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The other college rankings ...: when it comes to national service, America's "best colleges" are its worst.


Chances are that if you attended college in the last 35 years and didn't come from a wealthy family, you received financial aid that included a work-study job. And chances are that the job you held entailed washing dishes in the cafeteria cafeteria: see restaurant. , opening mail in the registrar's office, or signing out basketballs at the school gym. Though you may not have been aware of it, 75 percent of your wages came from Uncle Sam Uncle Sam, name used to designate the U.S. government. The term arose in the War of 1812 and seems at first to have been used derisively by those opposed to the war. Possibly it was an expansion of the letters "U.S. , through the Federal Work-Study Program Noun 1. work-study program - an educational plan in which students alternate between paid employment and formal study
didactics, education, educational activity, instruction, pedagogy, teaching - the activities of educating or instructing; activities that impart
, created to help students pay their way through college. Today, the program is bigger than ever, providing jobs to almost one million students through more than $1 billion in financial aid.

But for a small number of students, work-study means more than just providing grunt labor for their college or university. It involves serving their community by tutoring, mentoring, or building homes for low-income families. Suzanne Mastrogiovanni, a senior at Nova Southeastern University History
Originally named Nova University of Advanced Technology,[7] the university was chartered by the state of Florida in 1964[8][9] as a graduate institution in the physical and social sciences.
 in Ft. Lauderdale, teaches 7-year-olds in a local school how to read. Upon completing a three-hour training course and passing a police background check, she abandoned her previous work-study job of cleaning equipment in the athletic center. "That was kind of a grub job," she says. "But working with kids every day is a new adventure." About 40 percent of Nova Southeastern's students work in community service to fulfill ful·fill also ful·fil  
tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils
1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises.

2.
 their financial aid requirement, one of the highest rates in the country.

Students like Mastrogiovanni and universities like Nova Southeastern were exactly what Congress had in mind when it established the program in 1965. But over the years that spirit of service has withered--today it's the exception rather than the rule. Though students themselves are often eager to serve, the most recent Department of Education figures show that the average college devotes less than 12 percent of its work-study funds to community service.

Given the renewed public interest in national service since September 11, it's worth examining what has happened to one of the first federal programs created to encourage it. Which schools are leading the way? Which ones are slacking? To find out, The Washington Monthly teamed up with Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism (often just called Medill) is one of the premier journalism, integrated marketing, and media schools in the United States.  to take a close look at the data--reported annually by schools themselves--and to interview dozens of college presidents, students, financial aid officers, lobbyists, and nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive.

Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law.
 directors. The results can be found in the accompanying tables. Think of them as college rankings that measure what the other guys don't--schools' commitment to community service, the Peace Corps, and the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

What the numbers show is that when it comes to community service, the nation's best schools perform the worst. Of the top 20 liberal arts liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.  schools in the U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report

Weekly newsmagazine published in Washington, D.C. U.S. News was founded in 1933 by David Lawrence (1888–1973) to cover important domestic events; he founded World Report in 1945 to treat world news. The two magazines were merged in 1948.
 college rankings, 70 percent fall below the national average for performing work-study service--also known as "serve-study" (see page 15). The top 20 universities do even worse; 75 percent trail the average (see page 14). In fact, of the 20 colleges and universities that devote the greatest percentage of their federal aid to community service, only Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president.  ranks among the U.S. News top 20. Elite schools did somewhat better in another measure of service, graduates who joined the Peace Corps (see page 16). But for military service like ROTC, America's best colleges and universities are AWOL (see page 17). "We can safely say," concludes Barry Checkoway Barry Checkoway is a Professor of Social Work and Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Checkoway is internationally renowned for his contributions to the field of youth studies, particularly focusing on community youth development. , a professor of social work and urban planning urban planning: see city planning.
urban planning

Programs pursued as a means of improving the urban environment and achieving certain social and economic objectives.
 at the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. , "that most of the nation's prestigious universities have abandoned their civic mission."

