The Symposium took place from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center. KerryAnne O'Meara, professor of higher education and director of the ADVANCE program at the University of Maryland, was featured as the event's keynote speaker.
The event focused on strategies that incorporate community engagement into common university practices while also promoting teaching and learning, research and scholarship.
University Outreach and Engagement Associate Vice President John Opperman said the basis of the symposium is to recognize the institution's involvement with the community and acknowledge students' and faculty's success with the University Outreach and Engagement program this year.
Opperman also said the event emphasizes the importance of community engagement in hopes to generate more interest in faculty and students.
"This is an event that is hopefully a launchpad for bigger and better things to come out of the University Outreach and Engagement program," Opperman said. "We believe community engagement is a pathway to make higher education one of the beacons for knowledge and citizenship in this country."
O'Meara's discussion focused on how to integrate engaged scholarship into faculty advancement, tenure policies and practices.
In her address, O'Meara presented on Equity-Minded Reform in Academic Reward Systems.
She said an engaged scholarship is when faculty and students collaborate with community members to co-curate knowledge that serves the public good. She said this work is often interdisciplinary by the nature of problems.
"I have come to understand that those who want to advance in full participation for women and minority groups, and those who want to advance full participation for engaged and interdisciplinary scholars have much in common," O'Meara said. "They should more often join forces to cultivate both groups simultaneously."
The symposium included concurrent sessions throughout the day that consisted of various topics. Some topics included bridging teaching, research activity or service with community needs or societal challenges, incorporating student involvement into the university's curriculum, recognizing and documenting the influence engagement has on communities and building valuable partnerships with different types of community.
Grant Gilbert, University Outreach and Engagement manager, said the symposium's purpose is to recognize and reward those who participate in engaged scholarship with the community.
He said the University Outreach and Engagement program focuses on how the university can partner with people in the community to solve community-based problems, which can vary from designing pedestrian walkways to enforcing mental competency tests for people who are on trial.
"Through the University Outreach program, we reach out to the community, figure out what their problems are, fund possible opportunities and work with the school to provide the help needed," Gilbert said. "It is a partnership between the university and community."
Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said the faculty rewards program is not matched through complete range of academic functions. He said professors at Tech are often caught between competing obligations, and he hopes O'Meara's discussion and the sessions at the symposium encourages people to make tangible changes in how the university rewards faculty.
"Higher education is under a lot of scrutiny by donors and the government," Schovanec said. "I think showing the full impact of our research and community scholarship helps to fully confront these misconceptions."