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Community Service Crackdown

The U.S. Education Department is toughening its enforcement of a federal law that requires colleges to award at least 7 percent of their federal work study funds to students engaged in community service.

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The department has long required postsecondary institutions to reach a minimum threshold on the proportion of work study funds for community service, and while college officials overwhelmingly support the concept, administrators at some institutions — particularly in rural areas, where opportunities to participate in community service may be few — have struggled to meet it. The law also requires that each institution sponsor at least one project in which work study students tutor children in reading or work on family literacy. (The education secretary is empowered to exempt an institution from the requirement when “enforcing the requirements ... would cause a hardship for students at the institution,” according to federal rules.)

As the percentage requirement has increased over the years, from the pre-2000 figure of 5 percent of an institution’s total federal work study funds to the current 7 percent, colleges have taken various steps to try to ensure that they meet the standard, and the Education Department has regularly reminded them of their obligation. But the cost of failure has been negligible, as there was no penalty for noncompliance.

That is now changing. The department announced in a “Dear Colleague” letter in May that beginning in the 2007-8 award year that started this month, “[a]n institution that participates in the [work study program] that fails to meet one or both of the ... community service requirements ... will be required to return [federal work study] funds in an amount that represents the difference between the amount that the institution should have spent for community service and the amount that it actually spent.” The department also warned institutions that failure to comply with the requirements could result in the financial aid death penalty: a “limitation, suspension and termination proceeding,” which could lead to a college’s inability to award any federal aid to its students.

The department’s Federal Student Aid office followed that general warning with a letter in June to nearly 300 colleges that had fallen below the 7 percent threshold in the 2005-6 fiscal year. Inside Higher Ed requested a list of the institutions and information about their compliance with the community service requirements under a Freedom of Information Act request, and the list appears below. It included a broad mix of types of colleges (two-year, four-year, public, private, for-profit) that varied widely in the extent and apparent scope of their shortfalls.

Upper Iowa University awarded 6.92 percent of its $332,158 federal work study dollars to students engaged in community service, just narrowly missing the 7 percent ceiling, for instance, while Norwich University, in Vermont, is shown as directing not a single dollar of its $544,840 in federal work study funds to community service. Same for Southern University and A&M College,

Rhodes College awarded just $2,915 (or 1.6 percent) of its $180,233 in federal work study funds to students engaged in community service, according to the Education Department’s data. Forrest M. Stuart, director of financial aid at Rhodes, said in an interview that the independent institution in Memphis had met the community service requirement just once since he arrived there in 2000, a fact that he “hated.” Seventy percent of students at Rhodes perform some kind of community service, Stuart said, so the problem isn’t that its students don’t want to contribute to society.

But fewer than half of the students at Rhodes qualify for federal need-based financial aid, and Stuart said that “most of the people who are doing community service work don’t qualify for federal aid,” and many “high need” students “don’t have transportation to go off campus” to the heart of downtown Memphis, where most of the community service jobs are.

Rhodes’ failure to meet the requirement has aggravated and frustrated Stuart and other officials there, but the stakes went way up this spring, when college administrators were alerted after a required federal financial aid audit that they would be required to repay the portion of the 7 percent requirement that Rhodes did not spend. “It took me by surprise; I did not know they could do that,” Stuart said. The college later received the Federal Student Aid office’s letter, he said, which made it clear that “they are putting teeth into that” requirement for the first time.

Rhodes began adapting its policies immediately, paying higher hourly wages to work study students who do community service while participating in the college’s innovative Student Associate Program, which is aimed at giving students management-style responsibilities instead of more menial campus jobs. For instance, the college is giving work study funds where appropriate to students who are coordinating reading tutors in local schools, and paying them significantly more than minimum wage. Rhodes has also significantly increased the number of social service organizations with which it collaborates, and those changes, among others, helped the college fulfill the community service requirement in 2006-7, with between 8 and 9 percent of its federal work study funds going to community service participants, Stuart said.

