MEDILL NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL REPORT
Definitions of Community Service Vary Widely
By SCOTT LAUCK
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - The University of Missouri at Rolla, an engineering and technology school in a small town, would not seem a likely overachiever in sending students out to do paid community service. Yet the school dedicated more work-study dollars to community service in the 1999-2000 school year than the other three University of Missouri campuses - about 15 percent.

What that number doesn't show is that most of Rolla's federal work-study students never leave campus to perform their community service. Student financial assistance director Bob Whites said students work for many campus departments, ranging from the administrative office to the golf course to the financial aid office itself.

"All these qualify as community service, because the facilities serve the community," Whites said.

The Higher Education Act, which provides financial aid to students by putting them to work, is long on ideas about community service but short on specific definitions. Community service is noted as an action "designed to improve the quality of life for community residents, particularly low-income individuals, or to solve particular problems related to their needs."

The law specifically mentions health care, tutoring, crime prevention, mentoring, working with the disabled and other activities as possible community service outlets. But there is no enforcement procedure to ensure that community service projects meet federal guidelines - or to punish schools for failing to meet their obligations. In fact, a minimum amount of work-study money devoted to community service was only established in 1993.

According to a former education department official, the law was intentionally left vague, giving schools as many ways as possible to comply.

"They don't want people shirking the law, but they wanted every opportunity to be flexible," he said.

Because of the loose definition, many schools across the nation satisfy the requirement - 5 percent until last year, when it went up to 7 percent -- with programs not traditionally considered community service. Of the schools contacted for this article, library service was the most common example. At Central Christian College of the Bible, a small religious school in Moberly, Mo., more than half the work-study students work in the library, giving the college the highest percentage of compliance in the state. Edgewood College in Madison, Wis., was rated highest in Wisconsin with a similar program.

Such definitions aren't limited to small schools. At the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., officials said a broader definition of community service would probably help their ratings. Notre Dame spent 3.8 percent of its work-study money on community service, one of the lowest rates among the top 50 universities, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report.

"If any person in the South Bend Community can come to our library and use our resources, and if there's a kid working there, then they're helping the community," said Joe Russo of the schools financial aid department.

Graphics
Graphic of Best/Worst Schools

Graphic of Top 20 U.S. Schools and Their work-study percentage spent on community service

Graphic of Best States

CLICK HERE