| Above: Sociology instructor Peggy Miller (left)
works with UMC students (from left) Justin Jetty, Richie Jaehning,
UMC Chancellor Don Sargeant, and Ashley Braaten to prepare and
serve a meal at the “Care and Share” in Crookston.
Below: A UMC students explains horsemanship to local children. |
- Posted 02/19/2001
Contact: Andrew Svec, 218-281-8435
Civic Responsibility Runs Through UMC Curriculum
A new focus on civic responsibility and service learning finds Minnesota colleges and universities catching up to a trend already embraced by students, faculty, and staff at the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC). Last spring at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Campus Compact, leaders from 47 colleges and universities—including UMC Chancellor Don Sargeant—officially signed on to the Presidents' Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education. This made Minnesota the state where the largest number of college and university presidents have become signatories.
The declaration lays out a bold vision of institutional engagement with community and public affairs. Nationally, more than 660 colleges and universities in 22 states have signed on to the compact. According to the declaration, colleges and universities “have a fundamental task to renew our role as agents of our democracy. This task is both urgent and long-term. There is growing evidence of disengagement of many Americans from the communal life of our society, in general, and from the responsibilities of democracy in particular. We share a special concern about the disengagement of college students from democratic participation. . . We can think of no nobler task than committing ourselves to helping catalyze and lead a national movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education.”
For UMC, a focus on civic responsibility and service learning is nothing new. The campus made a strong commitment to civic engagement in 1996, with the hiring of Pam Holsinger-Fuchs as director of student activities and service learning. In addition to the traditional responsibilities of working with students to provide educational and entertainment programming, she was charged with involving students and faculty in various service learning projects in the community.
From humble beginnings and a handful of community projects in the fall of 1996, UMC’s service learning program has grown to over 40 projects involving more than 500 UMC students—and that’s just for this past fall semester. The program even received recognition from Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura in 1999, when UMC’s service learning initiative was honored as a “Star Program” at the Minnesota Services Recognition Day.
A distinction between service learning and community service is important. Holsinger-Fuchs wants to break the preconceived notion that service learning is little more than having UMC students pick up roadside trash or perform similar community service activities. “The goal of service learning,” she states, “is to connect UMC students to the larger community by involving them in activities that are directly tied to their majors or their courses. It’s a way for students to gain real experience by taking concepts and theories they learn in class and applying them to volunteer projects that really help the community.”
A small sampling of
service learning projects finds UMC students involved in a wide array of
activities. Horticulture
students have designed a landscape plan for a local non-profit
organization. Equine industries management students have presented
horsemanship clinics for local 4-H clubs.
Marketing students have brainstormed marketing ideas for local
businesses. 
Sport and
recreation management students have worked with junior high students to
improve their volleyball skills. INM
students have created web pages for various organizations.
Natural resources students have collected prairie seeds and have
conducted a bird census at Rydell Wildlife Area.
And ag systems management students have built a storage shed for
the UMC Early Childhood Development Center.
Holsinger-Fuchs states, “Developing a student’s sense of civic responsibility and encouraging service learning is very important. Students learn about issues such as homelessness, but so what? What’s the next step? By having to do an actual project that is real, students reflect on the issue and develop a better understanding. It’s a true win-win situation.”
One such project actually involves the homeless. Each semester Peggy Miller, a UMC sociology instructor, requires that students in her sociology classes volunteer to help prepare and serve food for one night at the “Care and Share,” a local shelter. “So often,” says Miller, “we’re not aware of anything outside our own little world, but larger social issues do impact us on a daily basis.” By requiring the students to volunteer at the shelter, Miller says she can illustrate sociological theories such as social stratification and class systems and she can help break social and racial stereotypes.
Excerpts from the journals that Miller asks her students to keep reflect a developing sense of civic responsibility. One student wrote, “I learned two things from this experience. First, pity does not help anyone; doing something does. Second, I could just as easily be eating there [at the shelter] as serving. People are people, and I don’t know what puts others is a certain position until I find out.” Another student wrote, “I feel that helping others like this really does enhance your lifelong learning process.”
Another common result from the experience is an increased willingness to continue to volunteer. Miller says, “Mainly, the students are reluctant to get involved because they are afraid of the unknown and because they only know the media stereotypes of the homeless. Volunteering helps them see through that. So many of my students continue to volunteer or find other ways to become involved in the community. They really start to make connections to the community.”
As more colleges and universities begin to follow suit and incorporate projects like Miller’s into their curricula, it won’t be surprising to find stronger ties among colleges, students, and their local communities. And, as UMC Chancellor Don Sargeant states, “That’s the whole point of civic engagement, isn’t it?”
Editor’s note: For the full text of the Presidents' Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education, refer to the website www.compact.org/resources/plc-main.html .
Also refer to the U of Minnesota Civic Engagement Task Force Website, http://www1.umn.edu/civic/ and UMC's Service Learning Website, http://www.umcrookston.edu/people/services/serve-learn/index.htm .
Students in ASM 1034 “Facility
Maintenance and Safety” built a storage shed for the Early Childhood
Development Center. Pictured
from left to right are: Marilyn
Grave, Program Manager for Early Childhood Education; Kent Freberg,
Director of Facilities Management; Paul Aakre, Assistant
Professor of Mechanized Agriculture; and students Kyle Smith,
Lloyd Stephens, Anthony Lorentz, Kimberly Stennes, Gregory Read, Angela
Pommering, Jason Bennefeld, Brian Larson, and Adam Sletten.