§12561a Campuses of Service

Summary

Each year the Corporation, after talking with the Secretary of Education, can pick up to 25 colleges or universities to be Campuses of Service. Colleges must first apply to their State Commission. The application must show things like how many service-learning courses they offer and how many students take them; the share of students doing community service, the quality of that work, and the average hours per student; the share of Federal work-study funds used to pay students for community service and how the school creates paid service opportunities; and, if the school chooses, how many graduates go into public service and what programs the school has to encourage those careers. A State Commission may nominate up to 3 schools for the Corporation to consider, with no more than one 4-year public, one 4-year private, and one 2-year school. The Corporation will choose up to 25 of the nominated schools and, using funds set aside for Campuses of Service, give awards to the chosen schools. To get money, a chosen school must send a plan showing how it will use the funds to create or share service-learning models and best practices with other colleges. The Corporation decides how to split the money by looking at each school’s number of students, the quality and scope of its plan, and the school’s current efforts to push students toward public service careers.