Survey Shows Increasing Civic Engagement on Campus

Campus Compact, the national organization dedicated to service learning and the cosponsor with AAC&U of the Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement, recently released the results of its 2004 membership survey. Statistics from the survey indicate that opportunities for service and institutional support for civic engagement are widespread and on the rise. At the 935 institutions that were members of Campus Compact during the 2003-4 academic year, an average of more than 30 percent of students engaged in service. Moreover, trend data from the smaller pool of schools that have responded to the membership survey since 2001 show that the percentage of students involved in service is growing. Similarly positive trends emerge from data about the availability of service-learning courses, with nearly 100 percent of institutions now offering such courses. Together, according to Campus Compact, data from the survey “give us a new model for higher education—the engaged campus—committed to educating students for responsible citizenship in ways that both deepen their leaning and improve the quality of community life.”

FINDINGS

Civic Engagement at Campus Compact Schools

• More than 30 percent of students at Campus Compact member schools engage in service, averaging four hours a week.
• A large majority of Campus Compact member campuses include service and/or civic engagement in their mission statement (89 percent) or strategic plan (84 percent).
• Ninety-eight percent of member campuses report having at least one campus-community partnership.
• Both service programs and support infrastructure have increased over the past five years, and trend data show that rates of student involvement in service have risen from 33 percent in 2001 to 40 percent in 2004 at schools that have responded to the survey each year.

Service Learning in the Curriculum

• Ninety-eight percent of member campuses report that their institution offers service-learning courses, with an average of 31 courses per campus.
• Sixty-nine percent of member campuses offer discipline-based service-learning courses, 56 percent offer first-year experience service opportunities, and 39 percent offer capstone courses.
• Ninety-seven percent of students who are involved in service-learning activities participate in a formal process of reflection on their service/civic engagement experiences.
• Providing a formal evaluation of the experience (92 percent), conducting classroom presentations (86 percent), participating in regular class discussions (86 percent), and performing daily or weekly journaling assignments (85 percent) are the most common ways that students reflect on their service experiences.
• Seventy-seven percent of institutions offer faculty development workshops to support service learning, and 76 percent assist faculty by making curriculum models or syllabi available.
  

For the full survey results, visit Campus Compact’s 2004 Service Statistics Web page.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The total estimated value of service contributed to communities by students at all Campus Compact member schools is $4.45 billion a year.
• Eighty-three percent of institutions report rewarding community-based research or service learning in faculty review, tenure, and/or promotions.
• Eighty-three percent of institutions report having at least one staff member specifically dedicated to coordinating service, service-learning, and/or civic engagement activities and programs.