Boise State University faculty, staff and students actively collaborate with a diverse group of non-profit organizations, local governments, and private sector companies across the Treasure Valley, Idaho, the United States, and the world. These collaborations enrich our campus community and external partners through the promotion of teaching and learning programs as well as public-facing research.
Definition
Boise State follows the Carnegie Foundation’s definition of Community Engagement. This definition helps guide the work of the Office of the President and lays a foundation for understanding and communicating engagement work across campus and with community partners.
Community engagement describes the collaboration between higher education institutions and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in partnership and reciprocity.Carnegie Foundation
Purpose
The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to:
- Enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity.
- Enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning.
- Prepare educated, engaged citizens.
- Strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility.
- Address critical societal issues.
- Contribute to the public good.
Programs
Under President Tromp’s leadership, Boise State strengthened its community engagement by supporting ongoing programs in the College of Innovation and Design, the School of Public Service, and developing new programs in the School of the Arts, the Community Impact Program and the creation of the Institute for Advancing American Values.
The president also created a new position dedicated to community engagement, appointing Dr. Brian Wampler as the university’s first Professor of Public Scholarship and Engagement. In this role Wampler is leading a campus-wide effort to help faculty and staff improve their engagement with external communities as well as expand public scholarship and teaching and learning opportunities that enable our community to foster lasting, meaningful relationships with community partners. Wampler is also the Principal Investigator of TRANSFORM, a four-year, $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s new Accelerating Research Translation program.