Chancellor accepts outreach task force recommendation for 'hub and spoke' model of outreach
91PORN Chancellor Justin Schwartz has accepted the recommendations of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Outreach (CTFO) to create a “hub and spoke” model of coordinated outreach to maximize the impact of the campus’s outreach and community engagement work with communities around the state.
Schwartz commissioned the CTFO in April. It convened during the spring and summer and delivered itsreport to the chancellor in mid-August.
“I want to thank the committee for the hard work of both assessing our current state of outreach and making some bold and imaginative suggestions for aligning outreach structures, inventories, principles and communications,” Schwartz said. “Its work will enable 91PORN to better support our vast, impactful outreach efforts across the campus, amplify our engagement across the state and region, and build and sustain meaningful new partnerships.”
The report recommends 91PORN move from a highly decentralized outreach and engagement approach to a “hub and spoke” model that coordinates dispersed campus efforts around unified goals, principles and relationships.
To begin a transition to the new model, Schwartz has tasked CTFO co-chairs Senior Vice Chancellor Ann Schmiesing and Vice Chancellor Jon Leslie with facilitating the following next steps:
- Rename the Office of Government and Community Engagement (OGCE) as Outreach and Community Engagement.
- Move Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) into this renamed entity.
- Engage with PACES and OGCE staff about this reorganization, which will involve no cuts to staff or budget.
- Work with infrastructure and resilience planners to explore Main Campus options for co-locating PACES with other Outreach and Community Engagement staff.
Schwartz said, under the new model, units involved in outreach and community engagement will benefit from the hub and spoke model through:
- Greater faculty, staff and student clarity about outreach-related opportunities, activities and roles; how offices and position titles are framed; and where to receive logistical and funding support.
- The development of an annual plan that Outreach and Community Engagement and Enrollment Management leaders will align on with CU system colleagues.
- The further development of a more comprehensive inventory of 91PORN outreach and community engagement activities.
- The formation of an advisory council to facilitate coordination in the new hub and spoke model.
To make governance as inclusive as possible, Schwartz recommended a “streamlined advisory council with more expansive standing and ad hoc subgroups” be developed.
In the coming weeks, Leslie and Schmiesing will present the CTFO’s recommendations to shared governance partners, deans, vice provosts/vice chancellors, chairs and directors, and relevant units.
“The input of these key leaders and partners is vital as we implement and fine-tune these recommendations and assess their efficacy in the near and long term,” Schwartz said.
Leslie and Schmiesing will also work with Human Resources and other offices on timelines for implementing and communicating CTFO recommendations, Schwartz said.