A nationwide project by the National Campus Compact has identified 13 indicators of how higher education institutions can work more effectively with their surrounding communities.
Some of the strategies recommended to colleges include rewarding community-based teaching by reflecting it in tenure, promotion, retention and recruitment guidelines; providing funding to support community-based work by faculty, staff and students; and offering community-based curriculum across all disciplines.
All 13 indicators appear in "The Community's College: Indicators of Engagement at Two-Year Institutions" (National Campus Compact, 2004), which also includes profiles of institutions that serve as positive models of civic engagement. For more information, visit www.compact.org/indicatorsopens in new window.
--M. DITTMANN