The poor service records in higher education higher education

Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art.
, especially by the best schools, have drawn the attention of lawmakers. In December, Senators John McCain For McCain's grandfather and father, see John S. McCain, Sr. and John S. McCain, Jr., respectively
John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936 in Panama Canal Zone) is an American politician, war veteran, and currently the Republican Senior U.S. Senator from Arizona.
 (R-Ariz.) and Evan Bayh Birch Evans Bayh III (commonly known as Evan Bayh) (pronounced like "bye"; IPA pronunciation: [baɪ]) (born December 26, 1955) is an American politician who has served as the junior U.S.  (D-Ind.) introduced legislation requiring schools to devote at least 25 percent of their work-study funding to community service, up from 7 percent today. Such a move could transform the one million work-study students into the nation's largest community-service organization, dwarfing In horticulture dwarfing is considered a desirable characteristic in modern orchards, where genetic dwarfs may be selected and propagated, or more often, scions are grafted on to dwarfing rootstocks.  even the 50,000 participants in Americorps.

It would be a boon Boon

A general term that refers to a benefit or improvement for investors. This can include such things as increased dividends, a stock market rally and stock buybacks.

Notes:
 to the nation's needy need·y  
adj. need·i·er, need·i·est
1. Being in need; impoverished. See Synonyms at poor.

2. Wanting or needing affection, attention, or reassurance, especially to an excessive degree.
. The America Reads program employs about 29,000 work-study students to tutor tens of thousands of elementary school elementary school: see school.  kids, making measurable improvement in reading skills. College students themselves benefit, too. A recent UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles
UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University)
UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX
 study of 22,000 college students found that performing community service boosted everything from grade-point average and writing skills to self-esteem and racial understanding.

But before Congress expands serve-study, it should take a hard look at how the program is being run--which is not very well. It is rarely monitored and entirely unenforced, with many schools gaming numbers to meet requirements or simply ignoring them altogether.

Government-Subsidized Caddies

The Federal Work-Study Program was initiated under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and moved to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as part of the Higher Education Act The Higher Education Act may refer to an Act of either the Congress of the United States or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
  • The Higher Education Act of 1965, an Act of the Congress of the United States which was supposed to strengthen the resources of colleges and
 of 1965. "Work-study," says Lois Dickson Rice, an education scholar at the Brookings Institute, "had an implicit, if not an explicit, purpose of urging students to do community service." Indeed, look up today's law and its purpose seems clear: "[T]o encourage students receiving Federal student financial aid to participate in community service activities that will benefit the nation and engender en·gen·der  
v. en·gen·dered, en·gen·der·ing, en·gen·ders

v.tr.
1. To bring into existence; give rise to: "Every cloud engenders not a storm" 
 in the students a sense of social responsibility and commitment to the community." For a while, that's what it did. But in the late 1960s, as students became increasingly radicalized by the anti-war movement, schools retreated from community service which, loosely defined, could include the sorts of activities that alarm university administrators--in the late '60s thousands of work-study students organized under the progressive New York City New York City: see New York, city.
New York City

City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S.
 Mayor John Lindsay This article is about the American politician. For other people of this name, see John Lindsay (disambiguation).
John Vliet Lindsay (November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American liberal politician who served as a member of the United States House of
. In the 1970s colleges saw their costs soar SOAR - 1. State, Operator And Result. A general problem-solving production system architecture, intended as a model of human intelligence. Developed by A. Newell in the early 1980s. SOAR was originally implemented in Lisp and OPS5 and is currently implemented in Common Lisp.  during the energy crisis; state schools in particular were left to operate with much smaller budgets. To compensate, more and more schools limited work-study jobs to campus, where students--a cheap source of labor--began working in academic departments, libraries, dining halls, and rec REC - CONVERT  centers. The ideal of community service all but disappeared. Many schools, particularly expensive elite universities, didn't seem to mind.

