and Joe Novak, Cisco Systems Site Director.  I spoke about NC State University’s programs and roles in contributing to the success of the Research Triangle region. 
  
  
• The Greater Hickory Partnership followed up on its successful Innovation 2010 – Business Resources for Success with a symposium scheduled for January 11, 2012.  This Partnership for Innovation conference and symposium will bring together business leaders from across the Catawba Valley region and focus on the role of higher education in contributing to entrepreneurial success and business growth and development.
  
  
• The Tenth Annual Shelton Leadership Forum focused on  Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship: A Values-Based Leadership Approach. Tom Brokaw was the keynote speaker and local and national entrepreneurs stimulated interest in describing how they both innovated and organized for entrepreneurial success.  Over 550 participants from the military, students, higher education, government, and the private sector heard about new scholarships and the creation of an endowed professorship in the Poole College of Management in support of the Shelton Leadership Center.  An additional fundraiser was held last summer in California at the home of Connie Stevens, which raised support for Shelton Scholars to participate in USO activities.
  
  
• Destiny Solutions.  Continuing Education and Non-Credit Educational Programs now have available a new software platform, from Destiny Solutions, that allows faculty and students to use the Web for non-formal educational programs across the campus.  Going live on October 31, 2011, this software platform technology puts the McKimmon Center and all of our continuing education programs into a lead position, simplifying the management of applications, records keeping, fee collection, and reporting.  Congratulations to all of those who contributed to the successful implementation of the Destiny Solutions project.
  
  
• CleanTech International Network Conference was organized collaboratively by the Economic Development Partnership, Research Triangle Regional Partnership, and the Research Triangle Park, October 24-27.  During their recent visit to the Research Triangle Region in North Carolina, USA, the ten ICN clusters were presented with a great example of how a region can create growth by strong collaboration between companies, local authorities and academia. The two and a half days that were spent introducing the cluster and its stakeholders to the ICN managers from North America, Europe and Asia comprised both a large number of site visits and an international smart grid conference.  The CleanTech cluster grew out of the Sustainable Technology cluster of the Economic Development Partnership and the Research Triangle region now has a formal organization supporting clean-tech, research and development activities.
  
  
• The Twelfth National Outreach Scholarship Conference (NOSC) was held at Michigan State University and 14 faulty, students and administrators from NC State University actively participated in the program as well as the Emerging Scholars workshop.  The Conference has renamed itself as the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) and is growing with new membership from universities around the globe.
  
  
• The Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES), concept that we introduced to the National Outreach Scholarship Consortium, based on the Academy of Outstanding Faculty in Extension and Engagement at NC State University, has been led by Pat Sobrero.  Developing this concept and the organizational structure for an international academy that recognized scholars and their partners for community and engagement has taken on a life of its own with thirty-six universities contributing and participating in the steering committee. With support and leadership from APLU presidents, we are pursuing grant funding for additional discussion and development of this international platform of support and recognition of engagement scholarship. 
  
  
• Speeches about engagement.  At conferences in Shanghai, Portland, OR,  Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley at Stanford University, Toronto and Greensboro, I and others have had the opportunity to speak about the many extension and engagement programs across the university.
  
  
• Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI), an executive leadership development program, originally funded the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and led by NC State University faculty member Ken Swartzel, initiated its sixth cohort this year.  Partnering with The Ohio State University, The University of Vermont (for the last six years,) and now with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the FSLI has provided the executive educational experience for over 150 university, private sector, and government leaders.  Many have already been promoted and moved into higher levels of administration, including University presidents and vice presidents.  We should be proud of this program because the original proposal was written by Steve Jones and his colleagues in Cooperative Extension and the Extension and Engagement office in 2004.
  
  
• Engagement  Academy.  Each year Virginia Tech Provides an intensive week-long academy for administrators of engagement programs and Jose Picart, Special Assistant to the Provost, Tom Birkland, Associate Dean, CHASS, Mary Tschirhart, Director, Institute for Non-Profits, and Gerald Coggburn, Department Head, Political Science attended.  In 2010, Christine Grant, Associate Dean, Engineering, and Raj Narayan, Associate Director of the Kenan Institute had attended.

With this last annual report before my retirement, I want to thank all of the faculty, professionals, staff, and university leadership for the great support that the Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development has received.   

Our programs and impacts are embedded throughout the University and the State.  Our reputation is both national and international as a leader in engagement programming.  The partnership and collaboration that we have put in place in so many regions of the state, with organizations, government, private sector and non-profits, and with other higher education institutions will continue.  I look forward to reading future reports from the leaders of extension and engagement at NC State University.  Thank you for this wonderful experience.