President Skorton has declared the 2005-2006 academic year the "Year of Public Engagement." During this year, the University community will be encouraged to intensify its efforts and sharpen its focus on engagement with the public and public issues at the local, state, national, and international levels. The Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities describes “engaged” public institutions as those that go beyond traditional notions of outreach and service to become “even more sympathetically and productively involved with their communities, however community may be defined.” Such institutions commit themselves to a “tri-partite mission of learning, discovery, and engagement in the public interest.”

—From the Case Statement for the Year of Public Engagement