A decade later, centrist Democrats revived the idea of tying service to work-study when, in 1989, Sen. Sam Nunn Samuel Augustus Nunn, Jr. (born September 8, 1938) is an American businessman and politician. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NTI (Nuclear Threat Initiative), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and  (D-Ga.) proposed that all such jobs involve community service. His bill didn't get far. But three years later, Sen. Harris Wofford Harris Llewellyn Wofford (born April 9, 1926) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1995. He was also the fifth president of Bryn Mawr College.  (D-Pa.) introduced a measure which halved halve  
tr.v. halved, halv·ing, halves
1. To divide (something) into two equal portions or parts.

2. To lessen or reduce by half: halved the recipe to serve two.

3.
 that requirement. House Republicans weakened weak·en  
tr. & intr.v. weak·ened, weak·en·ing, weak·ens
To make or become weak or weaker.



weaken·er n.
 it to just 5 percent (it rose to 7 percent last year), before passing what became today's law. But the appeal of service continued to grow on both sides of the aisle. Colin Powell Noun 1. Colin Powell - United States general who was the first African American to serve as chief of staff; later served as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush (born 1937)
Colin luther Powell, Powell
 and President Bill Clinton each took up the mantle mantle, portion of the earth's interior lying beneath the crust and above the core. No direct observation of the mantle, or its upper boundary, has been made; its boundaries have been determined solely by abrupt changes in the velocities and character of seismic , culminating in a national summit on service in Philadelphia in 1997. A year later, Clinton again sought to vastly increase the work-study program--initiating the recent funding boom, which injected in·ject·ed
adj.
1. Of or relating to a substance introduced into the body.

2. Of or relating to a blood vessel that is visibly distended with blood.



injected

1. introduced by injection.

2. congested.
 an additional $300 million. But as they had with Wofford, lobbyists for colleges and universities balked balk  
v. balked, balk·ing, balks

v.intr.
1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump.

2.
 when Clinton proposed tying half of work-study aid to community-service jobs. Eventually, Clinton conceded con·cede  
v. con·ced·ed, con·ced·ing, con·cedes

v.tr.
1. To acknowledge, often reluctantly, as being true, just, or proper; admit. See Synonyms at acknowledge.

2.
 that this should only apply to "new" money he'd allotted al·lot  
tr.v. al·lot·ted, al·lot·ting, al·lots
1. To parcel out; distribute or apportion: allotting land to homesteaders; allot blame.

2.
.

Even this proved unacceptable to the lobbyists, who vehemently oppose federal regulation. "The higher education lobby got a negotiating meeting at the White House," says Wofford, "and threatened, if any requirements were written into law, to withhold with·hold  
v. with·held , with·hold·ing, with·holds

v.tr.
1. To keep in check; restrain.

2. To refrain from giving, granting, or permitting. See Synonyms at keep.

3.
 their support from the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act." As an alternative, they promised that schools would commit to training 100,000 tutors for America Reads. Says a former Democratic Senate aide involved in the negotiations, "They said, `Look, just don't put in law and we'll do it.' The White House had a lot of other business to do with this crowd, and took them at their work when they pledged to live up to the commitment--which they in fact have not." While community service has increased on some campuses, for the most part schools have ignored their promise. The number of America Reads tutors in work-study has never topped 30,000.

Coupled with the Department of Education's lack of enforcement, the practical result is that only schools that wish to support community service do so. Last year 174 schools failed to meet the 5-percent minimum. Most didn't even bother to request an easily obtainable waivers, putting them in open violation of the law (for a list, see page 18). "There are enormous punitive pu·ni·tive  
adj.
Inflicting or aiming to inflict punishment; punishing.



[Medieval Latin pn
 measures in that the Department of Education can come in any time they want, unannounced, and audit institutions and make them prove that they're meeting the rules and regulation," says one lobbyist. "Failure can get you everything from a fine to getting kicked out of the work-study program--the death penalty." But in practice, no school has been penalized pe·nal·ize  
tr.v. pe·nal·ized, pe·nal·iz·ing, pe·nal·iz·es
1. To subject to a penalty, especially for infringement of a law or official regulation. See Synonyms at punish.

2.
 in the seven years that the law has existed. Schools recognize that they can get away with openly defying the law, because, as this lobbyist puts it, "the Department of Education has always been a thinly staffed, low-prestige agency," unwilling or unable to police the schools.

