NOTE: The following remarks were given at the Wesleyan College opening fall convocation held Sept. 11, 2003.

For a number of the students here today, I realize that this is your first Wesleyan College convocation. For others, it may be your last. But all of you, I dare say, are going to find this academic year to be a particularly enriching and rewarding one. Your college, already an exceptional institution -- a historic leader in the education of women -- is moving to take on equal leadership in another area that is central to your mission: something that I might call "applied moral education," or as the title of my talk describes it, "Educating hearts as well as minds."

As an institution rooted in faith, Wesleyan has always stood for strong values and has considered spiritual development a key part of the education it offers. But at the public, and hence secular, university that I head, we, too, talk frankly about "moral education" and "moral leadership." Though the contexts are somewhat different, Wesleyan and San Francisco State University -- like a growing majority of our nation's educational institutions

-- recognize a mission that goes beyond traditional measures such as acquisition of knowledge and of lifelong learning skills. President Knox and I share a strong sense of responsibility for fostering a commitment to community and shared values, for encouraging in our students -- and modeling ourselves -- a set of beliefs, concerns and skills that will make us positive, active forces for good in the world around us. We want our graduates to maintain the community involvement that they will have engaged in during their college years. We want our students to have the knowledge, skills and above all the desire to take an active role in society, to play some part in building the kind of world we all would like to see.

To achieve these goals requires a campus-wide commitment -- one that starts at the top. Clearly, that is the case at Wesleyan, where President Knox announced on her appointment her goal of "placing an even stronger emphasis on giving back to the community." In very short order, she identified a second, of ensuring that every Wesleyan student engages in service learning. To do this, she established the Wesleyan College Center for Community Engagement and Service and provided the Center's dynamic and creative director, Professor Catherine Meeks, both encouragement and funding.

Service is certainly not a new value at Wesleyan, but with this broader explicit commitment, and with expanded plans for community engagement, the college is clearly poised to become a powerful community partner. For you students, there are exciting opportunities to fulfill the college's high aspirations for you -- becoming, in the words of President Knox: "dynamic women who are committed to leading lives of constant learning and growth, grounded in faith, and engaged in service to others."

In placing this emphasis on education for active, ethically-based community involvement, Wesleyan is part of a growing national movement in higher education. The revival of what the former president of Indiana University, Tom Ehrlich, has called "civic and moral learning" can be said to have started almost 20 years ago when a small band of college and university presidents committed themselves, and their institutions, to community service by creating Campus Compact. Now numbering almost 900 member institutions -- Wesleyan College among them -- Compact has helped to put the spotlight on what many consider to be the most exciting movement in higher education today, as the concept of community service has evolved into service learning and now beyond that, to the even broader goal of civic engagement.

And not a moment too soon! Every day we are reminded of the challenges that confront our diverse nation and world. They may appear so overwhelming that we are tempted to step back, and, like Voltaire's disheartened Candide, renounce society and be content to "cultivate our garden." Such a stance would be both sad and dangerous -- for our nation and for the larger global society. Now more than ever, our community needs each of us to be involved. Each of us has the responsibility to play some role, however small, in promoting equity, encouraging civility in the midst of disagreement, recognizing the humanity of those we might be tempted to call "enemies," and supporting the appreciation of diversity as the rich social and educational asset that it is -- not the divisive and even frightening force it is sometimes seen to be.

Colleges and universities are perhaps uniquely positioned to promote these values and to turn them into action. Consider our strengths: gifted faculty, eager students, committed staff and the resources for research, assessment and dissemination! Should not every U.S. college and university strive to be a model citizen that builds, nurtures and comforts, working always to fulfill the needs of our complex society, and in so doing presenting a positive model for our students to emulate?

Since 9/11, the war in Iraq and the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, such work on higher education's part is more urgent than ever. For my California State University colleague, President Marvelene Hughes, the terrible events of September 11 prompted new thoughts about leadership and the moral power of colleges and universities. A month after the attacks, she visited Ground Zero, and from that experience came her conviction that in this transformed world, education has new responsibilities and the need to find "the wherewithal to educate the heart, so that our humanity transcends all our differences and leads us to daily deeds of kindness, expressions of love and respect, and genuine motivations to help one another -- those like us and, especially, those unlike ourselves."

I know that in speaking to the Wesleyan community, I am addressing individuals who already share these values, who are already persuaded of the worth of service and community engagement. What I would like to impress
upon you all, but especially on students, is the power of this active mission to transform, not just the communities who benefit from your good work, but you yourself.

As many of you know, service learning is the joining of academic coursework and community service. In a service learning class, a student's community project is inspired by -- and informed by -- the content of the course. Service learning sends students into the community and then asks them to bring their experience back to class, to reflect on, and to discuss the connections between their classroom learning and their community experience. In a successful service learning class, the service strengthens the learning and the learning strengthens the service.

