Road Map committee receives Engagement updates

The Road Map Steering Committee met Nov. 21 to hear an update from Strategic Priority 4: Engagement.

The SP4 committee is continuing to work on its application for Carnegie Engagement classification, which is due in April 2025. Progress has been made on the draft of its report and the committee aims to share that report for further feedback and edits from the campus community in the coming months. Engagement classification from Carnegie would be a significant step forward for Binghamton University in terms of establishing its commitment to a culture of engagement through institutional practices.

Part of the Carnegie classification process has been documenting ways in which the University has encouraged community partners to be involved in the goal-setting and decision-making process in projects that have a mutual benefit for the campus and the greater community.

Two examples of success in involving community partners include the Two Rivers Greenway and Binghamton 2 Degrees. The Greenway is next looking to connect existing trails in Vestal, Binghamton and Johnson City that would link the University's three campuses and Nature Preserve with environmental justice communities that have a need to be connected to different areas. Binghamton 2 Degrees has created seven working groups that connect the University's students and faculty with leaders in the community on directly addressing their concerns about climate change throughout the greater Binghamton region. The University also works to connect with the community through efforts including its Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic, the Motion Analysis Research Laboratory, and arts events such as the Pocket Opera Project in which middle schoolers write local histories that are turned into 15-minute opera performances by University students.

SP4 has used its Road Map funding for a variety of projects, including faculty stipends and grants for community engaged teaching and scholarship, community partner honorariums and student community service support. Collaboratory software was purchased with Road Map funds and it allows the committee to track community service activities via a searchable database. Faculty members receive a website they can link to that shows involvement in community engagement, which can be useful for courses, research and grant funding. From its launch in 2023, Collaboratory has tracked 593 activities that involved 4,968 students and 19,875 community individuals. These activities were connected to courses 67% of the time and 47% were related to faculty research.

The Engagement committee then reported on the progress it has made on its goals. Faculty offering community-engaged learning courses total 65, surpassing the goal of 45. There were 114 community-engaged learning courses during the 2023-24 academic year, above the goal of 70. Ninety-two faculty members reported community-engaged scholarship on the annual faculty report in 2023-24, just shy of the committee's goal of 100. Undergraduates reported a 46.7% participation rate in co-curricular community engagement, meeting the target of 40%, and 1,634 students were enrolled in designated community-engaged learning courses, above the goal of 1,200.

The third goal, which focuses on faculty and staff participation in service outside of campus and professional service, has fallen short of its targets but is making progress. Forty-two percent of faculty and 45% of staff reported to have engaged in outside service, with target rates of 60% and 75%, respectively. The committee has seen positive results from community partners, as 74% of those reported that their collaboration with the University greatly positively impacted or advanced their mission or goals. Finally, the committee has created a new fifth goal that aims to measure how many University alumni are volunteering in their communities. The Global Day of Service in April 2024 engaged 212 alumni across the world.

The meeting concluded with brief updates from other strategic priorities and a table discussion on topics related to barriers students face in getting involved in the community, how different units of the University work with students to facilitate connections, and how units can better connect to the community.