Not only do many schools ignore service, many more make dubious claims of "community service" for jobs that probably shouldn't count as such. The University of Kansas The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU or just Kansas) is an institution of higher learning in Lawrence, Kansas. The main campus resides atop Mount Oread.  gives service credits to students who work at the campus theater and art museum, since both are open to the public. At Edgewood College Edgewood College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Madison, Wisconsin, in the Diocese of Madison. Overlooking the shores of Lake Wingra, it occupies 55 acres (223,000 m²) of Madison's near-west side. , which boasts Wisconsin's highest compliance level, many community service jobs are in the school's own library. And at the University of Missouri-Rolla, which spent the most community service work-study dollars in the state, most students never leave campus--instead they staff the school's golf course and financial aid office. Bob Whites, the school's director of financial assistance, reasons that "all these qualify as community service, because the facilities serve the community"--a distressingly common refrain. At Florida Memorial College, which runs mentoring and financial-advice clinics in Ft. Lauderdale, financial aid director Brian Phillips also counts as community service answering phones on campus. "[It's] a community contact," he claims. "Once the student picks up that phone, it's community service."

Ivy League Ivy League

Group of eight universities in the northeastern U.S., high in academic and social prestige, that are members of an athletic conference for intercollegiate gridiron football dating to the 1870s.
 Excuses

The woeful woe·ful also wo·ful  
adj.
1. Affected by or full of woe; mournful.

2. Causing or involving woe.

3. Deplorably bad or wretched:
 state of work-study community service on many campuses can be traced directly to college presidents and financial aid administrators, who bristle at Verb 1. bristle at - show anger or indignation; "She bristled at his insolent remarks"
bridle at, bridle up, bristle up

mind - be offended or bothered by; take offense with, be bothered by; "I don't mind your behavior"
 the thought of federal regulation. "Presidents at many prominent institutions take an adamant position that work-study is strictly financial aid"--despite the law--"and reject government telling them how to spend it, regardless of what they do," says Robert A. Corrigan, president of San Francisco State University     [  and chairman of the university presidents' committee on America Reads.

To fend off Verb 1. fend off - prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; "Let's avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation"; "avert a strike"
deflect, forefend, forfend, head off, avert, stave off, ward off, avoid, debar, obviate
 measures such as Wofford's and Clinton's requires a powerful higher education lobby, referred to collectively as "One Dupont Circle Dupont Circle is a traffic circle in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue, P Street and 19th Street. ," after the black-glass-and-marble building in Washington that many of its component institutions occupy. The lobby encompasses about 100 groups, whose size, wealth, and organization, make them a considerable force for good (increasing support for scientific research) as well as ill (deterring community-service requirements). "Of the nine federal student-aid programs for undergraduates," says Terry Hartle, a lobbyist for the American Education Council, which represents college presidents, "I think work-study is the second-most difficult for colleges and universities to administer because so many rules and regulations complicate com·pli·cate  
tr. & intr.v. com·pli·cat·ed, com·pli·cat·ing, com·pli·cates
1. To make or become complex or perplexing.

2. To twist or become twisted together.

adj.
1.
 programs like community service."

Those who oppose requiring schools to spend work-study dollars on community service generally trot trot

one of the natural gaits of the horse; a two-beat gait on alternating diagonals.


collected trot
the head is held well in and the horse is not permitted to fully extend its limbs.
 out the same handful of arguments. The first is the "heavy-paperwork" claim. But while regulations do add to a college's administrative burdens, service-minded universities such as Nova Southeastern and Case Western Reserve seem to manage just fine.

A corollary corollary: see theorem.  to this argument is that it's too much trouble to get students from campus into the community. "The studies are so rigorous here," says Jane Smith, MIT's student employment director, "that when they have to travel off campus, it's really hard for them. They can only afford a certain number of hours a week." While it's true that some students would lose study time if MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology  were to boost their service commitment, there's a certain dog-ate-my-homework quality to Smith's excuse, which becomes clear when you measure the school's record against the competition. After all, Stanford, an equally challenging school, places 22 percent of its students in service jobs. And Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College


Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
, just across town from MIT, achieves a rate about six times higher than MIT's. "I don't think Harvard students have any more time than MIT students," responds Harvard's student employment director.

