PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS - PEP AT MICHIGANS SCHOOL-OF-INFORMATION

The School of Information at the University of Michigan has adopted a bold interdisciplinary curriculum focused on creating a new discipline . Two of the program's central tenets hold that students will learn th e practice of the new discipline in real-world activities and that fac ulty must also establish firm links between their research and the com munities which ultimately benefit. Therefore, the School's Practical E ngagement Program is developing models which will sustain and foster p ractice-integration. This article lays out the models and identifies t he anticipated challenges.