What is most impressive about service learning is its powerful combination of demonstrated educational value and the fostering of personal development. Repeated studies show us that students absorb knowledge better when they are given hands-on opportunities to apply it. We know from research that has been done that students engaged in community service will earn higher grades and have better graduation rates. Service learning also builds problem-solving skills and develops a wealth of other real-life capacities. It provides students with the full educational package -- subject matter mastery, strong social values, and the skills to apply both in the world beyond the campus. Faculty, too, are gainers. I am sure that many of the faculty here today find in service learning an opportunity to foster principles of social justice in which they believe strongly -- principles that may have helped draw them to education in the first place. And, no small thing, it offers them a range of new opportunities for applied research.

Let me offer an example -- admittedly a remarkable one -- of a San Francisco State University student named Cecilia Shepard. Three years ago, this re-entry adult student, a public housing resident and single mother of five, received a prestigious national award, the Howard Swearer Student Humanitarian Prize for community service. A self-identified drug addict for eight years, Ceci achieved phenomenal gains for herself, and the residents of her public housing complex, as she combined the resources of the community and of the University with her own extraordinary energy and talent.

Utilizing two San Francisco State service learning courses, one in political science, the other in health education, Ceci helped to change her community -- bringing a University health program right into her housing project, arranging to get 500 computers privately donated and installed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in every apartment, with San Francisco State computer science students -- in yet another service learning course -- lined up to provide on-site training for both adults and youngsters. For her part, Ceci Shepard describes her service learning classes as "phenomenal." That, of course, is how many people describe her.

And while Ceci has achieved amazing things, she is but one of hundreds of thousands of students across the country who each year engage in community service learning. They come from all disciplines. At my institution, broadcasting and marketing students work together to make high-quality -- and award-winning -- television ads for non-profit organizations. Nursing, counseling, social work and health education students staff a teen health center in a largely immigrant neighborhood. Philosophy students in an ethics class spend time with hospice patients, then bring their experiences to the class discussion of ethical issues in terminal care.

At the University of Utah, students in an honors course partner with professionals in the juvenile justice system to write grant proposals to fund research on how to improve the juvenile justice courts. At California State University, Northridge, students in an advanced communications course run weekend workshops for 7th, 8th and 9th graders on speech making. At Georgetown University, a student-founded program serving a local homeless community provides such necessities as clothing and mobile soup kitchens, volunteers and funds. The original program has moved beyond the university into a broad community partnership that unites universities and non-profits throughout the D.C. metropolitan area.

At San Diego State University, students in a course titled "Community Applications of Business Principles" have successfully negotiated a pledge from the Marriot Corporation to donate more than $50,000 worth of furniture to a local battered women's shelter. At Emerson College, a student who had designed her own major in social justice communications, decided to engage her fellow students -- as well as Emerson faculty and staff -- in efforts to address the needs of the many immigrant workers on that campus.

The program she created -- the English Exchange with Emerson Employees -- is now permanently established at the college. In this program, trained volunteers, many of them with a communications or foreign language background, tutor campus workers with limited English not just in the language, but in their rights in the U.S., and talk with them about their countries of origin.

At Allegheny College, a student who completed a course in community activism is now working with her professor and a nationally known organizer to establish a tenants' association in the predominantly low-income town of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Teams are now doing door-to-door interviews with Meadville residents to get a sense of landlord/tenant relationships and to gain insights into how to improve the housing situation of this population.

I could offer dozens of additional examples, and all would point to this: students who have experiences such as these -- such as those you can have here at Wesleyan -- begin to understand their power -- to navigate the complexities of community activism, to listen, learn, and partner, and to bring about change. Service learning also can re-energize the classroom, generating a new kind of classroom dialogue, a more participatory and egalitarian approach to teaching and learning. In the reflective analysis and discussion of the community service experience that is a key part of these courses, students find themselves major contributors. They engage with their professors in ways that in some universities may be unaccustomed to both parties -- and enriching for both.

Yet service learning is not all we can aim for. It is part of what I see as a continuum of service. Individual volunteerism is stage one. Next comes service learning, melding the academic program and the service, and providing guidance and support for the community activity. Our ultimate goal, the fullest expression of the "moral education" we seek to provide, is civic engagement -- a lifelong commitment to involvement and the ability to work with others toward common civic goals.

A young woman who graduated last May from Bates College in Maine illustrates this beautifully. Jenny Blau, a Caucasian fluent in Spanish, began tutoring Latino high school students while in high school. She arrived at Bates planning on a career in medicine. While "shadowing" a Bates alumna who was practicing medicine in the town where Bates is located, Ms. Blau discovered a local health clinic serving a largely-Latino population. At first, she served as a Spanish-language translator. Then, she went on to develop outreach programs and educational materials aimed at Latinas in the community, winning several grants to support this work. All this, by the way, in her freshman year. By her sophomore year, Jenny Blau had become the main link between the clinic and the Latino community and a valued source of advice to the clinic staff about the issues involved in serving diverse populations. As a junior, she traveled in Ecuador, working with a Peace Corps volunteer and a local hospital to coordinate a weekly health education program for local families. As part of the work on her senior thesis on "Race, Poverty and Health," she organized a women's health care group that focuses on health education resources and support. There it all is – from tutoring to building lasting community programs.

