The Source:  Winter 1999 Newsletter

Contents


UCLA Hosts Service-Learning Symposium
 Taking Stock Of Where We Are - Identifying Where We Need To Go
              On October 23, 1999, thirty one invited participants, primarily higher education service learning practitioners, faculty and researchers, gathered at UCLA for a two day meeting hosted by the UCLA Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project.   

             Symposium participants engaged in a stimulating discussion of the service-learning needs in higher education, focused around three areas: Faculty Issues, Research and Assessment, and K-12/Higher Education Linkages. These areas were identified as critical needs by respondents to the 1998 needs assessment survey conducted by the UCLA Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project staff .  The symposium included panel discussions and small working groups. (A detailed summary of the symposium will be available soon on our website.) Based on the panel presentations and group discussions, participants identified a series of "priorities" for the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC). These priorities are grouped under major headings below:  

Harold Levine ( Professor and Co-Principal Investigator, UCLA Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project ) addressing UCLA Service-Learning Symposium participants.

 

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) Priorities for Higher Education

Gather and Disseminate Information On:

  • Efforts to institutionalize service learning
  • Available research and evaluation
  • Engaging the community in service learning

Coalition Building and Collaboration: 
  • Identify gaps in services and in resources available to the service-learning field
  • Develop a web-based "road map" of the resources available to the service-learning field

Collaborating with Colleagues at the UCLA Service-Learning Symposium

Richard Couto(Professor, University of Richmond) and Janet Eyler (Professor, Vanderbilt University )   Edward Zlotkowski (Professor, Bentley College) and David Ray (United Negro College Fund, Inc)

 

Where Do We Go From Here?

        The UCLA Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project staff have identified a series of "action steps" based on the conversations that took place at the Symposium:

  • Contact Learn and Serve America higher education grantees and subgrantees in order to gather information on faculty engagement, successful service-learning programs, and evaluation and assessment practices. This information will be compiled and made accessible to others via listservs, websites, newsletters and conference presentations. 
  • Gather and disseminate service learning research via listservs, websites, newsletters and conference presentations.
  • Gather information on how service-learning or community service requirements (statewide and university specific) are being implemented in universities and states across the nation. This information will be analyzed and made accessible to others via listservs, websites, newsletters and conference presentations.
  • Continue the Service-Learning Clearinghouse efforts to collaborate and coordinate activities with other service-learning professionals and organizations in the higher education field (Campus Compact, NSEE, AAHE, AACC, etc.). 
          The staff of the UCLA Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project would like to express its gratitude to the Corporation for National Service and to the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse for providing the funding for this important gathering. We would also like to thank all of the symposium participants for their significant contributions to this meeting. 

UCLA Invitational Service-Learning Symposium 

       Below is the list of those that attended the symposium that was held on October 23-25,  1999, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Alexander Astin 
 PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – 
LOS ANGELES 
 Amy Cohen 
 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CORPORATION FOR 
NATIONAL SERVICE 
 Andrew Furco 
 PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA –BERKELEY 
 Bob Seidel
 SERVICE LEARNING SPECIALIST, CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL SERVICE 
 David Ray
 DIRECTOR SERVICE LEARNING NETWORK, UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND, INC. 
 Dwight E. Giles, Jr. 
 PROFESSOR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 
 Edward Zlotkowski
 PROFESSOR, BENTLEY COLLEGE 
 Elaine Ikeda
 PROJECT DIRECTOR , UNIVERSITY OF 
CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES
Gail Robinson
 COORDINATOR, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES 
 Gerald Eisman 
 PROFESSOR, SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
 Harold Levine
 PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES 
 Helen Astin 
 PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – 
LOS ANGELES 
 Jackie Schmidt-Posner 
 DIRECTOR OF SERVICE-LEARNING , STANFORD UNIVERSITY 
 Janet Eyler 
 PROFESSOR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 
 Jennifer Yee
 RESEARCH ANALYST, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES 
 Jimmie Lou DeBakey 
 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SOCIETY 
FOR EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION 
 Jodi Raybuck
 PROGRAM COORDINATOR, CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL SERVICE 
 Joost Yff 
 SENIOR PROJECT DIRECTOR, AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION 
 Kara Conners 
 HEALTH ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY- 
CAMPUS PARTNERSHIPS FOR HEALTH 
 Kerri Heffernan 
 PROJECT ASSOCIATE, CAMPUS COMPACT
OF COLLEGES FOR TEACHER EDUCATION
 Kevin Kecskes
 PROJECT DIRECTOR, WESTERN REGION CAMPUS COMPACT CONSORTIUM 
 Kim Johnson-Bogart 
 ASSISTANT DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 
 Lori Vogelgesang 
 RESEARCH ANALYST, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES 
Louis Albert 
 VICE CHANCELLOR, SAN JOSE/EVERGREEN 
COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 
 Marilyn Smith
 DIRECTOR – DEPT. OF SERVICE LEARNING, 
CORPERATION FOR NATIONAL SERVICE 
 Maryann Gray 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, - LOS ANGELES 
 Richard Couto 
 PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND 
 Rachel Delgadillo 
 RESEARCH ANALYST, UNIVERSITY OF 
CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES 
 Rob Shumer 
 DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SERVICE-LEARNING 
CLEARINGHOUSE 


Continuums of Service: Building Ethics of Service in Campus Communities
By Kevin Kecskes

     If your charge was to simultaneously support 44 institutions of higher learning--spanning over 3000 miles and crossing the Pacific Ocean--in their attempts to institutionalize service-learning on their campuses, then you might be working with the Western Region Campus Compact Consortium (WRCCC) Continuums of Service program. Over one hundred higher education institutions and nearly one-half million community members and students are positively impacted by the Continuums program annually. Despite the apparent complexity of the task, four simple principles have guided the way: respect, strategic thinking, integrated approach, and collaboration. But first a little context.

