Penn State Intercom......April 17, 2003

Proposals sought for Public Scholarship
courses; deadline is May 5

The Office of Undergraduate Education seeks proposals from faculty wishing to develop or enhance courses in which students contribute directly to community problem-solving through their scholarship and course assignments.

In similar successful efforts, psychology students have worked with high school students on issues of self esteem; communication students have developed public information campaigns for local and regional agencies; architecture and engineering students have developed renewable housing resources; and geography students have conducted transportation and nutrition pattern research in West Philadelphia. Course community problem-solving elements may take a variety of forms and may represent one or several elements of a course.

Seven Public Scholarship awards of $1,500 each are available for the 2003-04 academic year. Awards may be applied as summer salary supplement to enable course development activities, directly for course materials, for related research costs or travel, toward graduate assistance or in some combination.

Faculty selected will be invited by the vice provost of undergraduate education and international programs to serve as Public Scholarship associates, which includes attendance at monthly luncheons held by Office of Undergraduate Education. The luncheons serve as a forum for discussion and reflection on individual projects and participation in joint projects such as the successful offering recently of the statewide Blueprint for the Public Scholarship of Service Learning.

Courses selected will promote active learning and scholarship; enable students to contribute their scholarship toward community problem-solving; provide students with opportunities to reflect on the relation of their academic work to civic engagement; and have an impact on undergraduate education through the undergraduate experience, community outreach or in the preparation of graduate students for careers in university-level teaching that supports public scholarship and outreach approaches. Applicants are encouraged to seek department or unit support through elements such as the contribution of appropriate funding, release time, staff support, materials support or related demonstrations of commitment. Successful faculty will be asked to provide an assessment of their funded work at the completion of the funded activity.

Application materials are available at http://www.psu.edu/dept/oue/ps/ for consideration no later than Monday, May 5.

Applications and questions should be submitted to: Jeremy Cohen, associate vice provost, Undergraduate Education, 417 Old Main, University Park, PA 16802

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