Another common argument holds that the community-service requirement degrades work-study students. "It says that if you're low-income, were going to force you to do service," says one financial aid director, who requested anonymity. But this is a curious complaint, unless the on-campus alternatives--washing dishes, answering phones, or caddying for school administrators--can be considered to enhance self-esteem.

It's hard not to conclude that complaints about burdensome regulations and dubious issues of fairness have less to do with red tape and social justice than with the desire of many colleges to exploit the cheap labor that work-study students supply. Many schools, especially the most expensive, have come to depend on it for low-cost help in cafeterias, libraries, and gymnasiums--jobs that might otherwise be filed with outside workers who'd demand decent wages and benefits, and in some cases would join unions. "The university administrators and lobbyists are saying, `We want these jobs to help our budget, not to help our country or community,"' says former Sen. Wofford. And because the federal government subsidizes 75 percent of the cost of a work-study student, the price schools pay is next to nothing.

This relates to another deceptive de·cep·tive  
adj.
Deceptive or tending to deceive.



de·ceptive·ness n.
 argument which administrators summon TO SUMMON, practice. The act by which a defendant is notified by a competent officer, that an action has been instituted against him, and that he is required to answer to it at a time and place named. : that forcing colleges to meet community-service requirements would hurt low-income students. Money spent hiring non-student workers, so the argument goes, would mean less money available for financial aid for needy students. Joe Russo, financial aid director at Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame , says that if the community-service requirement were raised, "We might have to raise tuition to pay for it." But this argument rests on several flimsy premises. First, that the money saved is plowed back into needs-based scholarships. It isn't. Increasingly, the nation's top schools are beefing up merit scholarships--tuition discounts for the students with the highest SAT scores, who boost a school's ranking and prestige, but typically come from affluent families. The second faulty assumption is that all student workers would be replaced. But as anyone who's held a work-study job knows, a good chunk of campus-based assignments are make-work jobs--such as alphabetizing tests or cleaning gym equipment--that schools wouldn't actually pay to replace. In fact, some students seek out jobs that require almost no work at all. "I wanted a job where I could sit and get my homework done," explains Blake Brewster, a sophomore engineering major at Notre Dame. "That was at the information desk at the student center." The argument that reassigning some of these students to community service would drive up tuition prices is "an economic Rube Goldberg," quips Donald Kennedy Donald Kennedy (born 1931) is an American scientist, public administrator and academic.

Donald Kennedy was born in New York and educated at Harvard University (A.B.; Ph.D., Biology, 1956). He has spent most of his professional career at Stanford University.
, the former president of Stanford University.

In fact, schools are actually swimming in work-study funding, thanks to the Clinton-era expansion of the program from $757 million five years ago to more than $1 billion today. College financial aid officers are so flush with work-study dollars that they're awarding grants to middle- and upper-middle-class students simply by process of elimination The process of elimination is a basic logical tool to solve real world problems. By subsequently removing options that may be deemed impossible, illogical, or can be easily ruled out due to some sort of explicit understanding relative to the entire set of options, the pool of . "Colleges suddenly have all this work-study money," says one higher education lobbyist, "and they really don't have any place else to spend it."

The Inevitable Flake flake

an epidermal scale.

flake Cocaine, see there
 Factor

These economic pseudo-arguments are particularly galling when they come from elite private schools, which garner a disproportionate dis·pro·por·tion·ate  
adj.
Out of proportion, as in size, shape, or amount.



dispro·por
 share of federal work-study funding. "The further West you go, the less well-funded are the work-study programs," says President Corrigan of San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden  State. "If you look at the 100 schools that receive the most work-study money, they tend to be East Coast and private." Indeed, the top 20 U.S. News colleges and universities represent fewer than 1 percent of participating schools, yet receive nearly 6 percent of the money. That's because the top schools have rigged the system to their benefit. Many state schools and community colleges, especially in the Sun Belt, didn't exist at the advent of the work-study program in 1965. The predominantly elite, private schools that wielded influence structured the program in such a way that they received the largest allotment A portion, share, or division. The proportionate distribution of shares of stock in a corporation. The partition and distribution of land.


