The World of the University
Hands on Experience

The role of service in faculty responsibilities can vary among colleges and universities. At some schools, service plays a major role in the work of a professor, while at other institutions service constitutes a minor part of the traditional triad of “research-teaching-service.” Furthermore, how “service” gets accounted for can also vary. At some schools, service mainly consists of serving on department, college, or university committees. That is, service relates to the operation and functioning of the institution. At other schools, service also can include taking one’s scholarly expertise into the surrounding community. Often referred to as “civic engagement,” this type of service connects academic work with community needs. “Service-learning” occurs when students in a course are involved in a civic project and the engagement activity reinforces concepts covered in the course. For some faculty, service to the profession can also play a major role in their overall responsibilities.

The objective of the community service experience in F2P2 is to explore the role of faculty outside of the classroom through a committed involvement. Participants can choose to fulfill this requirement by concentrating in one of the three areas of service:

1. Service to the university community: The activity should allow the participant to learn and make a contribution to the university outside of his/her normal teaching and research duties in his/her discipline. The community service experience need not take place on campus, but it must be directly involved with some university unit. Examples of appropriate activities include working with student organizations, assisting an administrative unit, serving on a committee in a leadership role, addressing a departmental need, or arranging public forums on university-related issues.

2. Service to the broader community: The activity should allow the participant to use his/her scholarly expertise in the surrounding community and should meet a real community need. Examples include: English and education participants tutoring in literacy programs, science participants volunteering to work with Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science, foreign language participants talking about culture and language to community or school groups, religion participants speaking to a group about an area of scholarly religious expertise. Helpful sources of information to get ideas and to get connected with community groups include:

• The Office of Active Citizenship and Service;
• Vanderbilt's Engagement, a website created and maintained by the Office of Community, Neighborhood, and Government Relations;
• Associate Provost for Service-Learning for information on service-learning courses;
• Other university web sites, such as the one on civic engagement at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis.

3. Service to the professional community: The activity should allow the participant to contribute to his/her professional discipline by assuming a leadership role or serving on a committee in a professional organization.

General guidelines for the Community Service project:

• Need not take place on campus,
• Should include at least 10 hours of service,
• Should not be part of a paid position (however, an honorarium can be accepted) .

Use these prompts to shape and plan your Community Service experience:

1. What do I hope to learn from the experience?
2. What will be my specific role/duties?
3. What do I hope to make of the experience for others (contributions)?
4. What other individuals would I like to work with?
5. What personal/professional objective do I hope to achieve?
6. How do I plan to apply this experience?
7. What role other than student/teacher will I assume in this experience?
8. How will this experience contribute to my development as a teacher, scholar, and member of the community?

In the F2P2 notebook, include the following:

• 1-page summary of the Community Service project (may be posted on the F2P2 website as model for other participants) ,
• Form 2: Event Attendance Form.