Campus...Community...Collaborate A Newsletter from University Outreach and Engagement
Fall 2019
Announcing Important Updates to Texas Tech's Annual
Raiders Engaged Assessment!
Beginning with the 2019/2020 administration, several changes to Texas Tech’s annual assessment of faculty and staff outreach and engagement activities will be taking place. Due to changes in strategic planning deadlines, faculty and staff now have until May 1 to submit information about their projects or activities. Furthermore, the reporting period will change from academic year to calendar year, meaning that faculty and staff will be asked to report activities conducted between January 1 and December 31.
Other changes come as a result of recommendations from a metrics task force consisting of TTU faculty and administrators whom University Outreach and Engagement and the Office of Planning and Assessment (OPA) convened throughout Spring 2019. These changes apply to TTU faculty reporting only.
Faculty will now be able to identify any applicable scholarly activities in the teaching, research, or service sections of Digital Measures via a check-mark and drop-down menu as relating to “Outreach,” “Engagement,” or “Engaged Scholarship.”
They now also have the option to provide additional information about these activities in a separate “Outreach and Engagement” section of Digital Measures instead of in Raiders Engaged. The fields in this section mirror those of Raiders Engaged.
If faculty prefer to continue reporting their outreach and engagement activities in Raiders Engaged, they may do so. OPA will transfer any data reported in Raiders Engaged regularly into the "Outreach and Engagement" section of faculty Digital Measures accounts.
Any outreach and engagement information entered either in Raiders Engaged or in Digital Measures will be made available by OPA for faculty annual reports.
Staff will continue to use Raiders Engaged for reporting their outreach and engagement activities.
Raiders Engaged will remain TTU's primary database for housing comprehensive information on all faculty and staff outreach and engagement activities, as data will be shared between Digital Measures and Raiders Engaged. From now on, Raiders Engaged will also remain open year-round for entries, except during the months of May and June.
Digital Measures accounts are ready for faculty annual reporting as well.*
*Faculty should enter their activities by January 20 for inclusion in current year reports.
Note: Due to the switch in reporting period from academic year to calendar year, the current 2019/2020 assessment cycle will encompass activities conducted between September 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019. In coming years, the calendar year reporting period will become fully effective.
If you have questions related to the assessment process, contact Sam Sumner (sam.sumner@ttu.edu) or Birgit Green (birgit.green@ttu.edu) at University Outreach and Engagement. For Digital Measures questions, please contact Kenny Shatley (kenny.shatley@ttu.edu) at the Office of Planning and Assessment.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS!
2020 President's Engaged Scholarship Awards
University Outreach and Engagement is now accepting applications for the Texas Tech President’s Engaged Scholarship Awards program. Individual faculty or teams of faculty members are invited to submit entries for the following categories:
The “President’s Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Award” is designed to recognize faculty for a project or initiative that demonstrates significant and sustained commitment to addressing a community need or larger societal issue through mutually beneficial partnerships with communities. The award carries a monetary prize of $2,000 and recognizes up to two faculty-led engaged scholarship projects.
The "President’s Emerging Engaged Scholarship Award” recognizes faculty who are in the early stages of a project or initiative that demonstrates a high potential for the advancement of engaged scholarship, while showing outstanding promise for significant impact on communities and the university. It carries a monetary prize of $1,000 and recognizes one faculty-led project or initiative.
For more information and to submit an application, click here.
The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2020.
A Workshop for TTU Faculty and Academic Staff:
"Engaged Scholarship as a University Priority -
Concepts and Strategies for Success"
Tuesday, February 18, 2019
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
TLPDC, Room 151 (lunch will be provided)
Engaged Scholarship is a distinctive, scholarly approach to university-community partnerships. Engaged scholars understand that the underlying principles of effective engagement with communities include mutual respect, recognition that community knowledge is valuable, and a focus on sustainability as an integral part of the relationship. Join us for a panel discussion of Texas Tech faculty members who have been involved in engaged scholarship and community partnerships for a substantial amount of time. The panelists will share their experiences in engaging with diverse sets of external communities for the mutual benefit of both the community and scholarship. They will discuss strategies for identifying the right partners, building trust, setting expectations, dealing with challenges, and achieving successful outcomes for all involved. To register, visit the TLPDC website.
For more information, contact Birgit Green,
Director of University Outreach and Engagement. Birgit.Green@ttu.edu | 806.834.2308
CALL FOR PROPOSALS!
Texas Tech Regional Engaged Scholarship Symposium April 2, 2020 | TTU McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center
University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) will be hosting the 3rd annual Regional Engaged Scholarship Symposium on April 2, 2020 at the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center. We are inviting proposals for panel presentations from faculty, academic staff, and students that will inform or advance the theory and practice of engaged teaching, research, or creative activity in higher education. Submissions should highlight innovative models, initiatives, or strategies that integrate engagement with external communities into academic practice and scholarship. The deadline for proposal submission is January 27, 2020. For more information and to submit a proposal, click here.
