Speeches

9th National Outreach Scholarship Conference

Good afternoon and welcome.

Nine years ago, Penn State hosted the inaugural Outreach Scholarship Conference to explore the potential of an engaged university as envisioned by the Kellogg Commission report, “Returning to Our Roots: The Engaged Institution.”

 In that same year, Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France, the Dow Jones average reached 11,000 -- for the first time -- the world was worried about the Y2K bug, and Pluto was a planet.

Nine years later, we have come a long way, but increasingly it seems like the only sure thing is that Lance Armstrong will still compete in the Tour de France.

Of course, the scholarship of engagement has also gained momentum since we first convened. There were 329 attendees at our first conference, among them the founders of the National Outreach Scholarship Partnership -- Bobby Moser, vice president of Ohio State, Kevin Reilly, the University of Wisconsin System president, and Jim Ryan, former vice president for Outreach and Cooperative Extension at Penn State. The interest level has remained high. Their leadership established the importance of connecting the scholarship of engagement to teaching, research and service, and they provided a framework for discussion and evaluation of engagement activities.

The large and diverse group at this year’s conference demonstrates a strong institutional commitment to outreach and its potential to use education to make broad societal changes.

Clearly this is progress. But we need to keep moving forward. As Robert Kennedy said, “Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator and change has enemies.”

So how have we changed in response to the ambitious vision outlined in the Kellogg Commission report?

I’ll begin with student-centeredness.

            Some of you may have heard the story of the guy who comes down to breakfast and says to his mother, “Mother, I’m not going to school today, for two reasons. The teachers don’t like me and the students make fun of me.” The mother says, “Son, you are going to go to school today, and I’m going to give you two reasons. First of all, you’re 60 years old, and second you’re the president of the university.”

            You know what? A lot of people in higher education feel that way these days -- that if it weren’t for the students, their jobs would be a lot of fun. If they didn’t have the time-consuming task of teaching, they would be more productive. But the truth of the matter is that the students are the reason we’re in higher education. Even though we work at some of the nation’s leading research universities, even though our institutions are substantially involved in an outreach mission, even though our collective economic impact on the nation totals in the billions of dollars, we exist, back from the very beginning, because we have students.

            First and foremost, an engaged institution must be student-centered, and it needs to be a priority in virtually every area of institutional endeavor.

            We also are focused on the shift from teaching to learning. In many cases, the sage on the stage has been replaced with active-learning activities, flexible scheduling, technological advances, and programmatic changes that have opened up our institutions to a diverse group of learners.

When this conference was established we were just beginning to adjust to the “concept” of online education. Today, Penn State’s World Campus and similar programs at other universities deliver educational excellence across the globe and around the clock.

            Vital to the mission of an engaged institution is the application and dissemination of knowledge. With increasing frequency, this component is being requested on grant proposals for federal funding. For example, the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Endowment for the Humanities and NASA all look for research that develops new networks and partnerships; involves the dissemination of results to the general public; and demonstrates the value of the research activity to society.

Finally, I want to address community engagement and service. This is an essential part of being an engaged institution, and it can take many forms. Michigan State’s National Center for the Study of Engagement, for example, is a dynamic resource for faculty, the academy, and communities. At Penn State, we encourage community engagement through a University Council on Engagement and a Senate Committee on Outreach, along with dedicated Outreach positions within our colleges.

One of our biggest challenges is how we can grow engagement in the current economic climate. We are faced with increasing needs and reduced government support. At Penn State, for example, over the last eight years our state appropriation has grown by only 5.4 percent, an average of only seven-tenths of one percent per year. Agricultural research and Cooperative Extension have been particularly hard hit by the budget shortfalls.

But pointing fingers at the governor won’t help--believe me, I’ve tried. Instead, it’s preferable to take Henry Ford’s approach, “Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.”

            Or as Coach John Wooden said, “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can.”

Over the course of this conference, I hope you will discover new ideas that will help guide us into the future. Thank you all for work to this end.

Now allow me to introduce Dr. Hi Fitzgerald, a renowned psychologist and scholar. He is associate provost for University Outreach and Engagement and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. Since 1992 he has been the Executive Director of the World Association for Infant Mental Health.

Dr. Fitzgerald is a member of the research consortium overseeing the national evaluation of Early Head Start, the steering committee of the American Indian/Alaska Native Head Start Research Center, and the steering committees of the Higher Education Network for Community Engagement and the Outreach Scholarship Conference. His efforts have led to the development of effective models of community-university partnerships and community-based prevention programs for families with infants and young children.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Fitzgerald.