Element 5D: Modeling Best Professional Practices in Service
Consistent with the University's mission statement and guidelines for tenure and promotion (Exhibits S5-6 and S5-7, respectively), service is a priority for faculty. Faculty service includes activity at international, national, and local community levels within P-12 schools, within the university, the unit, and the departments. Where faculty service activities are part of various partnerships with P-12 schools they can also be considered collaborative activities. Faculty involvement in the Model sites (addressed in Standard 3) and faculty involvement in on-site professional development are examples of service activities that stem from collaboration. Many faculty members are actively engaged in leadership positions within their respective professional associations, advisory boards, task forces, and as consultants to public schools or state education agencies.

Table 5-8 offers a listing of the number of service activities engaged in by the faculty, again broken down by department and initial/advanced programs, in the University (membership on University committees), schools and districts (numbers based on number of schools provided service per year), and professional associations at the local, state, or national level.  The number of asterisks indicates the number of faculty in that program who have assumed a leadership role in the University, schools/communities or the professional associations.   These leadership roles have been within highly-regarded organizations, such as the International Reading Association, the National Association of Physical Education and Health Education, the American Colleges of Sports Medicine,  the Early Childhood Association, and the  Long Island Hearing Association.  University leadership, for example, has included two faculty members as Dean, one as Vice-Provost and two as Chair of the Faculty Senate.

*Advanced Program
† = Leadership Position(s)

Over 80 percent of the full-time faculty members are active members of professional associations.  And over 55 percent have provided service to schools, a relatively high figure given that at least a dozen of the full-time faculty are in disciplines that do not involve school-based experience (for example, faculty in sports management, audiology, and communication disorders). 

Internationally, the unit has demonstrated its commitment to diversity as outlined in the Conceptual Framework.  At least ten of the full-time faculty are from and/or have taught in other countries (such as Kenya, South Africa, Russia, India, Taiwan and Mexico).  Several other faculty have studied educational issues abroad, including mathematics learning in Africa, through scholarship support.  And many of the faculty are deeply involved in more local settings with diverse populations, such as the Shinnecock Indians on Long Island and immigrant students in New York City.