MEDILL NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL REPORT
Mississippi Schools Below Average in Community Service Jobs
By MIKE CUMMINGS
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - Most Mississippi colleges and universities lag behind the national average in the amount of federal work-study funding they devote to paid community service.

Of the 35 schools in the state that receive federal work-study money, 25 did not meet the national average of 11.8 percent in the 1999-2000 school year, according to Department of Education statistics.

Congress established the work-study program in 1965 as part of the Higher Education Act to provide cash-strapped students with extra money through paid part-time jobs.

In 1994, the law was changed to require schools to devote at least 5 percent of work-study funds to community service jobs. That number has since been raised to 7 percent. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., are supporting legislation that would boost the requirement to 25 percent by 2010.

Last year not one Mississippi school reached 25 percent, but Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit came the closest with 23.2 percent of its work-study funds devoted to service jobs.

Dr. Oliver Young, dean of students at Southwest Mississippi, said two factors allowed the school to have the state's highest percentage.

"Our library is public so some of the students who work there are classified as community service," he said. "Also, we have the largest percentage because we have a small allocation, which makes it easy for us."

Southwest Mississippi received $49,366 in work-study funds in 1999-2000 and devoted $11,474 to community service.

By contrast, Mississippi State, which had the second highest percentage at 20.4 percent, received $1,149,610 in funding and spent $234,611 on service.

Glynn Cox, assistant director for student employment at Mississippi State, said most of the students receiving work-study benefits who perform community service work as tutors in the Starkville school system.

Cox said the school might not have a problem meeting the 25 percent goal in the McCain-Bayh legislation because more and more local elementary schools have been requesting student tutors.

The University of Southern Mississippi ranked 18th in the state, devoting 7.6 percent of its $1,046,994 work-study funding to community service.

John Wyble, director of the school's office of community service learning, said that number does not accurately reflect the amount of service happening at Southern Mississippi.

"We have plenty of students who are not getting paid for community service," he said.

While many students are not getting paid for their service work, several receive academic credit for it.

The office of community service learning seeks to integrate community service opportunities into the university's regular curriculum.

For example, students in the school's education program might have a class that requires them to tutor children with learning disabilities at a local elementary school, Wyble said.

Volunteer service is a requirement for all students hoping to graduate from Belhaven College in Jackson, which ranked last in the state with just 2.3 percent of its work-study funding going to service jobs.

"It's not a reflection on the institution that we're not meeting the federal requirement," said Linda Phillips, director of financial aid at Belhaven. "The administration's philosophy is that students should not be paid for community service."

Phillips makes a concerted effort to place enough work-study students in community service jobs to fulfill the requirement, but transportation problems prevent many students from getting to their jobs, she said.

Wyble said more students would participate in community service if they were told it was a work-study option.

"There is a perception of community service as something that a judge assigns you when you do something wrong," he said.

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

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