Stuart Greene honored for civic engagement

Author: William Schmitt

Stuart Greene

Campus Compact, a coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents, has named Stuart Greene, an Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) Fellow and director of the Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS) program at the University of Notre Dame, one of four finalists for the 2011 of the Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award.

The award is bestowed annually to recognize senior faculty for exemplary leadership in advancing students’ civic learning, community engagement, and contributions to the public good. Recipients’ careers exhibit true dedication to service, to community, and to the integrity of higher education.

Greene, an associate professor of English, incorporates community-based research into the ESS undergraduate minor, a program he initiated. Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns has given Greene the Ganey Faculty Community-Based Research Award for his scholarly contributions to the local community. He played a key role in Notre Dame obtaining the Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement classification.

“Stuart is a faculty member who represents the full integration of community engagement into one’s professional life,” says Mary Beckman, associate director of the Center for Social Concerns. She notes Greene’s creation of the ESS program with its focus on community-based learning, as well as his support for community engagement during his service as associate dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “He has consistently, over the years, played a role in the development of students’ sense of social responsibility,” she added. His work has contributed to documented improvements in the community.

Campus Compact is a nonprofit coalition representing some 6 million students. It is committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. Indiana Campus Compact (ICC) supports higher education’s efforts to develop students into well-informed, engaged citizens. ICC serves as a catalyst to improve people’s lives through service-learning and civic engagement initiatives.