GUEST COLUMN: OPINION: Collectively Solving Our Urban Problems Benefits Us All

In The New York Times article, the President's Public Service Fellowship at Yale University is hailed as a "special" program which no other colleges have "matched with its combination of providing a stipend, but no academic credit (emphasis added)." This initiative's complete separation of service from scholarship is promoted as an outstanding characteristic that places the President's Fellowship above the efforts of other university programs. I find this statement to be quite disturbing given Yale University's established reputation as a stellar research university and a leader in the world of academia. Moreover, by ignoring the academic significance of their service program, Yale faols to focus on the vital role of higher education as the center for the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. Universities have long been regarded as innovative institutions where the application of intellect and reason is used to devise and improve solutions to the problems of our society. The plagues of poverty, crime and unsanitary health conditions that have swept through urban America are among the most critical and strategic problems of our time. The dilemmas of our cities are intellectual problems that demand serious thought and deliberation by everyone. Urban colleges and universities are realizing that their future and success as educational institutions are intertwined with the fate of their surrounding communities. Matriculation rates may decline as crime and undergraduate dissatisfaction increase. Moreover, the inner-city students struggling to survive in the urban public school systems are among the pool of applicants that will eventually fill the ivy-covered halls of Yale and other universities in the future. There are different methods of achieving successful university-community programs. The Yale Presidents Public Service Fellowship adopts a "bulls-eye model," where students are propelled into the community on a stipend to work as university ambassadors outside the campus walls. This methodology is flawed. The undergraduates are most likely receiving the benefits of character growth from exposure to the community, but the learning process ends when they return to the safe, "neo-gothic buildings" of Yale, leaving the "other" world behind. Additionally, therc is no reciprocity -- the community is a passive object that receives aid from the university in the form of paid social-workers. This model may only perpetuate what some have labeled as the "monastic separation" between the "town" and the ivory tower on the hill. To bring "town" and "gown" together, one must establish a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship. To solve their shared problems, the university and the community should work together by uniting with existing community organizations in a manner that is directly integrated with the academic pursuits of the university's faculty and students. "Synergy" and "alliances" are the new buzz-words of this era. Across the private and public sectors, businesses and institutions are forming partnerships to overcome common obstacles and achieve mutual benefits. For more than a decade, embryonic biotechnology firms have struggled to become more competitive by aligning themselves with multinational pharmaceutical corporations to share resources, reduce costs, and maximize their shared profits. More recently, environmental public interest groups and organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, have worked with business leaders to develop feasible, cost-effective, often voluntary environmental solutions for industrial operations. In each of the examples mentioned above, both members of the cooperative initiative had to work together by establishing a shared vision, mutual understanding, equal contribution and the basis for long-term commitment. Universities should adopt the same principals when developing a program with the community -- "How can our institution help the community create solutions to their own self-identified problems while still adhering to our mission as a center for learning and academy research?" The University of Pennsylvania, along with other universities across the country, has worked to develop effective partnerships central to the needs of the community and parallel to the academic interest of students and faculty. Penn has realized that in order for community programs to receive administrative attention and resources, service must be a component of scholarship, an academically justifiable pursuit that directly contributes to the intellectual and personal development of the student. As part of its efforts to design a model for higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education recently stated, "The union of theory and practice also means that as an institution Penn promotes engagement with theoretical, ethical and moral concerns Of society and community defined broadly, globally and also locally within Philadelphia." This statement should not be surprising considering the philosophy of Penn's founder Benjamin Franklin who established the university as the first secular, civic college where students would "do well while doing good." This Fall, Penn is offering 34 service-learnong courses which utilize locals' real world problems as the basis for interdisciplinary, experiential learning. I can think of no better method of preparing college graduates to deal successfully with the complex issues of modern society than to construct their studies in a manner that incorporates real-world problem solving. There are other organizations on campus that unite service with academics. In The Pennsylvania Service Scholar AmeriCorps program undergraduates must complete nine hundred hours in four years on individualized community projects while taking service learning courses and spear-heading volunteer recruitment. Undergraduates in the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps are working with students and teachers of the Philadelphia Public School System on a collaborative effort to establish "community schools" in West Philadelphia as centers for cultural exchange, education and recreation for the entire community. Each summer, the Scott Paper Company Public Service Internship Program sponsors a group of dedicated Penn students who enroll in a research seminar and help conduct a week long institute for middle school students. With academically based community service, undergraduates have the opportunity to learn through active problom-solving and to reflect on and contextualize their efforts in the city as a part of their whole educational experience. As the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education states, "knowledge derived from analysis is only complete when tested in the crucible of experience and that for experience to be valuable, it must become the object of reflection." As an undergraduate, I have taken full advantage of the opportunities at Penn by enrolling in service learning courses and living in the Community Service Living-Learning Program. Perhaps my most influential and beneficial experience with community service has come from my participation in an environmental education program at a middle school in West Philadelphia. This program is a collaboration between undergraduates and public school students to solve local problems in the community. Ironically, the environmental education program that I helped to develop at Penn was in many ways modeled after the Urban Resources Initiative at the Yale School of Forestry and Enviromnental Studies. In the URI program, graduate students are working with community members in New Haven Old Baltimore to create a healthier living environment by addressing issues related to education, economic development and public health. In addition, the program's graduates and faculty have produced dissertations and research papers related to their experiences in community service. The Urban Resources Initiative is an ideal example of a service-related activity that is integrated into the academic work of university professors and students. In conclusion, I challenge the colleges and universities of this country to make a concentrated effort to focus on community service initiatives as a method of solving the problems that plague our cities. As Penn's students, we have the unique privilege of being able to participale in a diverse range of service activities, whether it is tutoring a child, serving a meal at a local soup kitchen, running an after-school sports program or joining one of the many service-related student groups, I hope every Penn student will find a way to help strengthen our commlmity. Collaborative resolution of today's urban dilemmas is central to the future prosperity of America, and critical in the positive development of higher education and ourselves.

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