Another fine example is the creation of a program called "Teach for America" 14 years ago by a Yale University senior, Wendy Kopp. Troubled by the educational inequities facing children in low-income communities with poor schools, she came up with the idea of a national corps that would recruit high-achieving, socially-committed college graduates to teach for two years in some of these communities. Wendy expanded her idea in her senior thesis, won a start-up grant from the Mobil Corporation, and Teach for America was on its way. It is still going strong. So far, approximately 9,000 young women and men have taught more than 1.25 million students. The program has created a strong track record of providing excellent teachers and serving as a pipeline for future leaders who have the desire and skills to effect broad-based social change.

Consider, if you will, these two college students -- very much like those of you assembled here today -- who have combined knowledge, commitment and energy to create programs that have transformed the lives of countless others.

There is, however, another image of our nation's college students, and it illustrates a troubling national paradox: On the one hand, according to the annual national college student survey done by UCLA Professor Alexander Astin, student volunteerism is at an all-time high. Students also are responding eagerly, and in huge numbers, to the growing number of service learning activities that now stretch across the curriculum. But even as community involvement has increased, participation in civic life has dropped precipitously. A jaundiced view of politics and politicians is not unique to college and university students, to be sure, but it certainly is well-established. Voting rates across the nation continue to decline, with the smallest election turnouts found among the college-age population.

One illustration of the consequences of this civic disengagement is illustrated forcefully in an anecdote related by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, then Maryland's Lieutenant Governor, when she delivered the commencement address at my University a few years ago. She described a conversation with a student who had spent a semester visiting an elderly woman, bringing her meals and getting to know her as a person. But when the woman asked for help in solving a problem with Social Security, the student dropped out of her life. When Townsend asked him why, he responded simply: "Oh, that's politics. I don't want to get involved in that." Nonsense, said the daughter of Bobby Kennedy, "Politics is community service writ large." That is a message worth considering.

That young man confused civic engagement with political activity. Wesleyan's goal for you is not to produce office-holders -- unless that is your personal goal -- but to graduate women who believe in something and will act on those beliefs, will participate in community, will become engaged in civic affairs, will vote in elections, will take risks, and will join and work actively in organizations that both serve -- and change -- our communities. If this is to happen, faculty, staff, and administrators have to provide the stimulus and become role models for students. The college itself thus becomes a civic leader, not leaving engagement to the students, but collectively embracing a mission of community partnership, as expressed in courses, community projects, research activities, and publications. A college or university that ignores or turns its back on its community sends a very powerful, very negative, message to its students.

Wesleyan, like many campuses across this nation, is increasingly diverse. I am pleased to note that in our increasingly interconnected, global society, Wesleyan is fortunate to have among its students a substantial international population. A global perspective becomes especially important, then, as the college works to prepare future generations of leaders. Providing students with the skills of mind and heart that will make them principled and active citizens is absolutely critical in a world that grows smaller each year.

A few years ago, in a speech to the graduating class, Yale President Richard Levin reminded them of his words to them when they were freshmen: "I told you that this is a place where ideas are taken seriously…where community service is taken seriously, where involvement and moral responsibility are taken seriously," he said. He praised the students for their community service while at Yale and told them that, "What you have done for this city you must now do for your country and the wider world…The nation needs your involvement, and the wider world demands your attention." His words are an eloquent summation of the message that I hope I have conveyed today.

I would like to conclude by speaking to the students. By choosing Wesleyan, you have chosen an academic community in which you have the fullest possible opportunities and most heartfelt encouragement to go as far as your talents will take you. Early in my academic career, I had the good fortune to spend a year on the faculty of another fine women's college, Bryn Mawr. That experience gave me a personal sense of the special strength and value of that environment and its particular power to advance the education of women -- academically, civically, and personally.

Each of you has great potential to engage constructively with some aspect of our shared society. You have power, and it is our job -- President Knox's, Professor Meek's, the faculty's -- and today, mine -- to help you to learn to put it to use. Together, you and Wesleyan will claim the role and the power that are rightfully yours -- as individuals and as an institution.

That is the message and the great joy of participation in service learning. If we catch this national spirit -- and in our respective roles help to move it forward -- we may someday look back on the civic engagement movement as equivalent to the GI Bill and affirmative action in its tangible benefits to our society, and to the Peace Corps in its uplifting of our national spirit.

To the entire Wesleyan community, I want to say: You are doing splendid work. I admire you, I thank you, and I wish you all every success.