ALLOTMENT. Distribution by lot; partition. Merl. Rep. h.t.
, a sweetheart deal Sweetheart Deal

A merger or company sale where one company involved in the deal gives the other very attractive terms and conditions.

Notes:
In other words, a sweetheart deal is a transaction that a firm simply cannot pass-up. This is usually considered to be unethical.
 they've managed to extend through grandfathering provisions each time the formula is amended. "There's an old-boy network old-boy network
n.
An informal, exclusive system of mutual assistance and friendship through which men belonging to a particular group, such as the alumni of a school, exchange favors and connections, as in politics or business:
," says Arthur Hauptman, a public-policy consultant who specializes in higher education finance. "Schools that have been in the longest get the most money." Even the new money that Clinton won for work-study went disproportionately dis·pro·por·tion·ate  
adj.
Out of proportion, as in size, shape, or amount.



dispro·por
 to schools like the University of Notre Dame, Brown University, Dartmouth College Dartmouth College, at Hanover, N.H.; coeducational; chartered 1769, opened 1770, the ninth colonial college (see Wheelock, Eleazar). Originally a men's college, Dartmouth began admitting women in 1972. , Princeton University Princeton University, at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896. Schools and Research Facilities
, and MIT, which spent the least amount of money on community service.

Another frequent excuse (particularly among schools with poor service records) is that their students do plenty of volunteer work outside the work-study program. And indeed, some do. At Notre Dame, for instance, 75 to 80 percent of students get involved in community service at some point during their undergraduate years. But this supresses an important distinction by conflating volunteerism vol·un·teer·ism  
n.
Use of or reliance on volunteers, especially to perform social or educational work in communities.


volunteerism 
 with work-study: Community agencies and nonprofits agree that work-study students are preferable to volunteers because they're more reliable--after all, their financial aid, and by extension their college education, depends on their showing up for work. "I know a work-study kid is going to commit for a full semester se·mes·ter  
n.
One of two divisions of 15 to 18 weeks each of an academic year.



[German, from Latin (cursus) s
," says Karen Baker, who coordinated DC Reads, a citywide tutorial An instructional book or program that takes the user through a prescribed sequence of steps in order to learn a product. Contrast with documentation, which, although instructional, tends to group features and functions by category. See tutorials in this publication.  program that employs work-study students to teach children to read. "A volunteer might not. Unfortunately, the truth is that as the semester proceeds, student volunteers have midterms, finals, and other legitimate obligations that lead to the inevitable flake factor."

Student volunteers are most valuable for one-time, group-intensive projects, such as cleaning a park or painting a school. But they are far less suited than work-study students for projects that require regular, longer-term commitments, such as tutoring children. "Studies prove that unless there's a minimum of 20 tutoring sessions, it's rare to have an impact on a kid," Baker says. "[Work-study students] have a much higher likelihood of sticking with the experience. Frankly, pay does that for a college student who's balancing multiple priorities."

Not only is pay an incentive to stick with a commitment, it's an incentive to seek one out. Howard University Howard University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; with federal support. It was founded in 1867 by Gen. Oliver O. Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau, to provide education for newly emancipated slaves. A normal and preparatory department was opened the same year.  incorporated DC Reads into its work-study program during the 1997 school year and made the smart decision to pay tutors about $13 an hour (compared with $8 or $9 for typical jobs on campus). Because schools are given broad discretion in how they use "campus-based" financial aid like work-study, this is easy to do. Participation in Howard's DC Reads program skyrocketed over the next two years, peaking at 138 tutors in 2000. Due partly to this success, 20 percent of Howard's work-study funds that year were spent on community, service. Unfortunately, the economic incentive works both ways. When Howard established an even pay scale for all of its work-study jobs this year--it felt it wasn't attracting enough on-campus workers--the number of tutors dropped to 27.

