The CCE will build significantly on the work of the College's existing Community Outreach Office, with support from a $13 million investment by John Abele '59 and the Argosy Foundation over seven years.
In addition to expanding student volunteer opportunities and forming partnerships with regional, national and international service organizations, the CCE will serve to provide interested College faculty with the resources and logistical support necessary to develop community-based and service-oriented courses.
Recognizing that the new director will play a key role in guiding the future policies and practices of the newly established Center, a committee of students, faculty and staff was appointed to the task. Members of the committee include Chairperson Professor of English and Black Studies Rhonda Cobham-Sander, Special Assistant to the President for Principal Gifts Robyn Piggott, Professor of Computer Science Lyle McGeoch, Professor of Psychology Elizabeth Aries, Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey, Dean of Students Ben Lieber, Administrative Business Manager of the Mead Art Museum Donna Abelli and students Stephanie Gounder '08, Raj Borsellino '09E, Eileen Chau '10 and Priyanka Jacob '07.
Prior to conducting its search, the committee met with students, faculty, staff and community partners to come up with a consensus as to what the community thought would be necessary qualifications for the position.
As a result of the meetings, the committee came up with three guidelines; the position would require that the candidate have experience and success in working with college students, success in building strong partnerships with community organizations and a history of working in collaboration with faculty members towards the aim of increasing student engagement.
The committee received over 150 applications in response to the initial job offering. Applicants came from a variety of employment backgrounds, including lawyers, members of the Peace Corps, community activists and college faculty members.
The committee narrowed the field to approximately 60 serious candidates, and they conducted hour-long telephone interviews with more than 20 semifinalists.
In the next round, the committee met with seven candidates for face-to-face interviews. Rather than simply being asked a series of questions, the candidates were invited to discuss issues that they thought would be pertinent to the position and to the issue of community engagement as a whole. Candidates would often lead the conversation and, in doing so, demonstrate their leadership abilities and communication skills. In the process, the committee found itself learning from the candidates.
"We really found out a lot of things, such as how important it would be for the center to take direction from the faculty with regard to course involvement," commented Professor Cobham-Sander.
At the end of the round of interviews, the committee selected three candidates, Mark Dalhouse, Eric Popkin and Molly Mead. They had impressed the committee the most from the pool with the breadth and expansiveness of the mission they envisioned for the CCE and the place it could hold in an Amherst education.
"We were impressed with all three," said Professor Cobham-Sander of the candidates. "They had thought a lot about the issues and had many ideas to offer us about how we needed to think and the questions we needed to be asking ourselves in thinking about what we do as teachers. All of them were able to challenge us to be more critical in the way we imagined what it meant to be involved. They stood out head and shoulders from the group in terms of the thought and care in the discussions that they basically led."
For the final round, each candidate has been asked to give a presentation to the students, faculty and staff of the College in the coming two weeks.
Dalhouse, who gave his presentation last night, is currently the director of the Office of Active Citizenship and Service and Senior Lecturer in History at Vanderbilt University. In his role as director, he is responsible for, among other things, the administration of the summer Vanderbilt Internship Experience in Washington program and maintaining and directing various affiliated service organizations.
Eric Popkin is the director of the Colorado College Partnership for Civic Engagement. The partnership oversees the administration of a Latino Immigration and U.S.-Mexican Border Project, a Learning Collaboration with a Colorado school district, Faculty Development at Colorado College residential spaces linked with community based learning courses, an International Community Based Learning initiative and supports other campus initiatives. He will be giving a presentation Friday at 4:30 p.m. in the Pruyne Lecture Hall.
Mead, who will be speaking in Paino Lecture Hall in the new Earth Sciences building on Feb. 20, is the Lincoln Filene Professor of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. She served as director of Tisch College in 2003. She helped faculty members develop curricular models of education for active citizenship and engage in scholarship regarding civic engagement.
All three of the candidates hold professorships at their respective institutions and have written to a great extent on the issues surrounding community engagement at the regional, national and international levels.
The search committee strongly advocates that students, faculty and staff attend the presentations.
"There are different ways for students, faculty and staff to get involved in or support community engagement," said Professor Cobham-Sander. "Before we can define our role and the role of the CCE, we need to have a conversation about what we have and want as a community. The work of these three [candidates] with the College is a great place to start the conversation."