Palm Beach Community College also fell short of the community service requirement in 2005-6, according to the Education Department’s data, allocating $15,596, or 3.93 percent, of its $396,882 in federal work study funds for community service participants. The two-year institution has been “in and out of compliance” over the years, says its financial aid director, David Bodwell, mainly because under county law, its officials must sign new contractual agreements each year with the school districts social service groups that employ its students, and “executing them in a timely fashion proves to be difficult” because employees turn over, rules change, etc.

Palm Beach made several changes in the 2006-7 fiscal year, including employing many of its work study students over the summer and contracting with one agency that can accommodate many more students than the college needs to fulfill the requirement. “With those two efforts, we’re going to exceed the minimum requirement by threefold” this year, Bodwell said.

While some college officials might rue it when the Education Department comes knocking on their door (or, in this case, their mailbox, to mix a metaphor), Kristin Tichenor, vice president for enrollment management at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said she actually welcomes the department’s heightened scrutiny of colleges’ compliance with the work study rules. “From a philosophical standpoint, what we’re most excited about — as excited as you can get about a government enforcement operation, I suppose — is that it elevates the importance of community outreach for our students” and “gives us the ammunition we need to make this a priority for colleagues on campus,” Tichenor said.

Although many students Worcester Polytechnic participate in community service, she said — students logged 95,000 community service hours as part of the campus “project experience” that is a graduation requirement — just 3.24 percent of its federal work study funds went to students working in the community. That’s mostly because students who would qualify for work study funds are often doing low-level campus jobs for their federal money and performing community service on their own time, and the institution did a “woeful” job of tracking the community work its students did, Tichenor said.

Worcester Polytechnic is crafting a new system that will prod campus managers to direct work study students to community-related work that can qualify under the federal program’s guidelines. Not only will the new arrangement result in the institution easily surpassing the federal requirement, said Tichenor, but it will allow the institution to keep much better track of its students’ civic activities on a campus where “if you threw a stick, you’d hit somebody who was doing community service.”

“We wouldn’t have done it without the push” from the Education Department, Tichenor added. “For my purposes, this has turned out to be a blessing.”

The following is a list of institutions that received letters this summer from the Education Department because they failed to comply with the community service requirement — presumably some of whom may not see the inquiries as quite the blessing Tichenor does:

Recipients of Letter on Work Study Community Service Requirement and Their Level of Compliance With It

