Cornell University
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

The David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement provides two incentive programs for faculty to help to advance community-engaged learning, teaching, and research. The center prioritizes sustainability through the mission of community-engaged learning. "By combining their diverse expertise and skills, teams of faculty, staff, students and community members address global issues and help build a more sustainable, just and collaborative future." https://oei.cornell.edu/resources/community-engaged-learning/

Community-Engaged Learning Courses are intended for students to collaborate with communities, in Ithaca and around the globe — to design, implement and evaluate real solutions to environmental, agricultural, educational, and social justice challenges, among other topics. Most of these courses are sustainability focused or sustainability inclusive. For instance, some courses include: AEM 4090 - Environmental Finance and Markets, AIIS 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Place-Based Ecological Knowledge, ANSC 3510 - Dairy Herd Management, BEE 6110 - Hydrologic Engineering in a Changing Climate, DEA 4401 - Adaptive Reuse Studio: Recycling the Built Environment, DSOC 3400 - Agriculture, Food, Sustainability and Social Justice, among many others.

The focus on sustainability is evident in the course CRP 5072 - Land Use, Environmental Planning, and Urban Design Workshop, where students focus on the forces and actions that directly affect the physical character, transformation, rehabilitation, and preservation of natural landscapes, cities, and regions. Participants provide technical assistance to communities, and have the opportunity to work with communities in resolving critical planning issues. Topics include development of land use and natural conservation plans, community redevelopment plans, design and analysis of public spaces, and strategies for making communities more environmentally and economically sustainable. Additional courses can be found here: https://courses.cornell.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=41&poid=20019&hl=community+engaged&returnto=search

The Engaged Curriculum Grants includes a maximum fund of $80,000 to support a team to integrate community-engaged learning into new and existing curricula. Other funding opportunities can be found at https://oei.cornell.edu/grants/faculty-staff-funding/

Community-engaged learning funding for faculty and staff is characterized by three funding areas, including Grants, Seeds and Supplements, and Awards. Grants fund community-engaged learning courses, research and scholarship; Seeds and Supplements help faculty and staff get smaller projects off the ground or add a community-engaged learning component to another grant project; and Awards honor faculty with a history of exemplary engagement.

The two incentive programs that champion this mission and support Faculty Fellows in sharing their materials beyond academic publications (via podcasts, op-ed, exhibits, websites, etc) include:

The Faculty Institute on Community Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT): During this two-day institute, faculty develop a community-engaged course and connect with peers interested in community-engaged pedagogy. The institute is aimed at faculty who would like to make community-engaged service-learning a major focus of their teaching and are interested in gaining insights on how to accomplish this; a $250 research stipend is provided. This institute introduces participants to:
the main elements of community-engaged courses
creating or reshaping a syllabus so that it integrates engagement
foundational readings, tools, and discussions
a network of support with colleagues from across campus
More information can be found at https://engaged.cornell.edu/program/celt/

The Engaged Faculty Fellowship Program: This program offers two fellowships: Faculty Fellows in Engaged Learning and Faculty Fellows in Engaged Scholarship. The yearlong fellowships are open to all faculty and provide $2,000 in funding to accepted fellows. The Faculty Fellows in Engaged Learning specifically emphasizes incorporating community engagement into the course curriculum to transform teaching at Cornell. Categories of projects include Energy, Environment & Sustainability; Food & Agriculture; Access, Equity & Justice; and Health, Nutrition & Medicine. More information can be found at https://engaged.cornell.edu/program/faculty-fellowship/

Positive outcomes: In 2020, Engaged Faculty Fellows were honored in a virtual showcase. Faculty Fellow Mathew Pritchard's taught EAS 4370: Field Geophysics. The course allows graduate and undergraduate students to work with community partners to develop a 3D geological map of glacial history. The map will help community partners understand groundwater and mineral resources across NYS, and teaches students how to communicate the project with non-experts. The course was evaluated by Faculty Fellows to identify ways to facilitate more community-engagement. Within the Global Health Program, Faculty Fellow Jeanne Moseley worked to engage new researchers and practitioners and to establish new collaborations to foster a multidisciplinary approach to solving global health problems. Teaching was evaluated based on the ability to create engaged and experiential learning opportunities, build and cultivate partnerships, provide student leadership opportunities, develop and deliver participatory innovative curriculum, and provide opportunities for global and public health awareness. The results of ‘Ripple Effects Mapping’ were analyzed to understand the impacts of complex, collaborative learning.
The 2020 Virtual Showcase of Engaged Faculty Fellow projects can be seen at https://blogs.cornell.edu/engagedfacultyfellowsshowcase/

The CELT program offers a $250 research stipend. The Engaged Faculty Fellowship offers a $2,000 stipend.