The Engaged Scholar Magazine

Science and Technology

Volume 8 features Science and Technology research and collaborative partnerships at Michigan State University.

Announcements

Transformations in Higher Education: The Scholarship of Engagement Series
Available from MSU Press

Higher Education in the World 5: Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education: Contributing to Social Change
This volume is also part of the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi) Series on the Social Commitment of Universities

Tools of Engagement Learning Modules
Online curriculum modules are available for use by MSU faculty to introduce undergraduate students to the concept of university-community engagement.

MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
Program prepares graduate students for academic careers that integrate scholarship with community engagement. It offers students a transcript notation indicating that they have completed the program.

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Michigan State University Named "Engaged Campus of the Year"

Michigan State University has been selected by a national team of reviewers as Michigan's 2014 Engaged Campus of the Year.

The honor goes to an institution of higher education annually for exemplary commitment to education of students for civic and social responsibility, genuine and sustained investment in community relationships, and commitment to service-learning and civic engagement opportunities for students across all disciplines.

The award was presented on April 30 at Michigan's Giving and Volunteering Celebration at the State Capitol. The program featured Governor Rick Snyder, State Representative Sam Singh, and Robin Lynn Grinnell, Michigan Campus Compact Executive Director ... read more

Partnering to Create the Wayne County Mental Health Court

Mental illness among men and women arrested for crimes—from misdemeanors to felonies—is a significant challenge for the justice system. Individuals with serious mental illness often find themselves cycling repeatedly through the system, going through the steps of arrest, court, incarceration, and return to community without ever addressing the root cause of the unlawful behavior.

In Wayne County, which includes the City of Detroit, community leaders in the criminal justice system and the social services sector recognized that the courts were overburdened with persons with mental illness. They began working together to create a specialty court that provides solutions for jail overcrowding, costs, and treatment for some of the county's most vulnerable citizens.

Sheryl Kubiak's expertise is contributing to a collaborative community effort that offers an alternative to mainstream solutions in the state's busiest local court system ... read more

Helping Businesses Use Workplace Design to Impact their Bottom Line

Many studies have shown that the design of a workplace has an impact on employee performance and business efficiency. According to the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the oldest and largest professional organization for interior designers, "Managers recognize that employee satisfaction and productivity rise in well-designed workplaces," and that "design...adds to the bottom line by stimulating sales, attracting and retaining customers or clients, and transforming rooms into destinations." But often, design principles are very industry-specific, making it challenging for a broad range of professionals in the design industry to access comprehensive data applicable to various sectors of the workforce, especially the knowledge sector.

Because knowledge sector workers spend much of their time thinking and creating, it is necessary for these workers to have work spaces that foster creativity and collaboration. These spaces are called "knowledge workplaces."

Young Lee, Assistant Professor in the School of Planning, Design, and Construction, has been studying workplace environment as it relates to employee performance since working on her doctorate in interior design at the University of Minnesota's College of Design. According to Lee, workplace design provides challenges unique from other design areas, such as hospitality, institutional, and healthcare design ... read more

Summer Solstice Jazz Festival
East Lansing, Michigan
June 20-21, 2014

Great Lakes Folk Festival
East Lansing, Michigan
August 8-10, 2014

3rd Annual Innovate Michigan! Summit
East Lansing, Michigan
September 4, 2014

2014 International Association for Research on Service-learning and Community Engagement Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana
September 29-October 1, 2014

15th Annual Conference of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium
Edmonton, Alberta
October 7-8, 2014

2014 Imagining America Conference
Atlanta, Georgia
October 9-11, 2014

Latinos in 2050: Restoring the Public Good
East Lansing, Michigan
October 30-November 1, 2014

Michigan's 10th Annual World Usability Day
East Lansing, Michigan
November 13, 2014

2014 Michigan Pre-College and Youth Outreach Conference
Kalamazoo, Michigan
November 16-17, 2014

Looking for Project Partners?

Collaboration and partnership with communities are at the core of engaged scholarship. In all of its work, University Outreach and Engagement emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship. If you are a faculty or academic staff member wanting to establish a partnership with community partners to work on a specific research issue, University Outreach and Engagement can help you. Our staff, specialists, and researchers have established connections across the state in a number of areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Laurie Van Egeren at (517) 353-8977 or vanegere@msu.edu.

Focus: HOPE, Detroit, MI

Opportunities for partnership exist around the following areas: Service-Learning, Student Internships and Placements, Faculty Research Partnerships, and Development of Innovative Solutions to Pressing Social Problems. For more information, contact Deborah E. Fisher at (313) 494-4306 or fisherd@focushope.edu.

ES 360° Feedback ...

We would like to hear from you. Contact us with comments, suggestions, announcements, or “engaged scholar” project information for future e-newsletters. Send to Carla Hills: engaged.scholar@msu.edu or call (517) 353-8977.