University Business - June 2008 - (Page 64)

Getting Serious About Service For many schools, an increased commitment to community service fits the student body, curriculum, and neighborhood. By Ron Schachter HE SMALL AND UNDISTINGUISHED GATEWAY curricula to those activities. “There is an unapologetic push on the academic and cultural Plaza—with its hair salon, costume jewelry shop, Big Time Wholesale Store, and local branch of DeKalb Technical level to focus on service learning,” observes Rob Frankel, The PrincCollege—is just miles away from the stately grey and beige stone eton Review’s vice president of publishing. “Over the past decade, there’s been an absolute shift from the curriculum oﬀerings and exbuildings and grassy quadrangles of Emory University in Atlanta. Inside the DeKalb Tech building, almost 22 diﬀerent foreign tracurricular activities at colleges and universities.” Campus Compact—an organization founded at Brown more ﬂags hang over a comfortable reception area near a “Welcome to Our School” poster that repeats the message in 22 languages, from than two decades ago to encourage college students to become more Albanian to Hmong. “We’re in the heart of immigrant Atlanta. Sev- active citizens—reports a 60 percent increase in service participation enty percent of the immigrants coming to Georgia come here,” says over the last ﬁve years, and more than $7 billion worth of volunteer Michael Rich, an associate professor of political science at Emory. work coming out of its nearly 1,100 member schools annually. “More students are doing service because they ﬁrmly believe that Rich also directs Emory’s Oﬃce of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP), which coordinates undergraduate volunteers here collective action is the best way to get out there and accomplish something,” explains Campus Compact President Maureen Curley, who tutor recently arrived immigrants in the English language. Emory students do the same at four other locations around At- who says that 98 percent of Campus Compact schools now oﬀer lanta. Others roll up their sleeves to work with Habitat for Humanity service learning courses, and that 86 percent have created their own and almost 300 local nonproﬁts that mentor refugee children, work community service or service learning oﬃces. “I come from that generawith the juvenile courts, and Making service learning ‘a compulsory tion that didn’t participate. teach conﬂict resolution to part of the curriculum was a savvy move by Back in the 1980s and ’90s, fourth- and ﬁfth-graders. But these initiatives represchools that realized that summer semesters it was about the ‘Me Generation,’ ” adds Vincent Ilustre, sent just the tip of the iceberg or senior internships were not enough executive director of the Cenhere and at colleges and unito satisfy today’s student body.’ ter for Public Service at Tuversities across the country, —Rob Frankel, The Princeton Review lane University (La.).“Now where community-based serthere’s a renaissance of wantvice programs, curricula, and ing to be involved.” And while undergrads are still attracted to causes research have grown to titanic proportions over the past decade. Emory was recognized two years ago as an “Engaged Institu- such as protecting the environment and tutoring at-risk students, tion” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach- their horizon has broadened. They are making inroads into urban ing in its newly created roster of 76 schools that place a heightened planning, immigrant services, and public health, to name a few. emphasis on community service. The Princeton Review, famous for its guides to higher education, has published its own list of 81 Col- Action in Atlanta leges with a Conscience, selected for the breadth of their community Emory’s OUCP, which opened in 2000, has become a busy partner service opportunities and “service learning” courses that tie their with Atlanta’s nonproﬁts and city agencies, oﬀering a gateway to 64 | June 2008 universitybusiness.com T Photo: Robert McNary http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - June 2008

University Business - June 2008
Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
People Watch
Endowment Management
Viewpoint
On the Hill
Future Shock
2008 Annual Directory of Higher Education Consultants
Independent Outlook
Sense of Place
Cover Story - History in the Making
Getting Serious About Service
Sustainability and Energy Management
Internet Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
End Note

University Business - June 2008