Auburn University was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, the highest federal honor a higher education institution can receive for service work, for the fourth consecutive year.
According to Ralph Foster, director of Public Service, the university received the award three weeks ago from the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency promoting public service on behalf of the President of the United States.
The agency measures the university's method of engaging it's faculty, students and staff in programming within the curriculum and on-campus units designed to deliver public service activity and addresses community problems it finds, according to Foster.
Foster said the Office of Public Service facilitates the application for the honor roll and the results they received covers the 2013-14 academic year.
"We've done this now for the last five years, we've received the honor roll designation four years in a row at the, what they call 'with Distinction level' meaning that we are considered an engaged university, but also with a degree of quality and scope of programming that they designate as being with Distinction," Foster said.
The application for this coming year reflecting the 2014-15 academic year has been completed and the university will not know the results until next fall or early 2016, according to Foster.
Foster said the community and civic engagement program has improved during his time working in the Office of Public Service.
"I think there's a greater depth of programming, which is also producing a more significant involvement both faculty and students, there [are] more courses that offer, or include service activity as part of the course of study, what we would call service-learning courses," Foster said. "But there [are] also a larger number of student-led organizations that have expanded their outreach activity to the community, particularly the Big Event is much larger, it grows each year."
He also said the Big Event 360 extends community engagement year round.
Other groups active in service are the Impact group, the food pantry and the Campus Kitchens project that received the university's Spirit of Sustainability award April 22, 2015, according to Foster.
"There's a great spirit for service on this campus, it's stressed from the very beginning in the Auburn creed, which a line says, 'I believe in the human touch,' so Auburn are, they're very giving people, they're very community engaged people, and there's a great deal of value for outreach and service on this campus, and in response it engages the community more in our activities on campus," Foster said.
Mike Kensler, director of the Office of Sustainability, said they created the internal Spirit of Sustainability award to recognize what faculty, staff and students are doing to help Auburn and the world become more sustainable.
According to Kensler the Campus Kitchens project is a student-led project fighting hunger on campus and around the Auburn-Opelika community that has been active for three years.
"If somebody says, 'Wow, that Campus Kitchens project, that's fantastic, you know I could do something like that if, hey what about this?' so hopefully it will trigger, it will inspire others to see how what they're doing is already contributing to sustainability or give them ideas of things they could do," Kensler said.
Kensler said students benefit from participating in community service projects by realizing if they have a good idea, organizing it and putting it into action, "they could have a tremendous impact."
"For the students I think it's very empowering, it helps them realize that they have the ability and power to make a difference," Kensler said.
According to Foster, Auburn is one of five universities from Alabama, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama, who were recognized for receiving the honor roll, and Auburn is one of two universities to receive the distinction designation.
"Our activity is much more pervasive across campus, there's not just one unit that is producing outreach work, there [are] multiple units, there [are] programs in each school and college, there's student organizations as I mentioned that are doing dedicated community work, so I would say the scope of the involvement at Auburn is much more comprehensive than you might see at other universities where their service responses are more focused in fewer areas."
Foster said this recognition affirms Auburn's commitment to engagement on a national level.
"We have to realize that Auburn University is part of the community, when we say community that includes Auburn University, so really, what we're doing is, we are a neighbor working with our other neighbors to elevate the quality of life for the entire community," Foster said.
***Royrickers Cook, assistant vice president of University Outreach, said the recognition affirms Auburn's land-grant mission of outreach resulting in the improvement of Alabama's quality of life in communities. (back up third source- said this in a press release)
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