Institution

State

Final Federal
Work Study
Allocation

Share Spent
on Community Service

% of Work Study Funds
for Community Service

Marion Military Institute

AL

$20,000

$0

0.00%

Southern Community College

AL

31,628

0

0.00

Arkansas Baptist College

AR

35,715

0

0.00

Everest College

CA

22,557

0

0.00

Everest College

CA

47,438

0

0.00

Everest College

CA

30,918

0

0.00

Everest College

CA

25,000

0

0.00

Everest College

CA

47,335

0

0.00

Church Divinity School of the Pacific

CA

14,915

0

0.00

Strayer University

DC

0

0

0.00

Middle Georgia Technical College

GA

2,000

0

0.00

Southern U. and A&M College at Baton Rouge

LA

1,243,085

0

0.00

Bryman Institute

MA

4,086

0

0.00

WyoTech — Bedford

MA

10,000

0

0.00

Fisher College

MA

85,308

0

0.00

Hellenic College & Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology

MA

17,613

0

0.00

Concordia University

MI

76,608

0

0.00

Dunwoody College of Technology

MN

120,000

0

0.00

Wentworth Military Academy & Junior College

MO

1,809

0

0.00

American Academy of Dramatic Arts

NY

45,286

0

0.00

Bryant & Stratton Business Institute

NY

136,250

0

0.00

Maria College

NY

11,814

0

0.00

Sage Colleges

NY

205,076

0

0.00

SUNY Maritime College

NY

33,325

0

0.00

Villa Maria College of Buffalo

NY

48,140

0

0.00

American Baptist Theological Seminary

TN

7,391

0

0.00

ATI Technical Training Center

TX

5,000

0

0.00

Angelina College

TX

156,406

0

0.00

Prairie View Agricultural & Mechanical University

TX

1,446,422

0

0.00

Stevens Henager College

UT

30,000

0

0.00

Norwich University

VT

544,840

0

0.00

Kee Business College

VA

13,074

0

0.00

Saint Paul’s College

VA

351,638

0

0.00

Perry Technical Institute

WA

35,000

0

0.00

Bellin College of Nursing

WI

8,291

0

0.00

Lincoln Technical Institute

MD

29,363

0

0.00

Berean Institute

PA

12,491

0

0.00

AMI American Motorcycle Institute

FL

25,000

0

0.00

American College of Hairstyling-Des Moines

IA

5,000

0

0.00

Southeastern Business College

OH

13,318

0

0.00

Bais Binyomin Academy

CT

0

0

0.00

Rasmussen College — Minnetonka

MN

35,291

0

0.00

American College of Hairstyling-Cedar Rapids

IA

5,000

0

0.00

Dance Theatre of Harlem (The)

NY

3,082

0

0.00

International Academy of Design and Technology

PA

118,689

0

0.00

Missouri School of Barbering & Hairstyling-St. Louis

MO

5,000

0

0.00

American Academy of Art

IL

10,000

0

0.00

Savannah River College

GA

5,000

0

0.00

Modern Hairstyling Institute

PR

25,937

0

0.00

Modern Hairstyling Institute

PR

7,941

0

0.00

Modern Hairstyling Institute

PR

12,411

0

0.00

Gwinnett Technical College

GA

100,000

0

0.00

Las Vegas College

NV

37,570

0

0.00

MTI College of Business and Technology

TX

114,284

0

0.00

Capitol City Careers

TX

27,000

0

0.00

Mountain West College

UT

59,298

0

0.00

Everest College

AZ

10,438

0

0.00

Akron Machining Institute

OH

9,266

0

0.00

Rabbi Jacob Joseph School

NJ

0

0

0.00

Magnolia Bible College

MS

2,772

0

0.00

Florida National College

FL

75,000

0

0.00

New England Technical Institute

CT

0

0

0.00

Southern Careers Institute

TX

32,457

0

0.00

Central Florida College

FL

50,000

0

0.00

Cooking & Hospitality Institute of Chicago (The)

