Data Brief: HERI Faculty Survey & Community Engagement

November 17th, 2008

Daniel Petra, Director of Educational Assessment
Institutional Research & Assessment

Welcome to the inaugural Carleton Data Brief. At the request of the Learning and Teaching Center, members of the Office of Institutional Research & Assessment will periodically provide data briefs as one more venue for sharing information that may be of particular interest to faculty members. Data will be provided in an observation-based format. This approach is not meant to impose conclusions but to stimulate further conversations among faculty members. Especially in the area of student learning, it is the responsibility of faculty to determine the meaning of results. Our intention is to reflect some of the information that we collect back to you for your reflection and discussion.

Data presented in this issue are taken from a summary report of the 2007-08 HERI Faculty Survey results. The survey was administered last spring and included a variety of questions about faculty activities, perceptions, opinions and satisfaction. A number of the items can be related to community engagement. The HERI Faculty Survey is administered triennially and our response rate was approximately 75%. All data presented here are for full-time faculty only.

It appears to me that most respondents believed that community engagement is an appropriate activity for colleges to be involved in. More than three-quarters of the faculty who responded to the survey agreed (strongly or somewhat) that colleges have a responsibility to work with their surrounding communities to address local issues and that colleges should encourage students to be involved in community service activities. (Table 1) Almost three-quarters agreed (strongly or somewhat) that students are strongly committed to community service.

As measured by items on this survey, I do not think that one could say that the majority of faculty have been involved in community engagement activities. A third of the faculty respondents agreed (strongly or somewhat) that many of Carleton’s courses involve students in community service. However, less than one-third of the respondents reported collaborating with the local community in research/teaching, advising student groups involved in service/volunteer work, or teaching service learning courses. There was little evidence of an increase in these activities between 2004-05 and 2007-08. (Table 1)

Faculty members’ perception of the importance of community engagement to student learning and as an institutional priority may affect faculty engagement with the community. Out of a list of twenty learning goals for students, the goal “Instill in students a commitment to community service” was 17^th in importance (based on percent rating “Essential” or “Very Important”). Less than a quarter of the respondents believed that providing resources for faculty to engage in community-based teaching or research, facilitating student involvement in community service, and that creating and sustaining partnerships with surrounding communities were priority (highest or high) issues at Carleton. While approximately 60% of the respondents thought that helping others who are in difficulty was an “Essential” or “Very Important” personal goal, less than one-third felt the same about influencing social values, becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment, or influencing the political structure.

Finally, Carleton has at least two programs that specifically target community engagement – ACT and ACE. ACE in particular provides a direct venue for faculty involvement. ACE is a new program which has just started this year and is in the process of doing a yearlong project on academic civic engagement at Carleton. Do the results of this survey match your perception of community engagement at Carleton?

Table 1. Frequency Distribution of Responses to Selected Survey Items
2004-05 HERI Faculty Survey, 2007-08 HERI Faculty Survey

Additional information from the 2007-08 HERI Faculty Survey is available through the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment web site.

Next time: What percent of incoming freshmen reported that both of their parents had earned graduate degrees?

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