Funded Faculty Leadership to Build Capacity for Community Engagement

Introduction:

As part of a tri-campus effort to build institutional capacity for community engagement, during the 2023-24 academic year UW Tacoma seeks to fund multiple positions for Faculty Leadership for Community Engagement. In partnership with and supported by the tri-campus Community Engagement Working Group, these positions will collaborate with teams of faculty and staff from the Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses to make progress on key capacities for community engagement.  These positions will be hosted within the Office of Community Partnerships at UW Tacoma.

Application deadline:  October 30, 2023

Application form:  click here

*UW Bothell and UW Seattle will also be hosting funded faculty leadership positions (and staff positions); their processes look a little different and are timed differently but all of the funded positions will work together.

In spring 2023 President Cauce approved initial priorities for community engagement and allocated funds to build foundational infrastructure and set the stage for additional capacity-building.  The CE priorities are:

  1. Develop community engagement best principles and blueprints in alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion 
  2. Support or incorporate community engagement in campus-scale strategies and planning  
  3. Remove fiscal policy/process barriers to community engagement  
  4. Improve data collection (tracking, mapping, documentation) and analysis (assessment, evaluation) of community engagement  
  5. Support faculty and staff community engagement by developing and expanding resources for professional development, promotion and tenure, and other supports    
  6. Grow student community engagement training and professional development opportunities  
  7. Build appropriate tri-campus institutional efficiencies and coordination of community engagement to center the benefits to community partners

Roles and Responsibilities 

To accomplish the established priorities, UW Tacoma seeks to fund 2-4 faculty members to work with colleagues across all three campuses. The role of these positions is to achieve the goals/scope of work established for each priority area (see list above).  For UW Tacoma, we would like to identify, through an application process, at least two faculty members (each at .50 FTE) or maximum of four (each at .25 FTE). 

Efforts will begin on November 15, 2023 and concluding on September 30, 2024.  All funded faculty positions will work together with OCP to help build out the infrastructure and capacity for community engagement at UW Tacoma and across all UW campuses.  These positions report to the UW Tacoma Office of Community Partnerships with support, as available, from the Tri-Campus Project Director and/or Tri-Campus CE Working Group.

Scope of Work

POSITION #1:  Tri-Campus Planning and Infrastructure for Community Engagement

FTE:  .25 FTE each for two faculty members or .50 FTE for one faculty member

This position will lead the tri-campus priority #1 (above) on CE blueprints aligned with diversity, equity, inclusion and participate in the other priority areas.  This effort already builds on existing infrastructure at UW Tacoma. 

  • Develop community engagement best principles and blueprints in alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion.  This work includes leading a small team to take responsibility for the priority charter and its deliverables, setting meeting dates, building agendas, attend meetings, and being accountable for deliverables.  Not responsible for the specific work to develop the priority charter.
  • Work with other funded faculty members with shared responsibility in Seattle and Bothell. 
  • Work with campus and tri-campus communities, other community engagement leaders, tri-campus Community Engagement Working Group, stakeholders, and others as appropriate to make key progress on priority #5 (above), Faculty and Staff Professional Development for Community Engagement. This priority seeks to support faculty and staff community engagement by developing and expanding resources for professional development, promotion and tenure, and other supports.
  • Collaborate to build appropriate tri-campus institutional efficiencies and coordination of community engagement to center the benefits to community partners. 
  • Regularly share progress, challenges, and insights with the other campus faculty and staff funded to contribute to this work; the UW Tacoma Office of Community Partnerships and the Tri-Campus Community Engagement Working Group.
  • Share final report(s), recommendations, and/or presentations on effort and outcomes with the UW Tacoma Office of Community Partnerships and the Tri-Campus Community Engagement Working Group
  • In addition, anticipate an invitation to present on your work alongside the other Community Engagement faculty and staff from this and the other campuses, in spring quarter 2024.

