MEDILL NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL REPORT
York Area Colleges Below Statewide Average in Community Service Spending
By BENJAMIN LANKA
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - York area post-secondary schools met the federal requirement on how much money to allocate to students performing paid community service, but most of the schools fell below the state and national averages, according to 1999-2000 government statistics.

Ron Shunk, director of financial aid at Gettysburg College, said he would like to spend more on community service, but his school struggles to find students to participate.

"Even though we're in a relatively small community, the students are a little reluctant to go in town if they can get a job on campus," he said.

The 1965 Higher Education Act created the work-study program, in which the federal government pays for most of a student's salary if the student shows a financial need. In 1994, schools were required to use 5 percent of their federal work-study funds for community service jobs. During the 2000-2001 school year, this number was increased to 7 percent.

The national average is 11.8 percent, according to a report using Education Department figures for the 1999-2000 school year, the most recent data available. Pennsylvania schools averaged 10.6 percent. The top area school was the Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts, which allotted 42.4 percent of its work-study money to community service. The lowest percentage was posted by Elizabethtown College, which allocated just under 5 percent.

Fran Stefany, director of financial aid at Bradley, said her school had a higher percentage of community service work-study students because it didn't offer many other work opportunities.

"It's not that we're community-service minded," she said. "It's just that those are the only jobs that we have for our students."

She said her students do a variety of things, from helping at the Salvation Army to designing ads for an anti-violence campaign.

A spokeswoman at Elizabethtown College said the numbers in the study were wrong and that the school gave almost 12 percent of its work-study money to community service. The Education Department said the numbers are self-reported, and any errors are a result of incorrect reporting by the school.

York College used 5.1 percent of its work-study budget for community service, and Calvin Williams, director of financial aid at York College said that rate rose to 9.2 percent in 2000. He said some students at York College tutor children in reading.

Williams said his school had difficulty spending more on community service when the requirement was raised to 7 percent.

"It's just a matter of finding students who meet the work-study eligibility requirement who have the time or interest to work off-campus," he said.

Penn State University had one of the highest rates for public schools in the nation, giving 23.3 percent of its work-study money to community service.

"Since Penn State has campuses statewide (including York), we have many more opportunities than at one location," said Robert Snyder, an assistant student aid director.

He said most Penn State students involved in community service received work-study money, including those who work at day-care centers and public libraries.

A proposed bill in the Senate would raise the community-service requirement to 25 percent. Officials at most York-area schools said this would be difficult because work-study jobs are needed in other areas like food service.

Williams said, "I can't imagine the problems that would create. If I had to take a quarter of my money and move the students off campus, it would affect the (school's) bottom line."

Kathy Blaisdell, associate director of student aid at Franklin and Marshall College, said "We also need the work-study jobs for other jobs on campus."

A former Clinton administration official said the higher education lobby sees work-study students as necessary to run schools.

"Universities depend on this inexpensive help, and if you move the work-study programs off campus, the cost of education is simply going to go up... and make it even harder for people of modest means to go to college," said the former official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Shunk said every school has grown reliant on the work-study program, but he committed his school to meet the federal requirement for community service.

"It's not our goal to just meet the minimum," he said. "We've tried to get as many students in the work-study program as we can."

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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