Faculty and Administration Thoughts:

Every college has its own ways. Trinity is a smaller college with extraordinary interdisciplinary contact and collaboration, and a tradition of strong faculty governance and faculty autonomy in matters of teaching and research. (For more, visit the Trinity Home Page). Accordingly, it did not make sense for us to create a centralized service learning authority. A succession of deans have been strongly supportive of the Community Learning Initiative, but at the same time cautious not to impose the initiative on anyone. But no push from above has been required. Many faculty were already interested, and all that was needed was the opportunity to exchange ideas and catch a little contagious enthusiasm.

Short institutional history of CLI

How students are involved

One faculty coordinator, who convenes the right people for brainstorming about courses and assignments with CL focus. A coordinator can:

--bring you together with other faculty on your campus to plan service learning course revisions and address common concerns as service learning semesters unfold.

--provide you with comparable syllabi and related information from other campuses where service learning courses have been developed.

--make connections with faculty at other schools who would be willing to tell you more about their work with service learning.

--plan and conduct training workshops for your students prior to their service experience.

--Prepare information packets for your students in anticipation of their service.

One or more community outreach coordinators, who link students to service sites. Sometimes faculty make these arrangements individually, but in many cases CL projects require astute matchmaking and a bit of shuttle diplomacy. A dynamic and organized coordinator is essential. He or she can:

--identify and make connections with the community agencies where your students might pursue service learning coursework.

--support your efforts with logistical arrangements for students.

Teaching assistants with a community learning focus. At Trinity, a cadre of undergraduate TAs work with professors on specific courses. Usually they receive academic credit for this work, but in some cases they are paid. They oversee the logistics of their course, and monitor student progress and problems.

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CLI History:

Our first official year was 1995-96. We launched the initiative with a dinner workshop attended by about 25 interested Trinity faculty, and featuring six professors from other campuses with CL activism (Hampshire, UMass Amherst, Sacred Heart, Smith, and Brown). Each guest spoke briefly before the group separated into working/dinner tables by discipline. The goal of the event was to start faculty thinking about the possibilities for specific courses.

After that, we simply made ourselves available. We offered training for students, logistical support and curricular ideas for faculty, and gentle reminders of our existence. Several interesting courses with CL components appeared in the spring. At the end of the semester, we hosted another introductory dinner. This time our resident "experts" were Trinity faculty.

Our best and most effective series, however, has been our Community Learning Brainstorming Lunches. At each of these, three or four faculty briefly introduce the course or courses they are contemplating for CL, and the whole group works together to explore the possibilities. The regulars at these lunches include the faculty coordinator, the outreach coordinator, and one or two faculty from the informal founding faculty. These have been very effective.

The budget for the first several years has been around $3,000, which was provided by a Faculty Enrichment fund set aside by the Dean and administered by a Faculty committee. Recent successes by the Development Office have changed this picture dramatically, with significant funding earmarked for many community development projects, including CLI.

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CLI Sustainability:

More than one hundred courses have been developed through CLI. We hope to maintain the "double layer" approach that has worked in the past. That is, we’ll offer events each semester that are generally informative for faculty just getting started, and we’ll offer a series of brainstorming lunches for faculty who have chosen a course for community learning or action research and are looking for the details. At the same time, we’ll continue the general support functions described above.

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Evaluation:

Another valuable tool is Evaluation.  At the end of each semester, we send evaluation forms to the classes that have a community learning component. The information provided by the students on these forms is invaluable to our continued effort to improve and expand our program.  Similarly, every other year we send out evaluation forms to our community partners in order to understand how the collaborations are affecting the community, how they could be improved, and what needs or failings must be addressed.  Evaluation is a vital part of Trinity's CLI as it helps us see both our strengths and weaknesses, which are necessary aspects of sustainability.

The student infrastructure:

You've probably noticed that much of the Trinity College Community Learning website is devoted to community learning from the faculty perspective. Yet, if your campus is like ours, much of the push for community learning is coming from students. Applied with tact, a little student push can go a long way. Here are a few ideas, most of them generated by Trinity students, about what can be done to encourage increased service learning and research opportunities on campus. The programs described here are all coming along at Trinity. Here, we describe them in some detail so that they can be modified and replicated on other campuses.

Community Learning Teaching Assistants: Undergraduate specialists in meeting the needs of students in community learning courses.

Community Learning Internships: How to turn just about any course into a community learning opportunity, and get credit for it.

Recuiting a professor

Example of a student integrating Community Learning into her education

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