1. In a 1996 issue of Metropolitan Universities (vol. 7, no. 1) entirely dedicated to service-learning, Deborah Hirsh, the issue editor, begins her excellent introductory essay by stating that “service-learning has arrived.” Nearly arrived, in our judgement, more accurately reflects the current state of the field and the movement. See Hirsch’s (1996) essay as well as a number of other useful articles in that issue.
2. Campus Compact is, in our judgement, the organization most responsible for the growth and development of community service and service-learning across higher education. A compact of college and university presidents, Campus Compact explicitly defines its goals as a commitment to “supporting students in the development of skills and values to promote citizenship through participation in public service” (document, 1997 Campus Compact governing board meeting). Indications of the increased focus on service-learning by influential national higher education associations include these: the American Council on Education’s (ACE) cosponsorship with Florida State University of a June 1998 national conference on “Higher Education and Civic Responsibility,” which set an agenda for a new ACE National Forum on Higher Education and Civic Responsibility; the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Program for Health and Higher Education, which has highlighted the potential role of service-learning in effective AIDS education and prevention; the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges’s Kellogg Commission report on the “Engaged Campus”; and the American Association for Higher Education’s sponsorship of an 18 volume series on Service-Learning in the Disciplines and its appointment of Edward Zlotkowski as a senior associate to edit the series as well as to advance service-learning in general. Since 1996, under the leadership of Tulane University, an ad hoc working group representing 26 Association of American Universities (AAU) institutions have convened to address the role of research universities in serving their local and regional communities. Among the working group’s goals is to support federally funded community service programs, strengthen the connections between government agencies that support community service, and address problems related to the administration of community service programs. Moreover, the October 1999 meeting of AAU presidents was significantly devoted to university-community relationships.
3. For an illuminating discussion of “active” pedagogies, see Carol Geary Schneider and Robert Shoenberg, “Contemporary Understandings of Liberal Education,” Academy in Transition Discussion Paper, (Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1998)
4. For the citation to Bacon and a discussion of his work, see Lee Benson, “Changing Social Science to Change the World: A Discussion Paper,” Social Science History 2 (1978): 427–441.
5. For the citation to Bacon and a discussion of his work, see Lee Benson, “Changing Social Science to Change the World: A Discussion Paper,” Social Science History 2 (1978): 427–441.