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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";
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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.
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