IL

25,051

0

0.00

Lamson College

AZ

4,686

0

0.00

Arlington Baptist College

TX

999

0

0.00

Academy of Court Reporting

CA

0

0

0.00

American College of Medical Technology

CA

17,746

0

0.00

Platt College

OK

7,759

0

0.00

Saint Vincents Catholic Medical Centers of New York Bklyn &Qns. Region

NY

9,600

0

0.00

Academy College

MN

1,079

0

0.00

Bryman College

WA

16,386

0

0.00

Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences Schools

IL

7,748

0

0.00

Miami Ad School

FL

10,574

0

0.00

Davis College

NY

23,147

0

0.00

Apollo College

ID

36,684

0

0.00

Apex School Of Theology

NC

5,000

0

0.00

Williamson Christian College

TN

20

0

0.00

North Florida Institute

FL

50,000

0

0.00

Connecticut Culinary Institute

CT

40,964

0

0.00

Remington College — San Diego Campus

CA

36,560

0

0.00

Virginia College at Pensacola

FL

45,831

0

0.00

Winner Institute of Arts & Sciences

PA

3,137

0

0.00

Lamar Institute of Technology

TX

25,000

0

0.00

Rosedale Bible College

OH

10,851

0

0.00

Sanford-Brown Institute

NY

29,146

0

0.00

Chicago School of Massage Therapy

IL

4,360

0

0.00

East Valley Institute of Technology

AZ

0

0

0.00

Community Enhancement Services

CA

5,000

0

0.00

PC Tech Learning Center

NJ

5,000

0

0.00

Culinary Institute Alain and Marie LeNotre

TX

5,000

0

0.00

Utah College of Massage Therapy

UT

200,000

0

0.00

South Florida Institute of Technology

FL

5,000

0

0.00

California School of Culinary Arts

CA

241,946

355

0.15

ABI-AccuTech Business Institute

MD

33,271

81

0.24

Cogswell Polytechnical College

CA

25,729

100

0.39

Berkeley College

NJ

98,769

468

0.47

Ohlone College

CA

89,006

591

0.66

Austin Graduate School of Theology

TX

5,618

39

0.69

Rochester Business Institute

NY

39,226

291

0.74

Augusta Technical College

GA

90,000

741

0.82

Antonelli Institute

PA

19,121

187

0.98

Atlanta Metropolitan College

GA

130,530

1,307

1.00

ATI-Career Training Center

TX

41,685

452

1.08

Fisk University

TN

244,247

2,784

1.14

New England Culinary Institute

VT

72,905

842

1.15

North Carolina School of the Arts

NC

48,999

578

1.18

Stratford University

VA

33,771

423

1.25

Judson College

IL

113,986

1,445

1.27

American Educational College

PR

60,000

778

1.30

National Institute of Technology

TX

50,715

686

1.35

Capitol City Trade & Technical School

TX

92,000

1,296

1.41

Rosemont College

PA

92,075

1,314

1.43

Pennsylvania College of Art & Design

PA

10,470

157

1.50

Western Career College

CA

277,060

4,311

1.56

Rhodes College

TN

180,233

2,915

1.62

National Polytechnic College of Engineering and Oceaneering

CA

38,385

639

1.66

Central Maine Community College

ME

51,847

973

1.88

Aquinas College

MI

151,303

3,312

2.19

McCormick Theological Seminary

IL

30,000

657

2.19

ECPI Technical College — Roanoke

VA

35,246

772

2.19

Luther Seminary

MN

66,237

1,457

2.20

University of the Arts

PA

401,905

8,890

2.21

Ner Israel Rabbinical College

MD

67,262

1,492

2.22

Cambridge College

MA

200,000

4,475

2.24

Apollo College

AZ

261,932

5,871

2.24

Southwest Institute of Technology

TX

28,172

652

2.31

Salem International University

WV

333,332

7,957

2.39

ECPI College of Technology — Virginia Beach

VA

248,268

5,981

2.41

Southwest Tennessee Community College

TN

601,320

14,560

2.42

Shimer College

IL

85,900

2,154

2.51

Miles College

AL

322,846

8,208

2.54

Florida Metropolitan University

FL

132,713

3,375

2.54

Lincoln University

PA

279,204

7,340

2.63

Advanced Technology Institute

VA

22,474

593

2.64

Camelot College

LA

42,033

1,119

2.66

Everest College

CA

31,778

877

2.76

Rosedale Technical Institute

PA

25,934

716

2.76

ECPI Technical College — Richmond

VA

105,946

2,992

2.82

Watkins Institute College of Art & Design

TN

19,204

544

2.83

Hawaii Business College

HI

45,543

1,356

2.98

Fashion Careers of California College

CA

15,252

466

3.06

Full Sail Real World Education

FL

425,000

13,017

3.06

Marylhurst University

OR

70,657

2,174

3.08

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

CA

95,514

2,988

3.13

Ramapo College of New Jersey

NJ

245,015

7,725

3.15

Creative Circus (The)

