Quality Initiative Project (QIP)

The Open Pathway requires an institution to designate one major improvement effort undertaken during its 10-year accreditation cycle as its Quality Initiative. After thoughtful review and hearing a great deal of consensus, the University of Northern Iowa advanced Community Engagement as its Quality Initiative Project. “Enhancing Service Learning At UNI” has three components: 1) designating service-learning courses, 2) implementing a Service-Learning Institute, and 3) recognizing and celebrating community engagement work.

QIP Selection Process

Thank you for the tremendous participation and feedback during our call for Quality Initiative Project (QIP) proposals in fall 2015, which is part of our accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. In total, we had 36 proposals from faculty, staff, and students submitted for review. The proposals ranged in scope and included a broad range of potential initiatives for UNI. The topics submitted include: campus mental health, student outcomes assessment, diversity, liberal arts core, community engagement and partnerships, student success and progress, research and scholarship, academic advisement, international education, effective teaching and learning, and post-graduation outcomes.

Once the proposals were reviewed and scored, three of the top rated proposals were chosen for further development:

Broad goals for a revision of the Liberal Arts Core (LAC): Four of the 36 proposals suggested major revisions to the LAC and at least another five touched on the LAC in some way. One possible QIP might be developing goals for such a revision and putting in place the process to allow it to happen.
A comprehensive diversity initiative involving significant cooperation and coordination between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs, loosely modeled after the Foundations of Excellence effort.
Diverse/Engaged Campus—combining multiple proposals, this would envision a campus in which our commitments to diversity and community engagement infuse our curriculum and co-curricular activities.

In mid-March 2016, the QIP Subcommittee completed its work developing potential QIP proposals, with incredible participation from faculty, staff and students on campus.

A brief summary of the three proposals (with links to the actual proposals) is found below.

Proposal 1: Broad Goals for a Revision of the Liberal Arts Core (LAC)
- The intention of this proposal is to create a process that will lead to a complete restructuring of UNI’s general education curriculum. The first year is highlighted by the development of QIP LAC proposal. Year two envisions working groups with broad campus outreach to collect and analyze data related to various LAC components. The final year will include the full development of the process to implement the new LAC model.
Proposal 2: A Cultural Shift at UNI: Toward a Diverse and Inclusive Community
- The purpose of this proposal is to create a deep cultural change to transform the University of Northern Iowa into a more diverse, inclusive and welcoming community. This will be achieved by: 1) improving support to students from underrepresented groups; 2) providing systematic opportunities for on-campus and off-campus interaction among members of diverse communities; 3) enhancing the treatment of diversity issues within our curriculum; and, 4) recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff.
Proposal 3: Diverse and Civically Engaged Campus
- This proposal seeks to create the conditions whereby UNI can develop a diverse campus culture of civic engagement. The end result of this initiative should be structures of institutional support, reward, and accountability that enable and encourage faculty and staff to provide an education that builds professional readiness, offers a chance for personal development, and fosters students’ civic orientation.

These proposals were submitted to the Provost for consideration. The Provost solicited feedback from various sources on campus (e.g. Dean’s Council, Faculty Senate, Student Affairs leadership) prior to the final selection of the proposal.

Project Initiatives and Highlights

Service-Learning Institute (SLI). The SLI was piloted in May 2016, and implemented in May 2017, 2018 & 2019. Faculty apply to participate and, when accepted, are matched with a community partner. To date, 42 faculty/instructors and 1 staff person have participated in a SLI and 36 service-learning projects have been implemented. Highlights of this program include multiple faculty working with the same community partner to implement service-learning projects across courses and the participation of staff from Student Life and Event Services to support consistency between curricular and co-curricular activities. In 2019 faculty from other local colleges and universities participated in UNI’s SLI to increase collaboration and promote best practices across institutions.

For more information about the Service-Learning Institute please visit the office of Community Engagement.

Service-Learning Course Designation. The process for designating a course as service-learning launched in fall 2019. Accordingly 11 courses will have the Service-Learning (SL) attribute during the 2020-2021 academic year. There is a SL course in all of UNI’s colleges. At UNI a course must meet seven criteria including building critical thinking and professional communication skills, having the project align with academic coursework and community strengths and needs, student preparation for the project and for active citizenship and social responsibility. The course must include purposeful and guided reflection and build cultural competence for engaging with diverse populations in diverse settings. The seven criteria is a comprehensive requirement aligning with university learning outcomes, best practices in service-learning, and addresses diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Click here for more information about Service-Learning course designation.

Community Engagement Celebration Day. UNI’s first Community Engagement Celebration Day was held in April of 2018. The event is now an annual event and was also held in 2019. In 2018 approximately 120 faculty, staff, students and community partners showcased 70 projects. In 2019 approximately 105 faculty, staff, students and community partners showcased 56 projects. Each project is entered into one of seven categories: Service-Learning/Live Client Project, Student Organization/Student Group, Research-Based Project, Individual Student Project, Commitment to Service (faculty/staff only), Social Justice (theme-based category), Sustainability and Environmental Awareness (theme-based category). There is also a People’s Choice Award, for which all projects are judged. In addition to the presenters, approximately 40 leaders from the community are invited to judge the projects each year. Judges include city mayors, school superintendents, nonprofit leaders, and university administrators. The event is open to the public. One project from each category is recognized at an awards ceremony following the exhibition of the projects. The winner in each category receives a $200 sponsored by Veridian Credit Union.

For more information about Community Engagement celebration day click here.

What’s next? All three of these programs have elevated the value of service-learning and community engagement across campus. Most notably is a slow and steady shift to embedding experiential education into academic programs. Knowing the importance of service-learning and its impact on student learning outcomes and the benefits to community, faculty, staff and community members have reached out to the Office of Community Engagement for support in making meaningful, intentional and mutually beneficial partnerships between UNI faculty, staff and students, and the community. Both the Service-Learning Institute and Community Engagement Celebration Day are now annual events. And it is a goal to increase the number of service-learning courses each year.

New goals.

Pilot a Community Engaged Department/Program Institute. More information can be found here.

Recognition at graduation

Initiative Spotlights

QIP Selection Committee

Julianne Gassman and Nicholas Rafanello have convened a diverse group of individuals to consider how we can advance Community Engagement as part of our larger effort with and focus on Engaged Learning. We want to thank the members of the Quality Initiative Project committee for their hard work on assisting in the selection of this initiative.

Kerri Clopton, Educational Psychology & Foundations
Kavita Dhanwada, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs
Xavier Escandell, Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology
Kristin Moser, Institutional Research & Effectiveness
Catherine Palczewski, Communication Studies
Scott Peters, Political Science
Jeffrey Stokes, Finance
Laura Strauss, Chemistry & Biochemistry
Brian Townsend, Mathematics