Board leads 'U' service projects

What do First Lady Michelle Engler, University Regent Olivia Maynard and LSA senior Mona Hanna have in common? Along with 17 other faculty and community members, and one other student, they comprise the new national board of the University's Center for Learning through Community Service.

The Center, located at the corner of Hill Street and East University Avenue, houses numerous community service-oriented groups on campus. The Center's three governance structures include the national board, the faculty council and the campus community committee.

Board members say they hope to draw on the University's 175 years of commitment to community service by bringing students, faculty and community members together under one roof.

"What's new about the Center is that it is an effort to approach the idea of service in a campuswide way, in a balance team approach" said Barry Checkoway, the Center's director and a professor of social work and urban planning.

The Center will strive to engage both students and faculty in ways that enhance and promote citizen participation, he said.

Board members said their immediate goals are to establish the mission of the Center and raise the necessary funds to maintain the site. As the Center grows, the board plans to develop a strong base of resources that will eventually enable the University's Center to rival such prominent community service umbrella organizations as Stanford University's HAAS Center and Brown University's Swearer Center.

Along with these general goals, members bring to the board their unique backgrounds and concerns.

"When I was in college, I worked on a Navajo reservation," said Mayard, who is a graduate of the University's School of Social Work.

"I've experienced what this kind of service learning can do, and it's even better when there is University support so that people with good ideas have a place to apply for dollars to put those ideas to work," she said.

Both student representatives on the board, Hanna and Public Policy and Social Work graduate student Alicia Wilson, said they are optimistic about the board's potential.

"If you look at the members, it is truly an amazing national board, made up of wonderful people who do community service," said Hanna, who chairs the MSA Environment Issues Commission. Hanna said she hopes to bring her background of both service and activism to the board.

Wilson said she recognizes the "ability of the Center as a central body to garner resources," but she hopes to serve as an "eye for diversity" on the board so that many of the smaller, lesser-known service groups get the support they deserve.

Wilson also stressed the importance of the space as an opportunity for exchange between student-run programs and academic research.

As minorities on the board, both Hanna and Wilson identified getting more student representation as one of their priorities when the board expands.

"While we have both an undergraduate student and a graduate student on the board, at our last meeting the indication was to have some of the new board members be students," Wilson said. Both she and Hanna plan to work to keep the Center as student-driven as possible, she said.

The Center provides space for many student service organizations including the student-run Project Serve program as well as the national initiatives of AmeriCorps and America Reads. Project Community, a program offering credit to students for specific service work through the Sociology department, also has offices at the Center.

Additionally, the Center provides meeting space to any campus community service organization and it offers technological and financial support to several small start-up student service groups who applied for space in the third floor "incubation room."

The Center is also home to the "Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning," a unique annual publication exploring the role of service in academia through peer-reviewed research articles.

University alumnus Sanjay Patel, a full-time staff member in the Project Serve office said he is happy about the opening of the new Center.

"In the past there was no way to connect student groups on campus," Patel said

"The Center has the potential to work well, if we can use each other's resources," he said, emphasizing that any student service group is "welcome to come use our space."

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