On Jan 28, 6:20pm, Dave Ball wrote:
> I would appreciate feedback from anyone who has been involved with an
> undergraduate volunteer service center that also contained a student
> residence hall. I am wondering what it would be like to start such a
thing
> in a former fraternity house. Specifically, are undergraduate
residential
> living/volunteer service combinations a positive influence on campus
life
> and student commitment to service, or are they more likely to get
service
> all mixed up with the things that can go wrong with student
residential
> life? I am assuming that to be successful, such a center would need
to
> develop a sense of community among the residents, and that would take
some
> planning, training and programming... Could it succeed? What are
some key
> things to do? What are common pitfalls to avoid?
> Thanks for your time and thoughts,
> Dave Ball
Dave, your description matches our program perfectly. In May of last
year Southern Methodist University suspended one of its fraternities
from campus. The fraternity house was turned over to the Offices of
Volunteer Services and Housing and Residence Life creating the SMU
Service House (SMUSH). I am the Assistant Coordinator in the Volunteer
Office and I moved in as House Advisor in August.
The SMU Service House has 28 residents (14 male, 14 female)(6 First
year, 12 Sophomores, 5 junior, 5 Seniors) The residents commit to 20
hours of community service each semester. They rotate responsibility
for weekly community dinners, kitchen duty, bringing guest speakers,
etc... They participate in one of the 4 House committees, Maintenance,
Events, Service, or Decorations in addition to the weekly House
meetings.
The Service House has been a =D2positive influence on campus life=D3. We
support volunteerism on campus by providing a gathering place for
volunteers, hosting workshops, inviting community service agencies to
campus (We=D5re still working on this one), etc... The Service House has
given a home to student volunteers who are often forgotten by mainstream
campus life.
Combining the volunteerism theme with cooperative living has brought
added challenges to this pilot program but the learning potential is so
much greater. Residents must learn to confront, compromise, and
cooperate. Sure we=D5ve had our run-ins with stolen pizza from the
refrigerator, dirty dishes, alcohol, and late night =D2visits=D3 from
members of the former fraternity but we=D5ve learned a lot from our first
semester.
This program has taken much more work than I anticipated but it is
rewarding to see how far the residents have come and exciting to
envision the potential such a program has.
I would love to talk with any of you and share whatever we have. I
modeled pieces of our program after Georgetown=D5s District Action
Project. There are also established programs at Rutgers and Stanford.
Good Luck,
MIKE KERN
--=20
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MIKE KERN
Asst. Coord. Volunteer Services Southern Methodist University=20
& SMU Service House Advisor PO Box 172
mkern@mail.smu.edu Dallas, TX 75275-0172
(214) 768-4418
(214) 768-4600 (fax)
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