GA

18,390

593

3.22

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

MA

548,296

17,771

3.24

Sanford-Brown College

MO

325,945

10,569

3.24

Northwestern Health Sciences University

MN

150,000

4,920

3.28

Orleans Technical Institute

PA

43,943

1,442

3.28

Taylor Business Institute

NY

114,840

3,798

3.31

Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College

MN

43,842

1,467

3.35

David Lipscomb University

TN

112,069

3,933

3.51

Glendale Career College

CA

25,000

900

3.60

Caldwell College

NJ

109,738

3,962

3.61

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

TX

189,747

6,888

3.63

Anoka Technical College

MN

50,000

1,818

3.64

Hill College

TX

82,074

2,987

3.64

Southwest Florida College

FL

188,856

6,940

3.67

Brown Mackie College-South Bend

IN

21,993

815

3.71

Capitol College

MD

51,396

1,905

3.71

Rush University

IL

300,000

11,280

3.76

University of South Carolina-Beaufort

SC

69,577

2,623

3.77

Parker College of Chiropractic

TX

125,000

4,762

3.81

Erie Business Center

PA

10,000

384

3.84

Grand Canyon University

AZ

223,660

8,653

3.87

College of Wooster

OH

270,916

10,556

3.90

Palm Beach Community College

FL

396,882

15,596

3.93

Ashmead College

WA

50,000

1,973

3.95

Louisiana College

LA

99,644

3,991

4.01

Brooks Institute of Photography

CA

223,004

8,939

4.01

National Institute of Technology

MI

89,355

3,616

4.05

Saint Charles County Community College

MO

70,000

2,861

4.09

Midwest Theological Seminary

MO

3,346

137

4.09

Drew University

NJ

267,773

10,981

4.10

Thunderbird — Garvin School of International Management

AZ

130,000

5,343

4.11

Sanford-Brown Institute

FL

124,960

5,188

4.15

Missouri Valley College

MO

156,409

6,525

4.17

SUNY Empire State College

NY

394,950

16,563

4.19

Kean University

NJ

440,172

18,570

4.22

Union Institute & University

OH

188,504

7,960

4.22

Edison College

FL

185,973

7,959

4.28

National School of Technology

FL

120,000

5,239

4.37

Oklahoma Panhandle State University

OK

44,222

1,955

4.42

Saint Martin’s College

WA

120,724

5,342

4.42

Brown Mackie College-Cincinnati

OH

200,000

8,868

4.43

Christian Brothers University

TN

172,372

7,702

4.47

Philander Smith College

AR

141,682

6,341

4.48

Texas Southern University

TX

1,127,687

50,582

4.49

Fuller Theological Seminary

CA

159,010

7,147

4.49

Schiller International University

FL

20,000

910

4.55

Wesley Theological Seminary

DC

21,733

1,000

4.60

Bryman College

WA

50,000

2,321

4.64

Eagle Gate College

UT

40,810

1,903

4.66

Luzerne County Community College

PA

200,000

9,332

4.67

Indiana University — Northwest

IN

175,097

8,210

4.69

Blair College

CO

56,315

2,705

4.80

University of Houston — Clear Lake

TX

156,292

7,529

4.82

Westwood College of Aviation Technology

CA

40,665

1,961

4.82

Wake Technical Community College

NC

70,000

3,416

4.88

Fort Scott Community College

KS

78,585

3,885

4.94

William Jessup University

CA

24,868

1,244

5.00

La Salle University

PA

572,794

28,747

5.02

Gibbs College

CT

85,000

4,303

5.06

Walla Walla Community College

WA

111,391

5,644

5.07

Elgin Community College

IL

180,490

9,178

5.09

Ogden Weber Applied Technology College

UT

84,187

4,341

5.16

New Mexico Military Institute

NM

17,000

878

5.16

Brevard Community College

FL

288,129

14,996

5.20

Fontbonne University

MO

90,000

4,689

5.21

Free Will Baptist Bible College

TN

17,822

932

5.23

Northland Mission

WI

29,145

1,558

5.35

Interboro Institute

NY

225,000

12,036

5.35

Bramson ORT College

NY

54,355

2,923

5.38

Alfred University

NY

266,204

14,640

5.50

Vanguard University of Southern California

CA

145,947

8,033

5.50

Floyd College

GA

105,688

5,878

5.56

Reinhardt College

GA

70,000

3,897

5.57

California Maritime Academy

CA

15,000

836

5.57

Bacone College

OK

83,333

4,655

5.59

South College

NC

20,310

1,136

5.59

