California State University's
Commitment to
Community Service and Service-Learning
California State University, Fresno, is committed to the being the premier regional interactive university. We are committed to serving our community through a variety of means, including many high quality community service initiatives. It is our belief that community service and service-learning provides significant benefits to the students, the not-for-profit sector, and to the general community.
Some of the reasons we are committed to community service and service-learning programs include:
Research, including extensive work by Alexander Astin, and faculty experience demonstrate that service-learning enhances student understanding of their course discipline and is one of the most powerful tools available for helping our students develop personally, professionally and academically; Research has further shown that students from all backgrounds, especially those from non-traditional or disadvantaged groups, commonly gain the most from service experiences;
The "Plan for the '90s" envisions our university as the "premier regional interactive university" in which the campus is "singularly unified with its community". The Plan sites several strategic directions for the university to achieve its Vision and Mission. Included is an emphasis on "encouraging student involvement in their own education through internships, cooperative education, community service experience, and related activities".
A primary goal listed in our university's newly adopted "Vision for the 21st Century: A Plan for Excellence" states that our university will "work towards integrating a significant service-learning component into the educational experience of each student." The Academic Programs Task Force also recommended that the university "engage in a major effort to improve teaching of students through the use of new technologies, internships, cooperative education, community service experience and related activities";
The Board of Directors of the American Association for Higher Education states that higher education has "two great tasks: improving the quality of instruction, and becoming more engaged as 'part of the solution' in addressing America's many problems";
The CSU Cornerstones document, a guiding document for the entire CSU system, specifically states that it should be a goal of the system to insure that each student be engaged in a community service-learning experience prior to graduation.
For these reasons, and many others, the university will continue to foster meaningful community service and service-learning programs that benefit our students, our university and our community.