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Faster, Cheaper, Better:
A State-Wide Approach to Public Service Excellence

Lynda Narwold, Indiana University Kokomo, Kokomo, Indiana

Cheryl Stolle, Indiana University East, Richmond, Indiana

Timothy Sutherland, Indiana University Northwest, Gary, Indiana

Brenda Swartz, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana

Christine White, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana

University-based outreach programs are increasingly important in a knowledge society. Regional campuses, as well as research and land-grant universities, are playing a growing role in providing their communities with extension services that include all forms of continuing education, technology transfer, economic development, and cultural programming. The use of information technology enables the campuses to overcome barriers of distance, organize data bases, facilitate communication among a range of constituencies, and conduct their public service activities "faster, cheaper, better." This report describes the development of a systemic approach to public service delivery by Indiana University’s five regional campuses.

Summary

The Regional Campus Excellence Project was initiated by the five Indiana University regional campuses--East, Kokomo, Northwest, South Bend, and Southeast--in response to the IU system president’s call to make Indiana University one of the nation’s top-tier academic institutions. This 18-month project has engaged some 90 faculty members and administrators from all five campuses in the examination of all aspects of their missions, including public service activities. Supported by a grant from the IU fund for campus innovation, the project was assisted by a group of nationally-recognized experts in higher education, but was from start-to-finish guided and directed by campus faculty. The project will culminate in a series of detailed reports to the campuses and to the IU Board of Trustees and other statewide policy makers. The project is envisaged as the first step toward actualization of the goals, policies, action, and assessment guidelines developed by faculty teams in each area.

The team working on Community and Public Service has taken as its central tenets the increasing importance of university-based outreach programs to a knowledge society and the growing role to be played by regional campuses as well as research universities in all forms of extension services. These include continuing education, technology transfer, economic development and cultural programming. The expansion of information technologies has greatly increased the range of expertise that such relatively small campuses can command. It has also expanded their ability to gather information, build databases, communicate across campuses and constituencies, deliver educational and cultural programming through different distance learning technologies--and to accomplish these goals "faster, cheaper, better."

Panel presentations proceed through five categories: (1) a general overview of the project and its findings; (2) criteria for excellence in community service; (3) processes for identifying, prioritizing, and decision-making, including a matrix-based approach to community service; (4) examples of technologically-supported community service in action throughout Indiana; and (5) team recommendations for future growth and excellence. The use of information technology is emphasized throughout, as is an emerging new model for professorial activity that engages the faculty member in the educational needs of the community. The "scholarship of service," with its significant dependence on technological literacy, is another recurrent theme.

The Public Service Mission of Regional Campuses:

Indiana University has as its main mission the effective teaching of the men and women who enroll as students in the institution. However, within the past ten years, legislators and other citizens have increasingly insisted that state universities have an obligation to respond to the needs of society and to provide a leadership role toward meeting those needs. Those of us in academia are very aware of the trilogy teaching, research, and service. Teaching and research are easily identified and evaluated. Service, on the other hand, has been less valued and therefore is not relevant to most faculty. There are no inherent rewards to the faculty, and doing service only tends to add more pressure. Faculties are expected to teach better, research more with fewer dollars, and publish, while at the same time, provide excellent service to the regions they serve.

In an attempt to meet all of these expectations, a group of IU faculty met several times, using a variety of technologies, over the period of one year. Essential factors that are critical to successful service were identified as well as variables outside the academy that affect the outcomes of service. The committee was charged to present a definition of regional and community service, review the current state of community service at the campuses, review the national scene to identify outstanding programs, and provide direction for the IU regional campuses by identifying issues, policy implications, and recommendations. The remaining presentations describe the result of our work.

Defining Excellence in Community Service:

The IU Regional Campus Excellence committee defines community service as "mission- driven university activities that involve non-university constituencies in ways that improve the quality of life for the people/region involved." The university and community members engage each other through resource-sharing, partnerships and collaborations, and application of knowledge to regional issues. In each of these three types of activities, technology is used as a tool to make these activities more effective. Technology is effective in: (1) allowing communication about commonalties in service and outreach between the campuses (separated by fairly large distances across the state); and (2) enhancing service activities by a campus throughout a region serving several counties (again to help break down barriers of distance). Criteria for excellence include the linkage of academic goals with regional and community needs. The scholarship of service is emphasized via dynamic interaction of knowledge creation (research), transmission (teaching), and application (service). It is important for cross-campus effectiveness of public service activities that consensus be reached on common issues and that there be consistency in the reward structure for faculty service activities. In a list of assumptions, one point stresses that university service must, among other things, promote a region's effective university-to-community technology transfer.

Matrix Approach to Public Service Data Collection:

Information technology is useful in identifying and categorizing public service activities. Using a matrix approach to data-gathering, committee members took an initial model grid and mapped current regional and community service activities on their campuses. The initial three dimensions were constituents (those served), initiators (campus constituents involved in service), and demographics. Possible constituencies included alumni, business/industry, cultural arts, governmental, not-for-profits, the environmental community, and public education systems. Initiators were listed as student-defined programs (e.g. service learning), faculty-defined (e.g. consulting), and university-defined (e.g. continuing education). Demographics include populations served, priority of service programs, resource allocations and other financial information, public relations value, and other data used to monitor service programs. These initial grids served five purposes: created a database or inventory of existing service programs, established a baseline of activity, identified best practices that could be shared, created a means for communicating services within/across campuses, and developed a beginning way to track programs for assessment, new development, and resource allocation purposes. These products can be used interactively through various points of access through defined fields, can be shared electronically via websites and shared files, and presented to campus constituencies through presentation software.

Applying Technology to Public Service:

Technology is one of a bevy of tools universities have to use in community service activities. The usefulness of the technology depends upon an individual understanding both of the capability of the technology and the situation in which the technology is to be applied. In one case, university faculty saw an opportunity for Indiana furniture manufacturers to export to Japan and worked with the Japanese government as well as federal, state and local officials to develop trade arrangements. The relationships between Indiana companies and their Japanese partners were strengthened by weekly fax communication both ways. More recently communication is by frequent e-mails. In another project the technical capabilities of small high-tech Indiana companies are compiled into a university-maintained database which is run against solicitations of the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program. Via fax and e-mail, university people assist companies in preparing proposals. Indiana companies have received numerous awards from this program, which has resulted in companies hiring increasing numbers of engineers and scientists. In another situation, the university provided leadership training to local elected officials via video conference to several remote locations. Utilizing technology has helped ratchet up community skill levels and helped make university community service activities more cost-effective.

Conclusion and Recommendations:

Study of community service on IU regional campuses demonstrates that innumerable worthy activities link the five regional campuses to their service areas, communities and beyond. There exists considerable variability within and between campuses relative to the support of community service. The committee emphasized the necessity of discussions regarding the relationship and interdependence of community service and other areas of university life and the paradoxes that need to be understood for the creation and support of a culture of excellence in community service.

Recommendations were developed for the purpose of achieving statewide excellence and national recognition for responsive engagement. The committee endorsed the five core recommendations of the Kellogg Commission regarding public service, which has called upon universities to expand their public service contributions to society. Conclusions specific to the Indiana University regional campuses address campus recommendations, faculty recommendations, and recommendations for the Indiana University system at-large. System recommendations include sharing web-based services and having campuses assume a leadership role in technology services. The vision is for Indiana University’s regional campuses to assume a national leadership role in community service.