Universities Power Up For Public Service

A powerful movement is steadily building momentum at major universities across the country. It is not the widespread rise of MOOCs. Nor is it the explosion of other technology advances that send students scurrying to launch startups.

Rather, this movement is seemingly more old-fashioned—the growth of major initiatives to promote civic work, sometimes known as public service, for a significant portion of the time students spend at their universities.

The early building blocks of this movement were individual courses that combine community service with academic learning. The service connects thought and feeling in a deliberate way, creating a context in which students can explore how they feel about what they are thinking, and what they think about how they feel. The interaction of academic study and community service, linked by guided reflection, offers students opportunities to consider what is important to them and why, in ways they too rarely experience otherwise.

These courses, commonly known as service-learning or community-based learning courses, have been in place for some decades. Today, it is hard to find a campus that does not offer at least a score of these classes. And many colleges have centers that support faculty who teach the courses, often coordinating with local nonprofits where students volunteer.

Service-learning courses grew out of the insights of John Dewey and others who believed that educational institutions can be powerful forces to prepare students to become knowledgeable, actively-engaged citizens of their communities. Campus Compact, a national organization that Tom Ehrlich chaired in the early 1990s, was a powerful force promoting service learning. Campus Compact now includes over 1,100 campuses and 35 state affiliates.

Today, there is a new movement that provides a wider and deeper exposure to civic work in ways that can have a longer lasting impact than a single course.

Doug McAdam studied the lives of college students who went to Mississippi as part of a project in the summer of 1964 to register black voters. He compared their lives with those of a group of men and women who had been accepted in the project, but for one reason or another, could not participate. As documented in his book Freedom Summer, he found that those who went to Mississippi for the project were more likely to engage in work that was beneficial to society than those who did not participate.

Various programs at major universities today also give promise of long-term impact on students who participate in ways that individual service-learning courses cannot replicate, although we do not suggest that these programs will have as powerful effects as the project McAdam documented.

Let’s take a look at what is going on at Duke, Tufts, and Stanford. These three universities and their programs are by no means the only examples we could cite. But they show that students are hungry to be part of something larger than themselves through public service, and their campuses are finding imaginative ways to enable them to do so.

DukeEngage at Duke University

At Duke University, a program titled DukeEngage provides full financial support, along with faculty and administrative assistance, to undergraduates who want to grapple with societal issues. Service themes include public health, education, engineering, human rights, homelessness, workforce development, among others.

Duke’s Assistant Vice Provost for Civic Engagement and Executive Director of DukeEngage, Eric Mlyn, shared with us the mission of the program: “to empower students to address critical human needs through immersive service, in the process transforming students, advancing the University’s educational mission, and providing meaningful assistance to communities in the U.S. and abroad." All undergraduates who have completed at least two semesters at Duke are eligible to participate for a summer or a semester.

Structured reflection during and after DukeEngage encourages students to contemplate how the experience shaped their identity as individuals and their lives going forward. It is an integral part of the program, and for this reason, the program is limited to students in their freshman, sophomore, or junior years who plan to return to Duke for at least a full semester after their DukeEngage experience.

Duke provides funding to cover travel and cost-of-living expenses, and also offers funding for students who receive need-based financial aid to offset what would have been the students’ earnings while they were in the program. Faculty and staff who lead DukeEngage programs receive stipends for counseling and advising the projects.

Since 2007, more than 3,200 undergraduates have participated, partnering with more than 600 communities in 69 nations around the world.

The Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University

Tufts University is unique among major universities in having an entire college dedicated to civic learning and public service—The Johnathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. The college sponsors scores of opportunities across the university, for undergraduate and graduate students to engage in public and community service opportunities. The aim of the college is to offer curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to develop the knowledge and skills they need to be active, engaged citizens. The college also supports faculty research on civic engagement, helping communities to build the capacities they require to meet their needs.

Tisch College recently launched a new program that provides students accepted as freshmen the opportunity for an innovative bridge year before starting their formal academic studies at Tufts. Students in the program engage in full-time service either in the U.S. or abroad at one of a number of sites. Each site serves as host for a small group of students who eat and live together, and, as a result, bond with each other throughout their service experience.

Cardinal Service at Stanford University

This year, Stanford University launched a campus-wide public-service initiative titled “Cardinal Service.” It reflects the words of Jane Stanford, co-founder of the university: “While the instruction offered must be such as will qualify students for personal success and direct usefulness in life, they should understand that it is offered in the hope and trust that they will become thereby of greater service to the public.”

Cardinal Service is a coordinated, campus-wide quartet of programs: Cardinal Quarter, Cardinal Courses, Cardinal Service, and Cardinal Career. The Haas Center for Public Service is the hub for the program, but schools and programs across the university sponsor and support it.

Cardinal Quarter is the first initiative. It enables students to immerse themselves in a public-service experience for an entire quarter either during the summer or the academic year. Each opportunity is vetted to ensure that the experience will have lasting impact on the values as well as knowledge and skills of the participating students. The Haas Center and other campus partners and programs, including Stanford in Washington, support 350 opportunities. Fellowship stipends are provided to cover living and transportation expenses, and also to insure accessibility for all undergraduate students.

Although the Cardinal Quarter program was launched only this year, the Haas Center reports that 407 undergraduates have already participated in quarter-long service experiences that qualify for the Cardinal Quarter designation.

Cardinal Courses is the second initiative of Cardinal Service. Students enroll in courses that apply classroom knowledge to real-world societal problems. Stanford hopes to double the number of courses offered to 150 by 2020, and they have also tagged such courses so students can easily identify them on course lists. Last year, over 900 students enrolled in these courses across 25 disciplines.

Cardinal Commitment is a third initiative. Students are encouraged to make a significant service commitment during their time in college. This may involve one of Stanford’s signature programs or over 100 student-led service groups.

Cardinal Career is the final phase of the program. Students can explore service opportunities after graduation and integrate public service into careers.

Since Cardinal Service is just being launched this year, many details remain to be worked out. But the Cardinal Service website keeps up-to-date information as this bold initiative takes shape.

President John Hennessy of Stanford writes a regular column in the bi-monthly Stanford Magazine. He devoted his column in the current issue to Cardinal Service. In it, he wrote that “The Stanford community has long been distinguished by its desire to put knowledge to use for the public good. The university is again leading the way with Cardinal Service, which builds on that tradition.” President Hennessy closed his column by quoting the words of one of Stanford’s Trustees, John Levin, a leader in the development of Cardinal Service, who expressed a vision in which Cardinal Service will become so ubiquitous that alumni returning to campus will not only ask, "Where did you study abroad?" but also "Where did you do your Cardinal Service?"

Other universities are also promoting public service, each in its own way. We view this national movement as a promising sign that future generations of students will graduate committed to a lifetime of public service as an avocation or vocation. Our democracy is much in need of their active involvement.

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