Lyssa Beyer

Senior Jenny Anderson works with the local Boys and Girls Club for her service-learning graduation requirement to help make plans for a Memorial Day festival.

“I really do enjoy it,” she said. “It’s something that makes you feel good that you’re helping out the community and putting something back into the community.”

Recently, the Corporation for National and Community Service recognized UW-Eau Claire, for the second consecutive year, for its community service program.

The university is among 127 public and private colleges, universities and professional schools named in the 2007 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for General Community Service.

UW-Madison and Marquette University are the only other Wisconsin schools to receive this honor.

“I think it just demonstrates the commitment on the part of the university . to be involved in the community and to be good citizens,” said Service-Learning director Donald Mowry. “The whole idea is we’re not just educating people for a career . We hopefully are also . educating them to be engaged and be ethical, responsible citizens. We hope that they continue after graduation and be active in their community.”

Geology professor Kent Syverson, however, said the program leaves something to be desired.

“We are a university, and . the things that we require a student should represent rigorous learning,” he said. “It seems to me that, although our service learning is very good at getting students out and doing service, I’m not convinced that we have a service learning program.”

Some projects, such as placing nursing students in hospitals and education students in classrooms, are great opportunities, he said, but there are other projects that aren’t.

“Any major at this university can walk dogs for 30 hours at a humane society to fulfill the service-learning requirement, and in my opinion that does not represent university level learning,” he said. “It just seems to me that if we’re going to have a service-learning requirement, it should involve learning. If we don’t want that, then why don’t we just take the ‘learning’ off of it.”

The 30-hour requirement became a part of the catalogue in 1995, Mowry said, and the center, funded by differential tuition, started in 1997.

This award is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning, according to a press release, and Eau Claire was chosen based on innovativeness of service projects, percentage of student participation, incentives for service and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

And Anderson said she is proud of the university.

“I think that would be a great honor for the university to get this award,” she said. “Hopefully they can continue with the program and keep getting these awards. It looks good for the university, and maybe it will help to attract more students.”