International College

FL

108,924

6,132

5.63

National Institute of Technology

WV

37,995

2,139

5.63

Southern Vermont College

VT

102,944

5,818

5.65

All-State Career School

MD

32,341

1,834

5.67

Davis College

OH

30,000

1,714

5.71

Parks College

CO

123,100

7,034

5.71

Saginaw Valley State University

MI

282,330

16,197

5.74

Art Center Design College (The)

AZ

89,062

5,118

5.75

Sanford-Brown Institute

TX

77,294

4,458

5.77

Elizabeth City State University

NC

362,889

21,074

5.81

Career Colleges of America

CA

52,635

3,071

5.83

Webster University

MO

614,716

35,890

5.84

Sanford-Brown Institute

GA

419,332

24,549

5.85

All-State Career School

PA

36,597

2,148

5.87

Border Institute of Technology

TX

35,751

2,100

5.87

Martin University

IN

77,511

4,562

5.89

Art Institute of California — San Diego

CA

115,298

6,794

5.89

SUNY College of Technology at Canton

NY

171,765

10,124

5.89

Life University

GA

300,206

17,757

5.91

Everest College

CA

40,915

2,423

5.92

Everest College

CA

15,809

944

5.97

Pittsburgh Technical Institute

PA

181,780

10,887

5.99

Olympia Career Training Institute

MI

62,608

3,751

5.99

North-West College

CA

8,749

525

6.00

Western School of Health & Business Careers

PA

85,401

5,179

6.06

Centenary College of Louisiana

LA

142,182

8,625

6.07

Community College of Denver

CO

272,591

16,550

6.07

Georgia Medical Institute

GA

85,399

5,196

6.08

Gibbs College

NJ

201,768

12,358

6.12

ATI Career Training Center

TX

44,600

2,748

6.16

Dover Business College

NJ

22,961

1,419

6.18

Kettering College of Medical Arts

OH

38,754

2,408

6.21

Nashville State Technical Community College

TN

78,963

4,908

6.22

International Institute of the Americas

AZ

100,000

6,235

6.24

Central Oklahoma Area Vocational-Technical School District No. 3

OK

5,994

374

6.24

Pyramid Career Institute

IL

4,915

308

6.27

Baptist University of the Americas

TX

5,623

354

6.30

Kansas City Art Institute

MO

89,969

5,679

6.31

Barton College

NC

209,392

13,315

6.36

Manhattanville College

NY

238,692

15,210

6.37

University of Texas at Dallas

TX

461,240

29,666

6.43

University of South Carolina Upstate

SC

200,000

12,891

6.45

Little Big Horn College

MT

20,000

1,297

6.49

School of Automotive Machinists

TX

8,446

550

6.51

Virginia College of Birmingham

AL

671,883

43,930

6.54

University of Central Oklahoma

OK

438,185

28,774

6.57

Daytona Beach Community College

FL

304,969

20,124

6.60

City Colleges of Chicago System Office

IL

2,104,974

139,844

6.64

Asbury Theological Seminary

KY

141,106

9,425

6.68

El Paso Community College

TX

1,031,212

68,967

6.69

Franciscan University of Steubenville

OH

135,855

9,179

6.76

Florida Metropolitan University

FL

148,388

10,066

6.78

Luther Rice Seminary

GA

20,468

1,390

6.79

Drury University

MO

253,023

17,200

6.80

Art Center College of Design

CA

373,744

25,614

6.85

Southeastern Oklahoma State University

OK

256,509

17,601

6.86

College of Visual Arts

MN

27,096

1,860

6.86

Northwestern State University

LA

288,356

19,885

6.90

Wilberforce University

OH

1,425,055

98,314

6.90

Upper Iowa University

IA

332,158

22,989

6.92

College of the Holy Cross

MA

640,478

44,496

6.95

Gulf Coast College

FL

13,874

966

6.96

Doug Lederman

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Comments

A couple of things. First, look at the allocations for most of these colleges. In many instances, you would have to set up a program to spend less than $100. Secondly, has the Dept of Ed done many sessions on FWSP and/or community service lately because if they have, I haven’t seen them. It’s still the reg and you still have to follow it but many of the problems that schools originally had with community service still exist and the Dept of Ed has done little in support of information or training on this. Another social program stuck in the middle of funding for need based aid.

