MEDILL NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL REPORT
N.C. Schools Below National Average in Community Service Work-Study Spending
By KATE DALKE
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON--When Duke University senior Kaitlin Means says she plans her upcoming schedule around school, she's not talking about her English classes, but the hours she spends as a tutor at George Watts Elementary School in Durham.

Means reads 10 hours a week to second- and third-graders at Watts as part of America Reads, a nationwide community service program in which college students tutor in area schools.

"I can't even believe you get paid to do this," said Means, who added that it is difficult to go to work and school at the same time.

The federal government provides work-study funds to academic institutions to help pay students who need to earn money to do jobs either on- and off-campus jobs. Part of the work-study money a school receives must be used to create jobs in community service.

Schools were required to spend 5 percent of work-study funds on community service until last year, when that requirement was increased to 7 percent.

Means has worked as a reading tutor every year during her academic career at Duke and calls it the "best program ever."

Despite the success of programs like America Reads, university and college administrators in North Carolina say a proposal to increase the mandated amount of work-study money devoted to community service could be difficult to meet.

According to the most recently reported figures, from 1999-2000 when the requirement was still 5 percent, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University all fell below the national average of 11.8 percent.

North Carolina Central University and Durham Technical Community College were both above the national average in work-study funds devoted to community service.

Wanda Wilson, a spokeswoman for Durham Technical Community College, which has a small number of work-study students, said an initiative from the college's president helped spark interest in community service.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., introduced legislation in November that would further promote community involvement by students, increasing the minimum work-study money devoted to service from 7 to 25 percent by 2010.

Administrators cited a variety of reasons why increased community service work-study could create a problem.

"Requiring that we spend 25 percent on community service placements could result in students taking a particular job simply because they had to earn their federal work-study money, rather than choosing to do so because of their ethic of public service," said Shirley Ort, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Jim Belvin, director of financial aid at Duke, said that it would be difficult to find enough community service jobs in an area like Durham, which is home to a number of universities.

"At some point, we're all competing in this town. Let's face it, that's not a big area," he said.

Julie Rice Malette, director of financial aid at NC State, said, "We were lucky that we had enough students."

"I hope that we'll be lucky again next year. We create the opportunities. We award the funds. Whether they actually do the work is up to them," she said.

UNC and Duke both said they had an abundance of students interested in tutoring for America Reads this year.

Priscilla Wood, director the America Reads program at UNC, said that she had to turn some students away because interest was so high and there were not enough materials for tutoring available. UNC has 50 students enrolled in America Reads who work in five different elementary schools.

Elaine Madison, director of the community service center at Duke, said that Duke's America Reads program also has grown, with 100 students working this semester.

The center also surveys local nonprofits to match students in community jobs like working for the Latino Community Credit Union or Concern of Durham.

Although some of the students who tutor for America Reads hope to someday work as teachers, other students like UNC graduate student Shawn Vance, who is in the pharmacy school, intend to pursue other career paths.

He said that working as a tutor provided an excuse to get off campus and do something unrelated to school.

"I always thought about teaching and thought it would be a great experience," he said, adding that it's a great plan B if retail pharmacy doesn't work out.

Figures for North Carolina schools:

Percentage of work-study funds used for community service jobs in 1999-2000

Statewide average: 9.8% (national average was 11.8% and requirement was 5%)

Duke University: 7.9%

Durham Technical Community College: 18.1%

North Carolina Central University: 15.5%

North Carolina State University-Raleigh: 5.7%

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: 5.1%

(UNC said it sent a corrected figure of 13% to the Dept. of Education, because the 5.1% did not include the America Reads program.) The DOE said its published figures are the most accurate.

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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