How to Make Public Engagement a Priority at Research Universities

By Sara Hebel. Public universities should deepen their engagement with their communities and make those partnerships part of their core academic missions, says Robert J. Jones, president of the University at Albany, part of the State University of New York system. Universities' expertise should be used to solve society's complex problems, he says, and public engagement needs to be integrated into both faculty-reward systems and students' educational experiences. More...