Part- and Full-Time Faculty Eligible to Apply to Direct the Service Learning Initiative

source image: smc.edu

Are you passionate about service learning? Do you relish working with colleagues and students to promote experiential learning opportunities for U of A students? Directing the Service Learning Initiative may be your destiny! For more information on the history of SLI, click here.

The director of the Service Learning Initiative serves a three-year term and collaborates with a team of faculty to promote SLI. All full- and part-time faculty members are eligible to apply, and applicants must be able to work with Excel spreadsheets and have strong organizational skills. 

Application materials should include the following:

• A statement of why you are interested in directing the Service Learning Initiative
• A description of your experiences using service learning pedagogy
• A discussion of how you would work with the SL committee to foster service learning across campus

Send your letter of application with a CV by 5 p.m., Wednesday, June 22, to Kathryn Sloan, vice provost for faculty affairs, at facdev@uark.edu.

For additional information, please contact the current SLI director, Jennie Popp, jhpopp@uark.edu.

The Service Learning Initiative is a joint initiative of the U of A Provost Office, the Honors College and the Division of Student Affairs with the purpose of formalizing and expanding service learning opportunities on campus. In 2014, Jennie Popp of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness and Angela Oxford of the Center for Community Engagement were appointed as co-chairs of the Service Learning Initiative to oversee the academic and community partner facets of Service Learning for the U of A.

In order to improve SLI outreach, Popp then requested that then-Provost Sharon Gaber appoint a committee that represented all sides of campus. By May 2014, members were drawn from each university college, as well as Honors College, International Education/Study Abroad office, the Law School, University libraries, Graduate School and the Teaching and Faculty Support Center — with all committee members having a commitment to service learning. The purpose of this committee is to organize and enhance service learning at the U of A. As part of their duties, SLI committee members assist with faculty course designation. Every semester (and, if necessary, multiple times during a given semester), all course designation applications are reviewed by committee members who then vote whether they should each be designated. They also select winners of the annual SLI faculty award as well as the recipients of the annual faculty travel and material grants.