The Town-Gown Divide

So why do some colleges place so many work-study kids in community service while others (often elite schools) can't seem to manage? Part of the answer, nearly everyone agrees, is commitment. There is a fundamental philosophical disagreement in the higher-education community about the purpose of federal work-study aid and whether anything should be asked of its recipients. Schools that value service don't have much trouble finding students to perform it. Schools that don't complain that it can't be done.

Another factor is the "town-gown" divide. Less-selective schools tend to draw students from their immediate geographic region, and have institutional cultures more naturally committed to the community than their elite counterparts, which tend to attract students from across the country. Many local and regional universities also have schools of education, nursing, and social work, careers in which community service seems more directly applicable than, say, physics or French lit. And finally, the hyper-competitiveness that has arisen in elite schools in recent decades has pushed aside "soft" concerns, such as community service, which get in the way of what has become their driving goal: maximizing research funding Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of both "hard" science and technology and social science. The term often connotes funding obtained through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and  and ascending ascending /as·cend·ing/ (ah-send´ing) having an upward course.

ascending

progressing to higher levels, usually used in reference to the nervous system.
 the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, which don't measure service, making it that much easier for competitive schools to ignore.

Instead of lagging Lagging

Strategy used by a firm to stall payments, normally in response to exchange rate projections.
 behind other schools on community service, elite universities could be leading the way. The fact that Stanford already does so suggests others could too if they had the motivation, which Washington could provide with a few simple steps.

First, shame them. The McCain-Bayh bill, for instance, requires the Education Department to issue an annual report to Congress on which colleges and universities aren't in compliance. (A similar strategy was used in the 1980s to publicize pub·li·cize  
tr.v. pub·li·cized, pub·li·ciz·ing, pub·li·ciz·es
To give publicity to.


publicize or -cise
Verb

[-cizing, -cized]
 the names of individuals who defaulted on certain types of student loans; default rates immediately plummeted.) Congress should go further and publish every school's work-service record, so that those exceeding the minimum gain public recognition. U.S. News could help by incorporating these figures into its rankings.

Congress should also tighten the work-study law so that schools can't get away with counting as community service such jobs as ushering at football games. And lawmakers should demand that the Department of Education start enforcing the rules. Were university presidents convinced that their federal financial aid was in jeopardy jeopardy, in law, condition of a person charged with a crime and thus in danger of punishment. At common law a defendant could be exposed to jeopardy for the same offense only once; exposing a person twice is known as

double jeopardy.
, they'd quickly comply. The government could also help by paying 100 percent of the wages of students who work in legitimate community-service jobs. Currently, it meets 75 percent of work-study students' wage; the rest is left to the nonprofit or community agencies employing them, many of which can't afford it. If the federal government were to meet the full cost--as it does now for reading and math tutoring--thousands of new opportunities for service would suddenly open up.

All of which would solve the real problem. Because it's not that students don't want to serve; it's that schools don't give them enough opportunity.
The Top 20 Schools for Service

These schools do the most with their work-study funds ...

Percentage of federal work-study funds used for community
service

Public 4-year, at least $250,000 in federal aid

 University of California-Riverside           51.0
 University of Texas-Dallas                   49.8
 University of South Alabama                  47.1
 California State University-Sacramento       44.5
 University of Nevada-Las Vegas               42.1
 Texas A & M University-Commerce              38.4
 Missouri Western State College               37.4
 University of North Carolina-Wilmington      37.0
 Kent State University                        36.0
 Augusta State University                     34.4
 Metropolitan State College of Denver         33.1
 University of California-San Francisco       31.8
 California State University-San Bernardino   31.3
 California Poly State University             29.7
 California State University-Fresno           29.5
 University of Iowa                           28.8
 California State University-Stanislaus       28.1
 University of Tennessee-Memphis              25.8
 Iowa State University                        25.7
 University of Arizona                        25.6

