March 25, 2002

To: William Dillon, Chair and Members of the UARTP Committee
From: Charlotte Cook, Professor of Special Education and
Coordinator, CSUS Office of Community Collaboration
Subject: History and Rationale for Suggested Amendments to the ARTP Policy

The proposed changes to the university's ARTP policy were initially drafted by me and Ruth Ballard, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Coordinator of the Service Learning Scholars Group on our campus. Robyn Nelson subsequently made substantial contributions, and the final text also reflects reviews by Claudia Kitka, Cecilia Gray, and Ann Haffer, Nursing, who coordinated the campus' recent initiative on student outcome assessment.

Several factors led us toward bringing these proposed changes forward. The first was a compelling finding from two focus groups conducted with faculty currently or previously engaged with the community. The sessions were conducted by an outside consultant last Fall and were focused on the question, "What would it take to enhance CSUS faculty engagement in the region?" The summary report cites overwhelming faculty concerns with lack of recognition for community-based teaching and scholarly work in RTP. Faculty made statements such as these:

Administrators spout wonderful rhetoric about CSUS being a vital resource to the region, about our mission to teach students to be activist citizens, etc., but none of it counts in RTP.

You get promoted by being a decent teacher and getting published in select joumals in your discipline. That's it.

RTP committee members don't give a hoot whether we ever set foot in the community; most of them have never read the university mission statement or Strategic Plan.

Most of these faculty are untenured, and they perceive a profound, troubling disconnect between official university mission and goals, and the de facto RTP process. Most believe that neither their teaching with service learning nor their community-focus scholarship are valued by RTP committees. Ruth Ballard and I have heard these sentiments also in meetings of the Service Learning Scholars Group. As one colleague put it, "I want to see references in there to the type of work I do. I don't feel that I'm represented in the present document."

The Scholars Group faculty directed Ruth and me to draft recommended amendments to the university RTP document as a first step in addressing the issue. Their goal is to incorporate references to community-based teaching and scholarship into the RTP policy, and thereby increase recognition of such work in the RTP process. We know you will give our proposed changes a thoughtful review and we look forward to hearing your response. Please let me know if you would like further information from me, Ruth, or the faculty with whom we work.