Counting What Counts

By Dave Roncolato ’79, Director of Civic Engagement

How do we measure the depth and the pervasiveness of student engagement in the community beyond campus? For the past 25 years, we have been collecting and counting hours of service each semester and over the summers. These numbers tell us something. They let us know that students are working and volunteering at non-profit organizations and putting in hours off campus. They offer a comparison to other schools our size. These numbers are one indicator of the ebb and flow of Allegheny College student engagement. Counting hours will not, however, document real impact or show levels of commitment. Many questions are left unanswered when we simply count hours.

What is the civic engagement effort trying to accomplish and what measures would demonstrate success? Here is a description of the work of the Gateway’s Civic Engagement effort:

Civic Engagement utilizes time and resources to support diverse and multiple interests within and outside the curriculum. The office promotes a reciprocal paradigm of service that is done in

partnership with, not for, the community. Supported

initiatives include philanthropy, one-time service experiences, virtual service initiatives, ongoing service and social justice initiatives. We seek positive impact for individuals, communities, living situations, the environment and unsafe or unjust systems and structures.

Programs are designed to both meet students “where they are at” and challenge their assumptions, worldviews, and comfort zones. Through commitment to Allegheny College students and the wider community, Civic Engagement cultivates a pervasive culture of service and civic mindedness. Deep learning occurs by coupling significant experiences beyond the campus with structured educational preparation and reflection. Social context and physical location inform initiatives.

Student leadership, voice, and agency are at the core. Counting hours alone does not demonstrate a reciprocal paradigm of service because it does not give evidence that the “hour” of service actually was wanted or needed. Hours of service done to meet a campus organizational goal may put a burden on an agency or actually do a disservice to that agency. An hour of service done as a “mandatory” commitment for an organization can do harm. For example, one Allegheny College student organization accomplished scraping and painting a large community center in an outlying community. The folks who utilize this center month after month were deeply moved by the students’ hard work and dedication. Pictures of the project made their way into the organization’s scrapbook to be shared over and over again. Contrast this if you will with another student group who was asked to paint a large center for a church in the same general area. This project was accomplished in a single day. Unfortunately, when church members returned to inspect the project they noticed “X” painted on the pane of glass. The legacy of this project was in stark contrast to the legacy of painting of the community building even though the amount of time and effort were comparable.

In some cases, what community partners seek is not a large number of volunteers but a few volunteers with a specific skill set. Agencies need research questions answered

and investigations of best practices utilized by other communities. These needs require only one or two students putting in a significant amount of focused time. Two students working on a summer community-based research question for 300 hours may be much more helpful than a group of 30 students each putting in 20 hours. What is important is not the 600 hours but the impact of those hours.

Are there other measures that demonstrate “a pervasive culture of service and civic mindedness” that could be employed here at Allegheny College? Allegheny College administrated the National Assessment of Service and Community Engagement (NASCE) in 2012. Our response rate of 41% was quite high in comparison to other schools employing the survey. The results demonstrated that Allegheny was not only recruiting students with a particularly high level of interest in service, but we were also retaining their commitment to service while at Allegheny. 81% of the Allegheny College students who took the survey reported doing service in comparison to 48% in the national average. Of the 21 options for hearing about service on our campus, 86% of responders indicated that they heard about service by “word of mouth”. The lead researcher of this study pointed out that our results demonstrated a pervasive culture of service at Allegheny College. He claimed that, “While other schools were talking the talk but not walking the walk, Allegheny is jogging and not bragging.” Eight years have passed since this survey was conducted at Allegheny College. Has the pervasive culture expanded, diminished, or stayed the same? It might be time to consider offering this survey again.

If we are going to start counting what counts, we will step away from counting hours of service. In place, we will count the number of onetime service projects accomplished at the request of an individual or community partner. We will capture the number of ongoing (weekly) service programs staffed by Allegheny College students. We will monitor the number of our students trained and leading as a part of the Allegheny Service Corps. This is a group of 80-plus students who are selected and trained as Bonners Leaders, Davies Leaders, Allegheny Volunteer Service Leaders (AVSLs), and Allegheny Community Engaged Student fellows (ACES fellows). We will count the number of our academic courses and summer research projects that are partnered with individuals and organizations in the wider community. Finally, we aspire to capture the names of all students who are involved, all community organizations involved, and all faculty who are involved. These indicators will reflect impact, partnership, and pervasiveness in ways that simply counting hours can never do. 