         In the summer of 1997, the Corporation for National Service funded Western Washington University/Washington Campus Compact, under the leadership of President Karen Morse, to coordinate the efforts of the Continuums of Service program. Unique to the program was a four-state delivery system, known as the WRCCC, led by the Campus Compact executive directors from California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. Continuums has a straightforward mission: support the institutionalization of service-learning in higher education in the Western region; and two broad programmatic aspects: oversee subgrants to regional universities and colleges, and provide technical assistance through the substantial state-based infrastructure of the Compacts. The 3rd annual western regional service-learning conference, to be held at the University of Washington, in Seattle, April 12-14, 2000 is an example of the latter.

Respect
        This first principle, respect, undergirds and informs all other principles and is based on a simple belief: each institution has a unique climate and culture, and that the dedicated practitioners at each institution know best how to "get things done." Thus, there is no need for Continuums staff to be proscriptive, indeed, that would be counterproductive. Rather, subgrantees are provided broad guidelines and then supported in the implementation of campus-based action plans that they devise and assess throughout the three-year grant process.

Strategic Thinking
      To support strategic thinking, Continuums staff developed a one-page process tool, known as the Self-Assessment Benchmark Worksheet, to assist campus-based service-learning advisory committees to take stock of their past and current service-learning integration efforts in four general areas: faculty, student, institution, and evaluation. This reflective process provided institutional leaders with a broad-picture view of areas of past successes and a map for developing strategic one-to-three year objectives. 

Integrated Approach
       Once a subgranting institution self-determined areas of service-learning institutionalization that would benefit from focused attention, they then determined both institutionalization and dissemination objectives and went to work. Semi-annual reports require subgrantees to analyze their efforts and report what has and has not worked well. "Best practices" data are compiled, and analysis of subgranting institutions' movement along the continuum of service is performed annually by Dr. Andrew Furco, Director of the Service-Learning Research and Development Center at the University of California at Berkeley. After two years, many institutions have shown remarkable movement forward.

Collaboration
        Collaboration has been a hallmark of the Continuums of Service program. Starting with initial program conceptualization and dialogue between the executive directors from CA, HI, OR, WA, and their constituents, and continuing through substantial efforts to be inclusive in design and delivery of the annual regional conference, the inter-state efforts have benefited greatly from the diverse perspectives of its participants. Operationally, program staff try to focus more on listening and learning, on accepting institutions where they are, on trying to understand the challenges they face, and on supporting them in their developmental and strategic community-campus plans. Therefore, when subgrantee implementation plans inevitably change, or when quick information is needed to support a specific campus initiative, Continuums of Service program staff ask "why not," rather than "why." Over time, collaboration becomes palpable and is based on mutual respect and benefit, trust, hard work, and on an ever-deepening understanding of complex processes. 

         In closing, the structure is simple: provide user-friendly assessment tools, invite campus-community teams to strategically devise action plans, provide funding to assist implementation, annually re-evaluate using consistent assessment tools, respectfully support campus-community teams in their worthy efforts, and bring constituents together annually to celebrate, integrate, collaborate, and think deeply and creatively about how to move ahead to the next stage. The outcomes have exceeded expectations; the sense of "regional community" continues to grow. Together, we are all moving forward.

 

 

Western Region 
Campus Compact Consortium 
Continuums of Service 
Subgranting Partners

California 

  • CSU Bakersfield 
  • CSU Fresno 
  • CSU Fullerton 
  • CSU Humboldt 
  • CSU Long Beach 
  • CSU Monterey Bay 
  • CSU Northridge 
  • CSU Sacramento 
  • CSU San Francisco 
  • CSU San Jose 
  • CSU San Luis Obispo (Polytechnic) 
  • CSU San Marcos 
  • UC Berkeley 
  • College of the Canyons 
  • Mira Costa Community College 
  • Azusa Pacific University 
  • City College of San Francisco 
  • Claremont McKenna College 
  • Foothill College 
  • Pitzer College 
  • University of San Diego
  • University of San Francisco
Hawaii
  • Chaminade University
  • Hawaii Community College
  • Honolulu Community College
  • Kapinlani Community College
  • Leeward Community College
  • University of Hawaii at Manoa
  • Windward Community College
Oregon
  • Lewis and Clark College
  • Portland Community College
  • Reed College
  • University of Portland
  • Willamette University
Washington 
  • Eastern Washington University
  • Central Washington University
  • Gonzaga University
  • North Seattle Community College
  • Skagit Valley College
  • Walla Walla College
  • Washington State University
  • Western Washington University
  • Whitworth College

 

 

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