The first phase of Memorial’s Public Engagement Framework has come to an end. The Office of Public Engagement has just completed a comprehensive evaluation of how well it achieved its goals, and how the Framework has affected public engagement at Memorial, more generally.

While results suggest that support for PE is strong at Memorial (over 85% of surveyed faculty and staff said there is a high need), the evaluation also highlighted a number of areas that need to be improved, including the recognition of public engagement activities, workload challenges related to this type of work, and the need for more resources and supports to make it happen.

We also spoke with organizations that have partnered with Memorial in the past: they reported a range of experiences but mostly agreed that our university plays a crucial role in this province. Their insights suggest plenty of strengths, but also ways that we could do better.

Please join host, Dr. Rob Greenwood, AVP (Public Engagement and External Relations) as he leads a dialogue featuring some of the people who participated in the development of the original framework and the evaluation process, discussing how we designed the evaluation, what we heard (good and bad) and how we’ll be using those results to inform the next phase of Memorial’s public engagement strategy.

Panelists:

• Dr. Janna Rosales, Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Memorial University
• Robert Nolan, CEO, Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador
• Peter Parker, Evaluation Specialist
• Rebecca Cohoe, Manager (Public Engagement), Office of Public Engagement, Memorial University