PULLMAN – The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) honored WSU today with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.
“As a land-grant institution, community engagement is central to our mission,” said WSU President Elson S. Floyd. “To be successful as a university, our students, faculty and staff must be actively involved in the life of our state. This recognition is a significant endorsement of the Center for Civic Engagement’s efforts and their vision, and we greatly appreciate it.”
Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.
On the heels of being honored by the Carnegie Foundation with the Community Engagement Classification in December 2008, this honor recognizes WSU for leadership and innovation in service learning, student civic engagement and campus-community partnerships.
The WSU application was submitted by the Center for Civic Engagement, a Pullman campus organization that offers students, faculty and community partners opportunities to share knowledge, skills and resources for the benefit of student learning and the wellbeing of our communities.
“In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges,” said Stephen Goldsmith, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the CNCS, which oversees the Honor Roll.
“We salute Washington State University for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others,” he said.
CNCS honored 546 schools as Honor Roll members. In addition, six schools received Presidential Awards and 83 were named as Honor Roll with Distinction members. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
The Honor Roll is a program of the CNCS, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.
Recent studies have underlined the importance of service-learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the Corporation’s Volunteering in America 2007 study. Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger initiative to spur higher levels of volunteering by America’s college students.
CNCS is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. The Corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, a program that supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations. For more information, go to www.nationalservice.gov.
For more information about the WSU Center for Civic Engagement, visit http://cce.wsu.edu/.
