Civic Engagement at Research Universities
In recent years, increasing numbers of colleges and universities have engaged in innovative efforts to reinvigorate and prioritize civic engagement and involvement in their surrounding communities. Although all types of institutions have played a role, this movement has been fueled largely by community and liberal arts colleges and state universities.
Recognizing research universities' potential to provide leadership on this issue, in the fall of 2005 Campus Compact and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University convened scholars from some of the many research universities that have undertaken ambitious community efforts to discuss how their institutions are promoting engagement on their campuses and in their communities.
The group not only shared their ideas; they decided to take action by taking on a more visible leadership role in the civic engagement movement. As a first expression of that role, they developed a case statement that outlines why it is important for research universities to embrace and advance engaged scholarship as a central component of their activities and programs at every level — institutional, faculty, and student.
The statement, endorsed by the entire group, argues that research universities' exceptional faculty, students, financial resources, and research facilities position them to contribute to community change relatively quickly and in ways that will ensure deeper and longer-lasting commitment to civic engagement across higher education. The group's rationale and recommendations are contained in its first report, New Times Demand New Scholarship: Research Universities and Civic Engagement — A Leadership Agenda 
2.8MB, published by Tufts University in 2006.
In 2007 the group expanded, creating a research universities and civic engagement network, and convened for a second meeting at the University of California, Los Angeles, to further the conversation. The newly formed network's second report, New Times Demand New Scholarship II: Research Universities and Civic Engagement — Opportunities and Challenges 
3.8MB, focuses on opportunities and challenges in four areas critical to expanding and institutionalizing civic engagement within research universities:
- Engaged scholarship (research in any field that partners university scholarly resources with those in the public and private sectors to enrich knowledge, address and help solve critical societal issues, and contribute to the public good).
- Scholarship focused on civic and community engagement (research focused on civic participation in public life, including participation by engaged scholars, and on the impact of this work on all constituencies).
- Educating students for civic and community engagement (what students need to know and be able to do as active, effective citizens of a diverse democracy).
- Advancing civic engagement within and across research universities (challenges to and effective strategies for institutionalizing civic engagement within a research university context).
This second report also includes models from a range of participating research universities. Other institutions are invited to add their own models for dissemination via this website. Please see the report for more information. If you have a model you'd like share, please e-mail it to the web master in Word, text, or pdf format.
In February 2008 the group convened at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for the third time to focus on civic and community-engaged scholarship. Discussions were aimed at clarifying definitions and initiating design of a "toolkit" of resources for advancing this work at research universities. The group also reviewed efforts to strengthen institutional rewards and incentives for engaged scholarship on its members' campuses and other institutions, and among national higher education-focused organizations, to identify special challenges and opportunities presented by research universities, and to explore constructive steps the group can take to address them and encourage engaged scholarship across the research university sector.
The group concluded this meeting with an agreement to formally organize itself as The Research University Civic Engagement Network (TRUCEN) and open its membership to all Carnegie Foundation-defined "very high research institutions" that share its goals. Information on membership, next meetings, and other ways to participate will be released and posted on this website over the coming year.
This new network calls upon research university colleagues to embrace its vision for civic and community engagement and work to bring it about. Ongoing meetings will continue to explore these themes and to generate models of engagement for research universities and other institutions of higher education.
See also the 2005 report:
New Times Demand New ScholarshipBeing a part of Campus Compact has let us touch the heart and soul of building better communities while improving teaching and learning for faculty and students. James A. Drake, President, Brevard Community College