School:George Fox University

Overview

George Fox University has a community that is ready to encourage an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset. Unfortunately, much of the infrastructure to allow students, faculty, and community members to explore their ideas does not yet exist.

Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship

George Fox University promotes many opportunites for students to discover innovation and entrepreneurship. This is mainly done through classes that encourage innovative thinking through projects. These are classes like Engineering Principles, which is two parts, each part consisting of a end of semester project with an open ended way to solve a problem; Microprocessors, where students are allowed to design a completely custom circuit board that does whatever they want as long as they meet a few requirements; and Cost Accounting, where _________. George Fox University also has the abilty to easily promote any innovation and entrepreneur miindedness through their many communication channels such as the "Daily Bruin" or the "George Fox Journal".

Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship

George Fox faculty do not conduct as much research as most universities because George Fox encourages its faculty to focus on students and on teaching effectively. In order to advance at George Fox as a faculty member, you need to show quality teaching and some form of continuing scholarship, where scholarship is an article in a peer-reviewed journal or at a conference.  In general, George Fox does not promote faculty innovation and entrepreneurship independent from publishing in a peer-reviewed journal.  That said, the College of Engineering does provide support to do any innovation, but there is still a need to tie it to publishing in order to advance as a faculty member.

Actively supporting the university technology transfer function

Unfortunately, George Fox University has no technology transfer office or any means of aiding students in connecting with industry to share new ideas. 

Facilitating University-Industry Collaboration

Regarding university-industry collaboration, many connections exist for George Fox University. Several industries are on advisory boards and regularly attend career fairs. These are businesses like A-Dec, Legacy Health, and Nike, to name a few. The engineering program also has close relations with industry through Senior Design projects where senior engineers design a product to be used in industry.

Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts

Despite our close ties with local industries, George Fox University makes a minimal effort to benefit the community economically. At the beginning of the year, students receive a 'coupon card' with various discounts that students can use at local shops and restaurants, but the focus of this is to plug students into the community, and not necessarily to benefit the local economic development efforts. 

The Landscape Canvas 

Landscape Canvas Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SoSWsbduc8VI0wryYsq4mbaLvyNYSo_S3NxxCJSOWek/edit?usp=sharing

Landscape Canvas Slidedeck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K62eRnedlxEh6eeS__JK5NUa6Yp6vsluTQeqqi2KP4o/edit?usp=sharing

Related Links

George_Fox_University_Student_Priorities

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