An education in community
Fort Lewis College launches civic engagement effort

Students make their way across campus at Fort Lewis College on Tuesday. This winter, the college will start implementing a long-term plan to have 100 percent of students engaged in some form of service learning or community-based research. The goal is to have the project fully in place by 2010./Photo by Jared Boyd

by Missy Votel

More than four years after gaining its independence, Fort Lewis College is taking another step in an attempt to reposition itself as one of the West’s leading liberal arts colleges.

This winter, the school will begin implementing a program to incorporate service learning into its curriculum, with a target of 100 percent student participation by 2010.

“The goal is to have 100 percent of the freshman class entering in 2010 to have been engaged in community-based learning and research upon graduation,” said Kalin Grigg, FLC sociology professor and director of the Service Learning Center. “It will, in the long run, be a substantial program that can position FLC as one of the premiere liberal arts colleges in the West.”

Grigg, who is heading up what is being called the “civic engagement” effort, said the center will soon be changing its name to the Community-Based Learning and Research Center (or CBLR) to better reflect the new mission. He said the idea is part of FLC President Brad Bartel’s broader vision for the college. Bartel took the helm 2½ years ago when Kendall Blanchard stepped down.

“When President Bartel came to FLC, his goal was to have 100 percent of students civically engaged,” Grigg said. “We have taken that vision and developed a plan to develop a campuswide infrastructure so we embed community learning in meaningful ways.”

Grigg said that typically when people hear about community service in education, they think of models based upon a requirement of service completely unrelated to the deeper dimensions of student learning and social responsibility. “With that model you’d have 600 to 800 students running off at the end of the semester to do their required community service hours. It can end up being disastrous,” he said.

In contrast, Fort Lewis will strive to entrench service-learning throughout campus life, in everything from student affairs to academics. “We’re trying to embed it in such a way that students encounter it in a natural way, so it doesn’t feel imposed,” he said.

He said the premise is straight forward, using the example of a research methods class to illustrate how a typical course might incorporate civic engagement. “Instead of running around asking students what laundry detergent they prefer, students will be working with community partners to research real issues and get real information on topics that affect us all.”

He said the benefits of such an approach can be twofold. Not only does it help to improve the community, but it enriches the learning process and instills a sense of social responsibility in students, as well.

“It links coursework and applies learning in real ways, to real issues,” he said. “The end of the year isn’t seen as passing a test or a course. It ties learning to more responsible ends.”

Director of the FLC Service Learning Center Kalin Grigg./Photo by Jared Boyd

Grigg said that colleges are increasingly incorporating such models and taking the role of community service more seriously. “It came out of colleges and universities responding to a growing lack of responsibility of institutions to the communities in which they reside,” he said. “They are taking more and more responsibility in becoming partners in addressing issues that the community faces.”

He cited one college in Pennsylvania that took on the problem of poverty in West Philadelphia. Here in the Four Corners, Fort Lewis could play a role by working with civic and community organizations on some of the big issues that face the region, such as housing, sustainability, economics and the environment, Grigg said.

“It’s strongly linked to community problem solving,” he said. “We’re looking to make Fort Lewis a more serious player in addressing the social, environmental and ethical issues in the region.”

However, arriving at this point will take some time, he noted. “It’s going to take some re-educating for all of us,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work already, but we’ve got a ways to go.”

A task force was appointed to oversee the planning and implementation of the program two years ago. Several rounds of discussion in 2004-05 led to the approval of a final strategic plan earlier this winter. The task force will now set about working on a schedule and infrastructure for the program. “We’ll be working off a timeline each year between now and 2010 to develop it increasingly in courses and continue to put content and programs more and more in place,” Grigg said.

The college also held three days of workshops in October to introduce the idea to the community and sow the seeds for future partnerships. Also, plans call to form a community advisory board in the near future, which will work closely with the existing task force.

Although such an endeavor is ambitious, Grigg said he is not daunted, and that his department has been doing something similar, albeit on a smaller scale, for several years. “We’ve been doing this for 15 years, and we’ve developed some good relationships and partnerships. We’re not building from scratch.” However, he admitted that the program will be breaking new ground. “It’s a significant step for FLC because there are not a lot of public liberal arts schools that are taking this as seriously as we are,” he said.

Nevertheless, if done right, it could have a profound impact on higher learning not to mention the social landscape of the Four Corners.

“A lot of times, students tend to be seen in terms of the money they spend, when in fact, the contributions of higher learning are really profound in terms of the impact they can make,” he said. “I believe, when done right, this work is transformative. In the words of John Dewey, ‘I believe education is the primary vehicle for social transformation.’” •