Annmarie, at 9:10 am EDT on October 11, 2007

Deflecting responsibility

I hope that the colleges on this list wont act like the previous commenter and blame the program rather then themselves. There are 300 colleges on here, that means thousands of colleges are in compliance.

It is a poor excuse to say the community service jobs are in locations our students cant get to. The college could set up a program that includes transportation, it could include work study students and volunteers. I bet the work study students would end up volunteering time beyond the time they would get paid.

And to excuse the colleges who recieve so little money that meeting the 7% would require them to set up a program covering only “$100″ is lame. THe 7% is just a minimum, an entire work study program could be set up for community service. Or set up just one student in community sevice and you cover your obligation. This would be a lot better then paying students to be parking lot attendants which I suspect a lot of work study money goes to. These are dollars all taxpayers contributed, to ask colleges to make sure some is spent on public service rather then menial campus jobs is absolutely appropriate.

Dan, at 9:50 am EDT on October 11, 2007

College work study and community service

Being part of a small community hospital, we have little difficulty meeting the 7% standard for community service. However, I can see how many small schools like us in rural areas, or in specialized areas of training would have problems. I think a decent alternative would be to limit this requiremnent along with the reading and math tutoring regulations to schools with college work study grants in excess of $50,000 or $100,000...any lower, and the administrative cost of running the service program could well exceed the CWS funds that such students receive.

feudi pandola, at 9:50 am EDT on October 11, 2007

At Rhodes, “high need” students “don’t have transportation to go off campus” to the heart of downtown Memphis, where most of the community service jobs are

Our motor pool office is in the security office, so there’s always someone there. Students who need transport to community service jobs call the motor pool who arrange for a car to take them down and someone to pick them up. While it may cost a little money, I suppose, wealthy institutions like Rhodes should find it worth the cost.

Lori, assoc. prof., at 10:10 am EDT on October 11, 2007

Disgusted

These numbers stagger the imagination. You have schools, some of which claim to be “socially responsible” and receiving in some cases more than $100,000 in funds, and they do nothing for community service? That is just sickening.

How hard is it to arrange it so students can work for a volunteer fire department? Or a hospital? Or a homeless shelter or food pantry or low income school or a library...shall I go on? Career service departments set up partnerships all the time. Setting up work study programs for the community isn’t exactly a tough sell.

kgotthardt, at 11:50 am EDT on October 11, 2007

There is absolutely no excuse to receive federal funds and not comply by it’s regs.

If you don’t need the money then please send it back there are others who need it. PERIOD!

Why is it that all they get is a dear colleague letter? These institutions should be put on probation immediately.

Nedi Goga, at 1:50 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

I noticed there were a handful of schools with zero work-study allocation. Yet they are on the list for spending zero funds — and zero percent on community service. Somehow it doesn’t seem right that they should receive a you’ve-been-bad letter.