Story Musgrave, former NASA Astronaut, will deliver the keynote address followed by a special panel discussion featuring Story Musgrave, Ginger Kerrick (Member of Texas Tech's Board of Regents and Flight Integration Division Chief for NASA), and Al Sacco (Dean of the TTU Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering). The Symposium will also include a panel of the 2020 recipients of Texas Tech's President's Engaged Scholarship Awards.
For the first time, the symposium will be held in conjunction with Texas Tech's Discoveries to Impact Week.Under the theme, "Celebrating Research, Engagement, Innovation & Startups,"the week-long event seeks to raise awareness and challenge Texas Tech’s faculty, staff, and students to be responsive to community and societal needs by providing innovative solutions to the complex problems facing our region, state, nation, and world. This signature event is made possible through an exciting new partnership between University Outreach and Engagement, the Center for Transformative Undergraduate Experiences (TrUE), the Innovation Hub at Research Park, and the Center for Integration of STEM Education & Research (CISER). Programs and activities throughout the week will highlight and demonstrate the wide range of research, innovation, and engagement occurring at Texas Tech.
To register or for more information about all the events and activities during Discoveries to Impact Week, visit the DTI website.
UNIVERSITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT HIGHLIGHTS
University Outreach and Engagement Releases its First Edition of
"REACH OUT, ENGAGE, TRANSFORM"
University Outreach and Engagement has released its first edition of "Reach Out, Engage, Transform," a publication showcasing the outstanding engagement work of Texas Tech faculty, staff, and students. Texas Tech engages with communities across the region, state, and world to help address local needs or larger societal issues. Connecting the university’s knowledge and resources to the needs of West Texas citizens and beyond has been part of the university’s history since its beginning in 1923. This history was first recognized nationally in 2006 when Texas Tech was among only 72 public institutions in the country and, at the time, the only one in Texas to receive the newly created “Community Engagement” classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Texas Tech has continued its tradition and dedication to community engagement, committing to “transform lives and communities through strategic outreach and engaged scholarship” as one of three strategic priorities in its 2025 Strategic Plan, A Foundation for the Next Century.
Texas Tech faculty, staff, and students are building strong, mutually beneficial partnerships with business and industry, non-profit and government agencies, health organizations, K-12 schools, citizens’ groups, and other communities. Anchored in the rigor of scholarship, they readily share their knowledge and resources to help find sustainable solutions to real-world problems in collaboration with communities. Oftentimes, their engagement results in research outcomes that are not only relevant and meaningful to communities, but also enrich the university’s scholarship and research, as well as enhance curriculum and student success.
Today, this work is stronger than ever as demonstrated by the results of the university’s annual assessment of faculty and staff engagement activities. The work that engages our faculty, staff, and students beyond campus borders with external communities comprises a spectrum of activities ranging from one-directional outreach to engaged scholarship.
This booklet brings to life a sample of the engagement projects and activities that are taking place across teaching, research/creative activity, and service at Texas Tech. We hope that you will enjoy reading about them and be inspired to reach out, engage, and transform.
Administered by University Outreach and Engagement in collaboration with the Office of Planning and Assessment at Texas Tech, the Raiders Engaged instrument gathers data about the outreach and engagement activities of Texas Tech faculty and academic staff. Data is self-reported, and participation in the annual assessment is voluntary. The university uses the information provided for annual strategic planning purposes.
During the most recent assessment in Fall 2018, a total of 332 individuals participated in Raiders Engaged, providing information on their Academic Year 2018 outreach and engagement activities. The number of projects reported, which covered the realms of teaching, research, creative activity, and service, increased by 52.73% between AY’ 2017 and 2018. They generated $30.7M in external funding and impacted over 1.6M individuals from communities in all 50 U.S. states and 89 countries. Community partners included non-profit and government agencies, business and industry, Pre-K and K-12 schools, community organizations, civic groups, and others.
The following provides a snapshot of data encompassing projects and activities conducted between September 1, 2017 – August 31, 2018. To view the full Raiders Engaged report, click here.
University Outreach and Engagement Exhibit
University Outreach and Engagement is currently hosting an exhibit in the Croslin Room of the Texas Tech Library. It highlights outreach and engagement programs and activities featured in the first edition of “Reach Out, Engage, Transform.” The exhibit provides a glimpse into the work of Texas Tech faculty, staff, and students who are building strong, mutually beneficial partnerships with community stakeholders. Engaged scholarship occurs in a variety of disciplines and in many ways. The exhibit is grouped into five areas 1) The Interconnections of Water, Land, and Agriculture, 2) Energy Production, Distribution, and Utilization Technologies, 3) Pre-K Through 12 Social and Academic Engagement, 4) Creative Inquiry and Expression Across the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences, and 5) Health, Well-Being, and Quality Of Life. These categories, although extensive, do not completely capture or limit the extent of all the valuable outreach and engagement activities that the Texas Tech community is involved in on a daily basis.
