Center for Political Participation
Center for Economic and Environmental Development
Office of Community Service and Service-Learning
Allegheny College was one of 25 schools selected to be a part of the Association of American Colleges and Universities' (AAC&U's) Core Commitments program, which began in the fall of 2007 and will conclude in the fall of 2009, with a possible extension dependent on future funding.
The Core Commitments program has been focused on exploring how higher education can foster engaged citizenship, teach personal and social responsibility, encourage respect for diversity, cultivate excellence and implement programs that support community engagement.
"The Core Commitments program is really about re-examining the mission of education in the 21st century," said Amara Geffen, professor of art and director of the Center for Economic and Environmental Development. Geffen directs the Core Commitments program at Allegheny with associate dean for wellness Jacquelyn Kondrot.
"We wanted to create an ongoing college-community dialogue around this program," said Geffen. "Our work with our community partners is without a doubt central to stimulating engaged citizenship on our campus and in Meadville. Through Core Commitments we promoted collaboration among our programs for community and civic engagement, strengthened curricular programs that teach social responsibility, and worked to bring those concepts to life for our students both inside and outside the classroom."
Allegheny's goals for our participation in the Core Commitments program also focused on discovering opportunities to nurture and sustain a culture of collaboration between the Academic and Student Affairs Divisions of the College, and uniting our various programs and centers around the Core Commitments thereby strengthening teaching for personal and social responsibility at Allegheny College.
During our two year participation in Core Commitments, we engaged between three and four Core Commitments Fellows annually; participated in three Leadership Meetings (DC 2007; Vermont 2007; Portland 2008); hosted six College-community dialogues that explored possibilities for collaborations to revitalize the College's gateway neighborhoods and foster economic vitality. We also facilitated three campus dialogues focused on conduct and civility both on and off campus, which led to a student generated effort to emphasize personal, social and environmental responsibility through development of a community pledge and creation of the EcoReps program.
In fall 2007 we administered the Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory (PSRI) to all members of the Allegheny campus community, including students, faculty and staff. That semester, we developed a variation of the student survey for alumni and surveyed a random sample of 747 alumni. We also developed a variation of the faculty-staff survey and asked 64 community partners to complete this. Our response rates were reasonable and varied by group; 36 percent of students, 29 percent of alumni, 63 percent of faculty and staff, and 43 percent of community partners responded to their respective version of the PSRI.
In October 2009 we will send a team of faculty and students to Minneapolis to participate in AAC&U's Network for Academic Renewal Conference on Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments. At this meeting professor Amara Geffen, director of CEED and chair of the Civic Engagement Council will and Core Commitments Fellows Jinnie Templin '11 and Dave Valentine '11 will participate in a panel with colleagues from University of the Pacific and Rollins College. Entitled "Students Engaging Students: Facilitating Personal and Social Responsibility at the Intersection of Curricular and Co-curricular Experiences", the panel will focus on ways in which faculty and student affairs educators can better support and promote peer-to-peer learning opportunities related to personal and social responsibility.
For more information on Allegheny's Core Commitments work click here.
During the 2009 - 2010 calendar year the Civic Engagement Council will continue a number of the Core Commitments initiatives, including supporting Year of Social Change programs and events. Click here for a preliminary schedule.
The Allegheny College Core Commitments team:
Core Commitments is an initiative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