RC, at 1:50 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

Additional Comments

A couple of additional comments. It’s not the Dept of Ed’s fault that schools don’t meet 7%; my point is that they could have been more proactive in their workshops and publications over the past 15 years that community service has been in place. I wish they were and I’ll bet other schools do too (we’re among the 2700+ schools that are over the 7%, just for the record—90% are well within or over compliance.). How many of you have attended a conference session put on by the Dept of Ed about FWSP spending or community service in the last 10 years? When ACG/SMART Grants came out, you could attend a session a week if you wanted to. I’m asking for more attention in general to be paid to FWSP administration before we go cutting all federal funding to schools. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Secondly, the requirement is 7%; many of these schools are near 7% and I don’t think they should be penalized if they’re close. Subtract out the number of institutions who are over 6% and concentrate on those with larger FWSP’s who haven’t done anything, not schools who have tried. The FWSP accounting is way more demanding than any other financial aid program and I think that needs some recognition. (Dan, I don’t think you run an FWSP—like so many of the people who criticise those who do it— because parking lot attendents are not what most, if any, students are doing; and even students in community service may be doing the exact same office type work they’d be doing on campus.) Last, if community service is so important, why are only FWSP students required to do it? Why does the FWSP have to meet the community service requirements of a college? I’m not anti-community service. I just think that the hysteria that surrounds this topic whenever it comes up needs a little toning down and perspective.

Annmarie, at 1:55 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

Out of Focus

Annmarie is 100% on target with her comments. Every time a federal program is revised or created, I want to know if the revisions (or program as a whole) benefit students, or if the revisions cause administrators to spend countless hours overseeing the regulations. From my vantage point as a financial aid counselor of many years, the Dept. of Ed has lost the focus of helping students obtain degrees.

The suggestion that putting colleges who are not meeting the 7% minimum for fed work study on probation immediately is riciculous. What benefit does that serve? And who will it hurt? Obviously it hurts students.

I have yet to observe any changes to federal aid in the past year that truly are miraculous- schools cannot find SMART recipients etc... and this is what administrators have to waste time on when they would certainly rather work with their colleagues creating great off campus work study programs.

Carly, at 5:55 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

Community Service

Again the Feds try to use social programs to legislate behaviour. We want people to volunteer to help communities so the Feds decide we should force schools to set up programs so we can pay students to volunteer?

Doug, at 8:50 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

Uh, what kind of transportation do you need?

Suggestion: on-line tutoring is an ever growing segment of the education industry. Students could produce iTunes U tutoring, YouTube segments, real time chat, message boards, reading/listening partners, unimaginable possibilities here. The university which first secures a grant to develop something can offer services to the others that need the community service hours. With a little creativity this problem could be leveraged into a great opportunity to increase funding.

Randy, at 8:50 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

Legislating Behavior?

Doug, the tax payers pay for financial aid in the form of work study programs. What is so terrible about giving some of that back TO the tax payers via service while teaching students the value of contributing to community as they gain work related skills? It’s a win-win all around if it’s done correctly.

kgotthardt, at 10:25 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

You can’t legislate interest

A lot of students just aren’t interested in community service jobs, and a lot of community services aren’t interested in what they see as spoiled college students getting paid to do what the rest of their workforce does on a volunteer basis. I worked at a school that was trying to work with public schools, libraries, etc, to provide services we agreed they needed (setting up computer networks, etc), and the few students who were interested in doing it were met with hostility from the people they were there to help.

I have always said that if Congress would like to see students doing community service, there are better ways to do it. Make FWS non need-based for community service, that way anyone who was interested could participate even if they didn’t qualify for aid. Give schools incentives or rewards, such as a waiver of the institutional capital contribution for FWS or at least the community service dollars spent. Acknowledge other non-FWS community services the school provides. But making this mandatory...to me, it’s amazing that only 10% of the schools nationwide aren’t in compliance.

DS, at 9:10 am EDT on October 12, 2007

I don’t think it’s amazing that only 10% of the school are not in compliance. It’s not a hard reg to comply with!

If an outside organization doesn’t want college kids to help with programs, there are so many other places that would be thrilled to have the help. If students “are not interested,” have them work in their fields but in a needy sector. And there is nothing saying the University can’t set the program up right there on campus! Or how about online?

No, schools in the 10% that are complaining are making excuses. They just don’t see it as a priority, obviously.

kgotthardt, at 4:20 pm EDT on October 12, 2007

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