A commitment to civic engagement and service has been a fundamental component of IUPUI’s mission from the beginning and a distinctive aspect of the campus culture. 2007-2008 saw continued growth in service learning and other forms of engagement among students, faculty, and staff alike, with expanded participation in service learning and other community service and growing numbers of community partners.
Along with its involvement in our local community, IUPUI continued to play a national leadership role as an exemplar of a civically engaged public research university. The campus was included in the inaugural edition of the Guide to Service Learning Colleges and Universities, a national college recruiting tool for incoming students. For the fifth consecutive year, we were listed by U.S. News & World Report as a university with an outstanding service learning program. In addition, the designation of a new Service Learning Research Collaborative at IUPUI as a Signature Center has enabled the campus to emerge as a center for research and scholarship on civic engagement. The collaborative aims to increase the capacity of IUPUI faculty to engage in research on service learning and to disseminate good practices on three themes: international service learning; assessment of the outcomes of service learning and civic engagement; and the role of service in improving retention of first-year and minority students.
