Academic Affairs Updates: Acting on our Academic Master Plan

Goal II: Emphasize Civic and Community Engagement within All Academic Disciplines

Search for Director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning

Dear NJCU Community,

We are committed to emphasizing civic and community engagement within all academic disciplines. This is the second goal of our Academic Master Plan. To achieve this, we indicated that we would build the infrastructure for community engagement by establishing a Center for Community Engaged Learning. We are moving forward with this key organizational action, and are now looking for a director for the center.

Please see the qualifications outlined below and consider applying for this opportunity or encourage a colleague to do so. We hope to scale up the amazing work that is already happening with community-engaged leaning at NJCU. In recent years, Dr. Esther Nir and Dr. Jennifer Musial worked together to have students enter government spaces to observe and journal their experiences as part of courses in Criminal Justice and in Women’s and Gender Studies. This helped students relate to individuals employed in these settings. These experiences helped demystify how government works, while enhancing the students’ critical capacities. 

As they note in their article about this work, “If anything, students became better critical thinkers through demystification because it exposes systemic and human flaws while giving students concrete examples. Demystification also empowers students to use the system to advocate for change” (p. 33).

Other faculty have provided amazing community-engaged learning experiences for students. Notably, Dr. Alison Fitzgerald worked with alumna Katya Del Mundo '22 of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's AmeriCorps New Jersey Watershed Ambassadors Program, having students explore the impact of urbanization in the Hackensack River Watershed. The students work included the examination of the invasive species, the salt marsh loss, and the impact on birds. This work exemplifies John Dewey’s contention that education is not preparation for life; it is life itself.

About the role:

The Office of the Provost would like to have a director identified and in place to establish the Center for Community Engaged Learning by the beginning of the Spring 2025 semester. Please review the following qualifications and help us identify a strong leader for this very important role:

This will be an internal search. Applicants should be a tenured faculty member at the Associate or Full level. The director must be physically present on campus, addressing the needs of the center for a minimum of 10 hours weekly. The anticipated time commitment would total 20 hours per week during the fall and spring semesters and 10 hours per week during the summer.

Please include a cover letter that addresses how you would go about implementing this vision of the Center. We are also asking for a letter of recommendation from a current or former student and a CV. Six credits of release time will be granted in the fall and spring semesters and an additional three credits during the summer.

If interested, please submit your materials to provost@njcu.edu no later than November 1, 2024. Please reach out to Jason Martinek, Assistant Provost of Faculty and Staff Development, at jmartinek@njcu.edu with any questions.

Sincerely, 

Donna Adair Breault, Ph.D.
Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs