Chancellor Nasser H. Paydar presented an IUPUI 50th Anniversary Chancellor’s Medallion to Robert G. Bringle, Executive Director of the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning and Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus, on April 9, 2019, during the annual Bringle and Hatcher Civic Engagement Showcase. The award honors Bringle’s pioneering leadership in laying the groundwork for IUPUI’s expansion of service learning courses and in establishing the environment wherein the campus earned national recognition.
During Bringle’s tenure as director from 1994 to 2012, the IUPUI Center for Service Learning developed a number of new programs and initiatives, including a curriculum for faculty development, the Community Service Scholars program, an America Reads tutoring program, and a HUD Community Outreach Partnership Center. In 2002, the IUPUI service learning program was ranked 8th best in the nation among all colleges and universities and has been listed among the best programs every year since. IUPUI received a Presidential Award in 2006 as part of the first President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. IUPUI was also among the first cohort of campuses to receive the Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2006 — the gold standard for the field — and was reclassified in 2015.
Bringle’s legacy lives on at IUPUI through the annual Bringle and Hatcher Civic Engagement Showcase, which brings together faculty, students and partners to honor and recognize the broad impact IUPUI’s diverse community service and engagement activities.
Bringle was awarded the School of Science Teaching Award in 1994, the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning in 1998, and the IUPUI Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003. In 2004, he was recognized at the 4th Annual International Service-Learning Research Conference for his outstanding contributions to the field. Bringle has published six books on the educational outcomes of service learning, the institutionalization of community service, and the assessment and measurement of that engagement.