University of Texas at El Paso, United States of America



University of Texas at El Paso, United States of America

Located on the United States border with Mexico, the University of Texas at El Paso serves a community in which poverty and social exclusion are manifested most clearly in the region. The university has therefore established its Center for Civic Engagement, with the aim of contributing to the improvement of the socioeconomic conditions for the people of the El Paso Ciudad Juarez region. Currently, it is the only major research university in the United States whose students are predominantly Mexican-American.

As Hispanics become the largest minority group in the country, the university is attaining national recognition for its innovative teaching methods and programs designed to help students who come from a complex, multicultural and previously disadvantaged background, to succeed. The university’s commitment to civic engagement has led to its program becoming a model for some citizen involvement initiatives within the Texas higher education sector.

Civic engagement in universities in the USA is not strongly espoused by federal government policy. However, limited grants for work–study are available through federal sources. In the state of Texas, however, the notion of civic engagement has been supported through a legislative resolution that was passed by the state in 2003.

Approach to civic engagement

The institution is classified as a doctoral / research-intensive university, but values civic engagement and includes ‘public service’ as one of its key goals. The university established the Institute for Community-based Teaching and Learning in 1998 and two years later, the institute was incorporated in the larger Center for Civic Engagement. Through the center, the university has mobilized a range of participants in civic activities ─ students, faculty, and community partners such as government agencies, schools, nonprofit and community-based organizations. Civic engagement programs take the approach of action-oriented and community-based learning, teaching, and research, all of which are integral parts of the university’s curriculum structure.

Civic engagement programs at the university cover a wide variety of themes such as adult literacy, health, democracy, domestic violence, immigration, technical support in accounting and computer web design for nonprofit organizations, and coaching to pupils in public schools. The university hopes to expand the involvement of more students and faculty by increasing the number of credit-bearing service-learning courses offered both at graduate and undergraduate levels. Furthermore, attractive civic engagement activities will be incorporated in other regular courses.

Resources

In the United States, limited funding has been forthcoming from federal sources for higher education civic engagement programs. In the nineteenth century, US federal policies and funds supported rural development through Land-Grant universities, at least one of which exists in each of the 50 states. In 1994, the US Housing and Urban Development agency sought to address urban problems through some of its funding initiatives. Several other agencies also supply grant opportunities, but it usually is a very competitive process.

The institution also gets some external funding from private organizations. Through these grants it has managed to increase the human resource base of the program by recruiting student assistants and interns. The positions for the director and assistant director are supported by funds that are internally generated.

Challenges

Civic engagement programs at the university face three sets of challenges. Firstly the dependency on external financial support creates instability, as not all proposals get funded. The program also experiences delays in the transfer of funds. In addition there is a tendency for grant proposals to be aligned with varying donor agencies’ priorities rather than the needs within the region.

Secondly, civic engagement programs are associated with increased workload for students and faculty. As a result research tends to exclude civic engagement issues, especially in the case of doctoral students.

Finally, faculty are socialized for narrow research careers. The training they receive is within disciplines and thus does not encourage collaborative and experiential or applied research.

Conclusion

Civic engagement at the university is aimed at improving the lives of people in its surrounding area by providing appropriate university expertise and leadership. This goal is pursued through the university’s partnership with public and private institutions and organizations in the region.

On account of the multicultural characteristic of the region in which it operates, the university is uniquely placed to provide its community (students, faculty and immediate community) with distinctive opportunities for community-based teaching, learning, and service, which draw from the cultural diversity of the region.

Community-based Teaching and Learning Program: Center for Civic Engagement

The University of Texas at El Paso established the Center for Civic Engagement in 1998 as a mechanism to enhance student learning, promote citizen participation, and, most importantly, play a meaningful role in improving the El Paso Ciudad Juarez region. Over the past seven years the Community-based Teaching and Learning Program has engaged over 80 faculty members, 7,000 students and 100 community partners. These key participants have invested over 100,000 hours working in a range of activities including adult literacy, voter education, financial literacy, and high school teacher training.

On account of the nature of the current activities carried out, faculty members involved come from the colleges of Liberal Arts (Social Sciences and Humanities), notably from education, business, and health sciences. The program draws few faculty members from the colleges of Science and Engineering.

The management of the Center for Civic Engagement consists of a director and an assistant director who work with the campus council. The council is made up of community and faculty members, as well as students.

The area of coverage for the program is the wider El Paso–Juarez metropolis area, which has a total population of two million people. Due to resource constraints, the university targets only neighborhoods that experience a high level of economic deprivation. Residents of these communities are mostly Spanish-speaking or bilingual (Spanish and English) and are located in the south and south central parts of the city, which is the area closest to the United States’ international border with Mexico. Most students come from this area.

The university also liaises with government institutions and nongovernmental organizations that are directly involved in the development arena. They include the police and security agencies, departments of education, health, housing, and community development corporations. As a result, almost all stakeholders are involved, and there is synergy and shared learning by all parties.

At a glance

|Name of institution |University of Texas at El Paso |

|Country |United States of America |

|Type of institution |Public |

|Total number of undergraduate students (fall 2004) |15,592 |

|Total number of graduate students (fall 2004) |3,326 |

|Extent of students participating in civic engagement activities |50-75% |

|Extent of faculty participating in civic engagement activities |10-25% |

|National, regional and international affiliations |Campus Compact (national) |

| |Texas Campus Compact |

| |National Survey of Student Engagement |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download