Front Page / Assessment / Bonner Program Assessment / Guides
Bonner Program Tracking & Assessment
Overview | Guides | Campus Examples | Documents to Download
More than ever, most institutions of higher education face structural and financial challenges that compel them to demonstrate the value and return on investment for their work. With limited resources, institutions face difficult decisions regarding prioritization of programs and units. Financial concerns in higher education have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although senior leaders and institutional rhetoric often express a commitment to civic and community engagement, the Bonner Program and centers for community engagement may be at risk. It is incumbent that staff and programs effectively make the case for the value that having a Bonner Program and infrastructure (including staffing) for civic and community engagement bring to an institution’s reputation, enrollment, retention, completion, and work as stewards of place.
The guide provides step-by-step instructions to support a Bonner Program and community engagement unit to produce a comprehensive report that describes the positive impacts of this work. This guide is designed to help your center and program evaluate and make case for its Bonner Program and center’s work, much in the same way that other units or departments might articulate their value. The guide will help you quantifiably, quantitatively, and financially demonstrate to key stakeholders that the Bonner Program and civic and community engagement centers accrue major benefits for institutional priorities.
In it, you’ll find text to adapt and customize to fit your program and institution. Each section includes specific instructions. In each section, you’ll find an overview, recommendations for data collection, recommendations on who should be involved in the review, and an estimated timeline to complete the section. Each section also includes a customizable example that can be easily copied, pasted, and adapted for your own program’s analysis and report. The customizable examples interweave relevant scholarship, literature, and data to help make the case for that section topic (retention, student success, etc.). They also include specific institutional examples and data, which may be a model for replication. Finally, the guide provides recommendations for completing a report at your own institution that fits your program and institution’s capacity (staffing, time, resources, access to data, etc.). Pick and choose elements of the template that are feasible for your program and center given staff capacity. You may even do pieces on a quarterly or semester basis, producing a comprehensive analysis over time.