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The following describes an innovation. Region: Western |
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Main contact information for this innovation: Jeff Sherman Main contact job title / position: Leader of Special Initiatives and Open Campus Main contact number: 541-737-2713 Main contact email address: jeff.sherman@oregonstate.edu |
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Innovation name: OSU Open Campus Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: Collaborative programming across educational systems--K-12, Community Colleges and Higher Education |
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Notes from phone interview: Open Campus provides a way to break away from tradition without abandoning it. The breakaway is one dominated by partnerships with other educational systems. In Oregon, and I suspect in other places, there have been three separate educational systems governed by independent boards with not a lot of policy coherence across them. The three are K to 12 - public school systems, and private too, for that matter, community colleges - sometimes called technical institutes, depending on where you are, or junior colleges in various States - and then so-called higher education. Open Campuses are convening educational systems along with community leadership, essentially, and designing programs utilizing the assets both in the community and in the educational systems. That has generated some really interesting new innovations on the ground that're different based upon which community we have convened in this Open Campus environment. So in Oregon, we piloted two Open Campuses. There are now seven, and the number is growing, all around this convening approach. It's resulting in what we describe as three pretty high level themes. One theme is college and career readiness, devoted largely to the youth community. Takes advantage of our historic 4-H Youth Development Program and adds many other dimensions to it. The second theme is degree completion. I suspect Ohio, like Oregon and many other States, about 23% of the adult population between 25 and 55 have some college credit and no degree. They live and work in our communities and they're place-bound, and yet finishing some kind of educational credential provides them huge economic and personal benefit, so that is a second theme of Open Campus. A third theme is professional and economic development, where we are seeking and applying innovations in order to develop new products and processes in communities so that community vitality and the welfare of its population is enhanced. |
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The following describes an innovation. Region: Western |
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Main contact information for this innovation: Ron Mize Main contact job title / position: Director Main contact number: 541-737-8803 Main contact email address: ron.mize@oregonstate.edu |
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Innovation name: Center for Latino(a) Studies and Engagement Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: Public/private partnership working across university missions to better serve Oregon's growing Hispanic population. |
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Notes from phone interview: Sure. That is a breakaway strategy, as I think I used in my definition, that took collaboration between the Vice-President of our research office here at Oregon State University and my office, which is responsible for outreach and engagement, to conceive of a different way of establishing a place called a center. Many universities have centers, institutes, programs that are intended to be collaborative units, drawing faculty together, and we and another universities have long had research centers and institutes. This is the first of its kind that explicitly built engagement into the mission, and it is changing the nature of the scholarship, the academy, and the faculty participation. That's the uniqueness of this particular innovation, because it has engagement inside of what would've been a formerly research center. That it's focused on the Latino and Latina Studies makes it align nicely with an under-served population that is growing in this State and many others. Yes. The way this university manages centers and institutes is pretty restricted. I don't know if you were talking to anyone from Michigan State, but I came out of Michigan State University and there, there are more centers and institutes than there are departments. Any professor can pretty much start printing up a letterhead and create a center. Here, they go through a very deliberate process of vetting and establishing the nature of their service, their focus, where the resources will come from, and the nature of the contributing faculty. Yes. The way this university manages centers and institutes is pretty restricted. I don't know if you were talking to anyone from Michigan State, but I came out of Michigan State University and there, there are more centers and institutes than there are departments. Any professor can pretty much start printing up a letterhead and create a center. Here, they go through a very deliberate process of vetting and establishing the nature of their service, their focus, where the resources will come from, and the nature of the contributing faculty. |