Happy New Year! I am pleased to write to you for the first time as the recently appointed Chair of the Talloires Network Steering Committee. I would like to thank Mark Gearan and Jan Reid for their superb leadership of the Committee over the past few years.
I am excited to continue leading the Talloires Network forward. I am joined in leadership of the Steering Committee by Vice-Chair Cheryl de la Rey, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. I would also like to welcome the newly elected members of the Steering Committee who began their terms on January 1:
— Ernest Aryeety, Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana
— Muhammad Asghar, Rector, National University of Sciences and Technology (Pakistan)
— Sara Ladrón de Guevara, Rector, Universidad Veracruzana (Mexico)
— Lorraine McIlrath, Founding Director, Campus Engage; Project Coordinator, Community Knowledge Initiative, National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland)
— Andrew Petter, President and Vice-Chancellor, Simon Fraser University (Canada)
— Andrew Vann, Vice-Chancellor, Charles Sturt University (Australia)
I would like to take the opportunity to recognize the members of the Steering Committee who completed their terms at the end of 2014: Jan Reid, Scott Cowen, Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, José Sanz, Sharifah Shahabudin, and John Wood. On behalf of the Talloires Network, I would like to thank each of them for their invaluable guidance and leadership.
I cannot imagine a better way to begin 2015 than with the energy from the 2014 Talloires Network Leaders Conference. Many representatives of TN member institutions, from all parts of the world, contributed to making the Conference such a productive convening. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of them. I look forward to building on the momentum generated by the Conference throughout the coming year, as the Talloires Network celebrates its 10th anniversary and charts a course for the next stage.
Best wishes for a productive 2015!
Tony
Deadline: 2015 MacJannet Prize Applications due January 23!
At last month’s Talloires Network Leaders Conference, community engagement programs from Canada (above center), India (left), and South Africa (right) accepted the 2014 MacJannet Prize.
Final reminder: Nominations for the 2015 MacJannet prize are due on Friday, January 23, 2015! Visit the MacJannet section of our website to download an application form, see the timeline for 2015 nominations, review the selection process and view the profiles of previous winners.
Leaders in the Civic Engagement Movement
This month’s edition of the Leaders in the Civic Engagement Movement series features two outstanding leaders at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service: Alan Solomont and Mim Nelson. Despite their different backgrounds, Solomont and Nelson are committed to ensuring that every student at Tufts University is educated to be an active citizen. Read More>>>
Ahead of TNLC 2014, the Talloires Network secretariat published an aggregated report and slideshow about the Leaders in the Civic Engagement Movement series. Read More>>>
Partner Network News
Ma’an, the Arab University Alliance for Civic Engagement has a new website. In it, you will find an updated list of member universities for this growing network of engaged universities in the Arab world. Read More>>>
AsiaEngage and Engagement Australia have collaborated to bring forward a new report related to the Engagement Australia visiting scholars and experts program on university-community engagement. The Report of the First Asian Visiting Scholar & Expert’s Sharing Visit to Australian Universities can be accessed online. Read More>>>
The CampusEngage community in Ireland just welcomed a new report titled, Launch of Capturing the Economic and Social Value of Higher Education: A Pilot Study of Dublin City University. This pilot study will feed into national debates on the importance of engagement and inform the way the Higher Education Authority crates metrics to evaluate the performance of Ireland’s higher education institutions. Read More>>>
Silatech is organizing a conference on Arab Youth Employment: Promoting Innovative Solutions to Longstanding Challenges. The conference aims to bridge the evidence gap on youth employment and create space for partnerships to form, scale up, and replicate successful initiatives. The deadline to submit a session proposal form is January 31. Read More>>>
Talloires Network Programs and Announcements
We had a highly successful Talloires Network Leaders Conference last month. More than 250 participants from 40 countries joined us in South Africa to chart the course for the future of the global civic engagement movement. A dynamic student contingent provided youthful energy to a conference program that was filled with insightful speakers, productive breaout sessions, and fruitful networking time. We will be posting more photos from TNLC2014 in the days ahead. Check out our Facebook page and stay connected.
The network continues to grow! Six more universities have signed the Talloires Declaration, thus becoming official members of the Talloires Network. The new member universities are based in Cameroon, Canada, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar, and Uganda. These new additions bring the total number of countries represented in the Talloires Network to 75. Read More>>>
Opportunities and Announcements
The UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education continues to look for responses to their survey, “Building the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers“. This survey, which only takes about ten minutes to complete, seeks to gain an overview of teaching and training in Community-Based Research (CBR) in order to increase access to high quality learning opportunities in CBR for the Global South. Learn More>>>
The Carnegie Foundation has selected 240 U.S. colleges and universities to receive its 2015 Community Engagement Classification. Of this number, 83 institutions are receiving the classification for the first time, while 157 are now re-classified, after being classified originally in 2006 or 2008. These 240 institutions join the 121 institutions that earned the classification during the 2010 selection process. Currently, a total of 361 campuses have the Community Engagement Classification. Read More>>>
Papers and Publications
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, in collaboration with the Community University Partnership Programme at the University of Brighton, has released a new publication titled “Learning to Make a Difference: Student Community Engagement and the Higher Education Curriculum.” This comprehensive guide presents the latest thinking and innovations in development and professional practice in student–community engagement. Read More>>>
Scott Cowen, former member of the Talloires Network Steering Committee, has recently published a piece on The Chronicle of Higher Education. In “You Don’t Need a Hurricane to Know Which Way the Wind Blows“, Cowen reflects on his tenure as president of Tulane University during challenging times, and the lessons he learned about the development of civic engagement in higher education. Read More>>>
University World News reports on the development of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA), which kicked off its third phase at a workshop held late last year in South Africa. The international research project, the longest and biggest of its kind in Africa, is led by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Read More>>>
Upcoming Events
Ashoka U Exchange. University of Maryland, USA. February 26-28, 2015.
The Ashoka U Exchange is the world’s largest convening for social entrepreneurship in higher education. The Exchange brings together 650 university faculty, staff, and administrators representing 150 institutions to share new ways of teaching and learning that will shape the way educational institutions influence the world. Over the course of three days, participants will have the opportunity to share their own innovations and learnings with a broad audience of experts to gain valuable feedback and insights. Read More>>>
The three-day continental summit, whose theme is “revitalizing higher education for Africa’s future”, seeks to build a movement of like-minded institutions to transform the African higher education sector. Read More>>>
26th Annual National Service-Learning Conference. Washington Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC, USA. 8-11 April, 2015.
This year’s conference, themed More Powerful Together, will gather more than 1,500 youth and adults from across the country and around the world for three days of learning, inspiration, and connection. This inter-generational event creates a unique atmosphere, where youth bring incredible energy and passion to discussions on education and social policy. Read More>>>
We are always updating the conferences calendar on our website. Read More>>>
New Era of TN Leadership 