POSITION 2 - UW Tacoma:  Community Engaged Learning & Support

FTE: .25 FTE each for two faculty members or .50 FTE for one faculty member

The UW Tacoma Office of Community Partnerships plans to expand support for faculty and students in designated community engaged learning (CEL) courses (please see the attached current list of courses). We would like to bring on board one or two faculty members who will lead this effort and learn about the experience of the CEL faculty, their professional development and training needs, and what support they might need with the goal of expanding professional development and support infrastructure in 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. The selected faculty member(s) will also collaborate with the other UW campus priority working groups and faculty leadership who are supporting this tri-campus effort to:

  • Identify and document existing efforts of UWT faculty in community engaged teaching and scholarship,
    • Identify and document existing course offerings with a CE component, either as formally identified with the “CE” (formerly S) course tag, or informally identified
    • Research and identify relevant course offerings at peer institutions or other organizations 
  • Prepare a set of recommendations that identify next steps to build capacity for professional development supports at UW Tacoma and across the institution. 
  • Define a CE frameworks that can be utilized to build capacity and supports for professional development and training
  • Integrate goals and findings from this work with those from the UW Bothell and UW Seattle campus’     
  • In addition, anticipate an invitation to present on this work alongside the other Community Engagement faculty and staff from this and the other campuses, in spring quarter 2024

In doing this work, it is important that information regarding community expectations for community engaged courses and past experiences are fully understood. It is also important that we acknowledge and identify resources that support community partners and compensate them for their role in the community-engaged co-learning process.

Eligibility

Applicants must be a member of the UW faculty per FCCH21 in the UW Faculty Code, and their primary appointment must be on the Tacoma campus.  

In addition, applicants must have the funded %FTE available within the timeframe of the work to be done; a letter of approval is needed to show this. See “Application Process” for a checklist and template to support discussions with department chairs/deans.

Timeline

  • Positions announced in October 2023
  • October 30, 2023: Deadline for applications
  • November 22, 2023:  CE Faculty Leads announced
  • Late Fall Quarter 2023: Initial orientation meeting
  • Winter Quarter 2024: Join Tri-Campus Priority Work Teams; launch efforts
  • Spring Quarter 2024: Presentation on progress of this work with other campus CE faculty & staff
  • September 15, 2024: deliverables submitted

Application Process

Please use this form to apply.  You will be asked to upload the following:

  • A letter of no more than 3 pages, addressing:
    • Identifying the position in which you are interested
    • Statement of why you want to participate in tri-campus capacity-building for community engagement
    • Philosophy of / approach to community engagement
    • Evidence of community-engaged scholarship, teaching, or other activities (including relevant examples of programs built, courses developed or other capacity building)
    • Evidence of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • Your CV
  • A letter documenting approval from your dean or department chair (PDF of email is fine)

Suggested checklist for discussion with Deans:

  • .25 FTE for two faculty members or .50 FTE for one faculty member during the timeframe of 11/30/2023 - 9/15/2024 (note the work can flex around existing commitments)
  • Type of funding you’d need (course buy-out, summer salary, excess compensation, etc.)

Priority charter(s) you would be accountable for:

  1. Position #1: CE blueprints aligned with diversity, equity, inclusion and/or
  2. Position #2:  Faculty and Staff Professional Development for Community Engagement

Template language for email or letter of approval from dean or department chair (to be uploaded into the application form:

I am writing to confirm that [name] is a member of the faculty in [X unit] at UW Tacoma, and they are available to participate as a [#FTE] funded faculty position on Community Engagement Capacity Building during the 2023-24 academic year from November 30, 2023 to September 15, 2024. Furthermore, I am aware of and comfortable with the fact that this is a funded position as well as the deliverables associated.

If selected, [name]’s role shall be overseen by the UW Tacoma Office of Community Partnerships.

Review Criteria

The following review criteria will be examined, in addition to eligibility as described above:

  • Evidence/examples of effective community engagement
  • Evidence/examples of commitment to DEI processes and outcomes
    • Interest and examples in leadership for capacity building (programs built, courses developed, etc.)
  • Cohort representation with respect to
    • Discipline
    • Demographics and lived experiences
    • Method of community engagement (citizen science, CBPR, etc).
    • Academic focus of community engagement (scholarship, research, teaching, service)
    • Rank/title
    • Other identity(ies) not covered above

Terms and Conditions

As part of this gift-funded effort to build infrastructure and capacity for community engagement, in 2023-24 funding will support two (2-4) faculty members at the combined equivalent of 1.0 FTE total faculty at each of the Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses to help lead these efforts at the campus and tri-campus scales. These positions will work with the other funded faculty and staff positions at each of the three campuses. The funding can be allocated as course buy-out, summer salary or another method as appropriate.

These positions will have ultimate oversight by, and accountability to the UW Tacoma Office of Community Partnerships with day-to-day accountability and support, as available, from the Tri-Campus Project Director for Community Engagement.