Nov. 26, 2003

ISU to play increased role on national
community engagement front

Lou Jensen, the center’s executive director, has been named chair for the new institution-community engagement network of the Association for Continuing Higher Education. Jensen’s appointment by the ACHE board of directors came a result of a recommendation by Allen Varner, outgoing ACHE president and director of continuing education at the ISU center.

Jensen will head a network committee charged with compiling a list of "best practices" of community engagement programs already in place by institutions to help institutions that want help fostering collaborative relationships with their communities. ACHE is comprised of nearly 2,000 individuals representing almost 700 institutions in 48 states, the District of Columbia and 10 foreign countries.

Today’s social environment makes it vital for universities and communities to work together, Jensen said.

"There are so many issues in our society today – social issues and others – that need to be addressed," he said. "And the university has a vast array of resources here, intellectual resources primarily, both in the faculty and in our students, that can be used to help the community figure out responses to those needs in their community."

Varner added that institutions nationwide are beginning to recognize the value of community engagement, and Indiana State, along with universities like Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Georgia, is among the frontrunners in the field.

"[ISU] President [Lloyd] Benjamin was able to see the importance of this new movement on the part of universities across the United States and on the international basis, for [ISU] not to simply just do the research and the teaching, but to get involved with our community," Varner said. "That involves getting the students involved with the community, getting the faculty involved with the community, and getting the community involved with the institution."

Jensen’s role with the network will allow ISU to assume a leadership role when it comes to community engagement, Varner said.

Institution-community engagement is a collaborative effort that helps the institution provide the services that meet the needs of the community. Community outreach has been done for decades, Jensen said, but real, active engagement is a relatively new philosophy.

"We’ve done a lot of outreach and some of this outreach has been engagement, but most of it has been one-way," Jensen said of universities and their relationships with their communities. "The old way of interacting with the public was one-way – from the university to the public: we had a program of distance ed, we delivered it to somebody that wanted it. The new philosophy of engagement is, you identify needs in the community and then you sit down with them as equals and try to figure out how you can work together as equals. So it’s a reciprocal kind of engagement. We learn from them and they learn from us."

Jensen, who has been at ISU since 1972, served as dean of continuing education and lifelong learning at the university for 15 years before being appointed to his current post in July of 2001.

The yet-to-be-formed network committee will likely present some of its preliminary findings at the annual ACHE national conference at Newport, R.I., next October.

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Contact:
Lou Jensen, executive director, center for public service and community engagement,
(812) 237-8384 or extjens@isugw.indstate.edu, or Allen Varner, director,
continuing education, Indiana State University, (812) 237-2336 or extvarnr@isugw.indstate.edu

Writer:
Mark Gibson, ISU Public Affairs, (812) 237-3790 or devgibso@isugw.indstate.edu

ISU Public Affairs:
(812) 237-3773 or http://isunews.indstate.edu