Crossing Boundaries in Visual Arts
Early in the fall 2019 semester, two conferences took place within the Texas Tech School of Art which showcased engaged scholarship in visual arts and featured unique opportunities for collaborations between researchers, practitioners. and communities.
The Animation and Public Engagement Symposium (APES) is an annual forum for professionals (scholars and practitioners) focused on advancing and promoting animation as therapeutic practice, educational technique, and a tool for social engagement. On September 19-21, the symposium brought together researchers from areas such as health and well-being, social impact and activism, therapeutic studies (including art and psychotherapy), and educational initiatives. Primarily, the event offered an alternative view of the animation potential that is beyond artistic expression, entertainment, or publicity; it identifies new terrains in the interface of animation with society.
APES has its roots in the United Kingdom, and it is endorsed and sponsored by United HEART (Healing Education Animation Research Therapy), the Animation Academy, and the School of Design and Creative Arts (Loughborough University). The symposium at Texas Tech was made possible by the support of the Texas Tech Office for Research and Innovation, the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Humanities Center at Texas Tech, the Ryla T. & John F. Lott Endowment for Excellence in the Arts through the School of Art, the Art History Area in the School of Art, the Tech Art History Society (TAHS), and the Society of Animation Studies (SAS). It was organized by professors Jorgelina Orfila, Francisco Ortega, and Robin Germany of the Texas Tech School of Art.
The 2019 conference in Lubbock was the first time the event was ever held outside of the UK. It featured 28 scholars from across the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, Turkey, Denmark, China, Australia, and South Africa. APES succeeded in shedding light on the value of animation beyond simple entertainment.
The 2019 Society for Photographic Education (SPE) Regional Conference was organized by Robin Germany, Interim Director and Professor of Photography in the Texas Tech School of Art. The event, entitled With as Many People as Possible, was presented as "a gathering to discuss how photographic practice can foster, support, advocate for, and collaborate with many overlapping communities." It took place October 10-12 at various venues, including the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) Icehouse and the Texas Tech School of Theatre and Dance. Over 90 participants attended workshops, demonstrations, keynote presentations, and a reception for the School of Art photo exhibitions.
Expresión, Celebración y Amore: El Día de los Muertos was an exhibition that featured the photography of 22 Hutchinson Middle School photography students as part of their study of the Día de los Muertes holiday. The collaboration came about when Professor Germany sought to involve local students, which led to the young Hutchinson Middle School photography students and their teacher, Marci Beene, becoming an integral partner. This bore fruit with a photo exhibition at Texas Tech as part of the SPE conference. It was a win-win for Texas Tech, the students, and the Lubbock Independent School District.
Texas Tech's College of Education Connects with
Local Schools Through Mentorship Programs
Written by Robert Stein
Worrying about school violence. Battling substance abuse, depression and anxiety. Navigating the world of social media and relationships.
Children today face a myriad of challenges at school. That's why Texas Tech University's College of Education has recently partnered with Lubbock school districts to support ongoing mentoring programs for students.
Starting this fall, students, faculty, and staff from the College of Education have been bringing counseling expertise and helping hands to Frenship and Lubbock-Cooper Independent School Districts (ISDs). Their goal: help provide students with more opportunities to build relationships – both with peers and adults.
"Relationships change everything," said Bret Hendricks, a professor of counselor education and Associate Dean at the College of Education. "The ability to have a positive, healthy relationship with a human being changes your life, and kids are not getting enough opportunities to have those kinds of relationships in the school environment."
Texas Tech started partnering with Frenship ISD in the fall to support an existing mentoring program at the district called “Next Level.” The program gives a group of students a safe space outside of class to meet and talk with teachers, administrators, and each other.
Hendricks, who is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Texas, introduced music techniques used in counseling to help people tune into their feelings and express themselves. Also involved is a graduate student licensed as a chemical dependency counselor who provides free counseling services. The college plans to involve more students from its Counselor Education program in the future, Hendricks said.
The Texas Tech students serve as part of their selection for the Charles Butt Scholarship for Aspiring Teachers from Raise Your Hand Texas, and they receive training from faculty in the Counselor Education program before pairing with students.
Research shows that positive relationships can improve student engagement and retention while decreasing anxiety and depression, Hendricks said, “but partnering with Lubbock schools has been a two-way street of transformation.”
"It has changed us," said Hendricks. "The adults support the kids. The kids support the adults. We leave there after having real communication, and it's fulfilling."
University Outreach and Engagement strengthens Texas Tech's ability to
achieve excellence in Outreach and Engaged Scholarship by serving as a Catalyst, Collaborator, and Connector.
CONTACT US: University Outreach and Engagement, Texas Tech University
Development Building | 2533 15th Street
Box 41047 | Lubbock, Texas 79409 universityoutreachandengagement@ttu.edu | 806.742.2392
University Outreach and Engagement is currently hosting an exhibit in the Croslin Room of the Texas Tech Library. It highlights outreach and engagement programs and activities featured in the first edition of “Reach Out, Engage, Transform.” 
"Relationships change everything," said 
At Lubbock-Cooper ISD, student teachers in 
