The Office of Community Engagement (OCE) and UNMC, through the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Dele Davies, M.D., would like to highlight the hard work and dedication of UNMC faculty, staff and students in serving in and engaging with the community.
In partnership with representatives from each college and engaged departments, the OCE, the Community Collaborations Council, and UNMC leadership have designed a survey to measure university faculty, staff and students’ engagement with various community members. The length of the survey is dependent on how engaged a respondent is, and it can take as little as five minutes.
The survey will be open today (Jan. 6) through Feb. 8.
Making communities better
“Numerous UNMC faculty, students and staff are heavily involved in activities that make the communities we serve better, whether by serving on boards, volunteering at food shelters or assisting non-profits in other ways,” said Dele Davies, M.D., senior vice chancellor of academic affairs. “Some of these activities are unit organized, while others are individual private activities by our employees.
“We believe that our faculty, staff and students are among the most engaged in the nation. Taking a snapshot of these activities will enable us for the first time to recognize the full scope of our employee engagement and also enable us to highlight some and share compelling stories with our key community and other stakeholders.”
The survey is built in the ENGAGE platform, secured by the UNMC IT Department. Information only is accessible by the director of OCE, who will use the responses in aggregate to create engagement reports. Respondents can start and stop the survey as time allows, submitting when completed. Also, the information can be used by respondents as a reference to fill out the “service” component of an annual evaluation. Entries are saved in each respondents’ ENGAGE profile.
“Respondents will help both their college or department and UNMC as a whole,” said Heidi Keeler, Ph.D., OCE director.
“The information you submit will help your college or department tell the story of the great work that you and your colleagues are doing on behalf of UNMC and your profession,” Dr. Keeler said. “And when we know who is doing what with whom in our community, all of UNMC benefits. We can know where both our engagement strengths and opportunities lie. By completing the survey, respondents can help us to build our story of how UNMC impacts and is impacted by our valued partnership.”
For every college and department that achieves a 35% response rate, the OCE will provide a basic aggregated report of the responses. Those achieving 50% or greater will receive a detailed engagement report.
Respondents who answer “yes” to three or more questions will be considered for a UNMC Community Engagement Ambassador Award, and those who answer “yes” to six or more questions will be considered for a UNMC Community Engagement Senior Ambassador Award. Each level of UNMC Community Engagement Ambassador will be eligible to apply for exclusive grant and project support.
“The role of the Office of Community Engagement is to support the building of relationships with our community partners,” Dr. Keeler said. “To do this, we must first establish to what extent UNMC faculty, staff, and students are already engaged. We know that for all of the collaborations of which we have knowledge, there are many more that are occurring without recognition or support. This survey gives us a chance to recognize the great work that the members of UNMC are doing in the wider community.”