As part of an ongoing initiative to engage faculty members in community programming and curriculum development, the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS) has announced the creation of two grants to be instated later this spring. With these new grants, UCCPS Educational Programs Director Robert Hawkins hopes to further the college's mission: "to create students who will go on to become lifelong active citizens."
"The program will develop a leadership cadre of faculty members," Hawkins said. "They will work with their own department and leaders of other departments to mold their curriculums to better incorporate the UCCPS ideals of active citizenship."
The Faculty Active Citizenship (AC) Fellows Program will be the first grant available to Tufts professors. Fellows will receive $30,000 over two years to hire additional staff and to increase funding for their projects. The extra funding is also intended to free up time so faculty members can concentrate on adjusting their curriculum and research in accordance with UCCPS guidelines.
The new grant program is not intended to act as a source of funds for community service exploits but will be geared instead toward faculty members who have consistently assumed a leadership role in conceiving active public service programs both within and outside of departmental curriculums.
The Faculty AC Fellows Program also promises to utilize this faculty network as a resource for future UCCPS endeavors. Hawkins hopes that the program will build a lasting relationship even after the two-year funding period ends.
The UCCPS is also introducing Research and Curriculum Development (RCD) grants that will be smaller than the Faculty AC Fellows grants but available to more faculty members. Ten faculty members who submit proposals will be awarded RCD grants twice a year, in both May and November.
Hawkins praised the grants for their projected benefits. "The RCD grants allow room for faculty to be more creative in their methods to focus on civic engagement," Hawkins added. "These ideas will be given the freedom and the support to grow into larger programs as time progresses. Ultimately, the programs could be sponsored by the Faculty AC Fellows program."
Selection committees are being put together in order to judge faculty members' grant proposals. A group of about six faculty members and two students, both Omidyar Scholars, will meet following the April 1 proposal deadline to select six Faculty AC Fellows. A similar committee will meet later in May to select RCD grant recipients.
These new initiatives are part of a plan to fine tune the activities of the UCCPS. Though the temporary suspension of the student-based Education for Active Citizenship (E4AC) grants may imply that the college is refocusing its target from students to faculty and curriculum-based transformation, Hawkins and others in the UCCPS would argue that this is not the case.
"We're just making a couple of adjustments. It has been our plan all along to encourage both student and faculty project development," Hawkins said. "We're just tweaking it a bit."
In the past, the UCCPS has sponsored student programs through E4AC grants and the Omidyar Scholar program. Both provide leadership training or guidance as well as the funds needed to initiate and support community service programs. There are currently 47 Omidyar Scholars and about 14 E4AC funded projects.
The UCCPS has received most of its funding from the initial gift from alumni Pierre and Pam Omidyar that helped to establish the college in 1999. Through the watchful eyes of President Emeritus and co-founder John DiBiaggio and Dean Robert Hollister, the UCCPS has become a cross-curriculum advocate for integrating values of active citizenship into the Tufts education. Now, as DiBiaggio completes his last year at Tufts, Hollister, Hawkins, and the rest of the UCCPS staff are charged with the task of expanding the UCCPS to fit its intended purpose.
Hawkins described UCCPS as "a three-legged stool," explaining that the college will prepare students through peer learning and civic engagement, interaction with agencies within the three Tufts communities - the Medford/Somerville, Grafton, and Boston campuses - and by encouraging the faculty to develop programs, research opportunities, and curriculum options for "civic-minded students."