Private 4-year, at least $250,000 in federal aid

 Florida Memorial College                     59.2
 Case Western Reserve University              40.9
 Nova Southeastern University                 38.4
 Antioch University                           36.7
 University of the Pacific                    32.3
 Bayamon Central University, Puerto Rico      31.8
 Radcliffe College                            31.6
 Oberlin College                              30.3
 Gonzaga University                           28.6
 Golden Gate University                       27.9
 Barry University                             25.7
 Springfield College                          24.9
 New York University                          24.8
 Long Island University                       24.1
 Baylor University                            24.0
 Walla Walla College                          22.8
 Stanford University                          22.3
 Hofstra University                           21.3
 Lewis & Clark College                        21.2
 Simmons College                              20.9
The Worst 20 Schools for Service

... and these schools do the least with their work-study funds

Percentage of federal work-study funds used for community service

Public 4-year, at least $250,000 in federal aid

 Southern University-A&M College                .6
 Central Missouri State College                1.2
 South Carolina State University               1.2
 University of Central Oklahoma                2.0
 University of North Texas                     2.8
 University of Houston-University Park         3.2
 Mississippi Valley State University           4.0
 Tennessee State University                    4.1
 Alcorn State University                       4.3
 Texas Southern University                     4.3
 University of New Orleans                     4.4

 University of Texas-Pan-American              4.4
 SUNY-Geneseo                                  5.0
 Jackson State University                      5.0
 Indiana University of Pennsylvania            5.0
 Florida State University                      5.0
 Southern Arkansas University                  5.0
 St. Cloud State University                    5.0
 Youngstown State University                   5.0
 SUNY-Binghamton                               5.0

Private 4-year, at least $250,000 in federal aid

 College of the Holy Cross                      .6
 George Fox University                         1.1
 Midwestern University                         1.7
 Warren Wilson College                         1.8
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology         1.9
 Illinois Institute of Technology              2.3
 Worcester Polytechnic Institute               2.7
 Dickinson College                             2.7
 Webster University                            3.1
 The College of Wooster                        3.5
 University of Notre Dame                      3.6
 Monmouth University                           3.7
 Butler University                             3.8
 Eastern College                               4.1
 Xavier University of Louisiana                4.2
 Lehigh University                             4.7
 St. Bonaventure University                    4.9
 Bellarmine College                            4.9
 Pratt Institute                               5.0
 Seton Hall University                         5.0
How U.S. News's Top Universities Fared

Stanford University           22.3%
Emory University              13.8%
University of Penn.           12.6%
Columbia University           12.5%
Harvard University            12.3%
Yale University               11.2%
Washington University          9.6%
Calif. Institute of Tech.      9.5%
Cornell University             9.1%
Univ. Calif.-Berkeley          9.0%
Northwestern Univ.             8.8%
Johns Hopkins Univ.            8.5%
Duke University                7.9%
University of Chicago          7.6%
Rice University                6.6%
Princeton University           6.1%
Dartmouth College              6.1%
Brown University               5.7%
University of Notre Dame       3.6%
Mass. Inst. of Tech.           1.9%

Based on U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" 2002
rankings ... which we have major issues with, but what are you gonna do?
How U.S. News's Top Liberal Arts Schools Fared

Claremont McKenna             19.7%
Colby College                 18.7%
Washington & Lee Univ.        17.6%
Amherst College               16.0%
Bates College                 13.0%
Colgate University            12.6%
Swarthmore College            11.1%
Middlebury College            10.5%
Carleton College              10.4%
Williams College               9.9%
Davidson College               9.9%
Smith College                  9.2%
Grinnell College               7.4%
Wellesley College              6.8%
Vassar College                 6.3%
Pomona College                 5.5%
Haverford College              5.5%
Wesleyan University            5.2%
Bryn Mawr College              5.0%
Bowdoin College                5.0%

Based on U.S. News & World Reports "America's Best Colleges" 2002
rankings--to learn how to fix 'em, see "Broken Ranks," September 2001
Peace Corps Enrollment

The schools that produced the most volunteers in 2001

Large Schools (over 5,000 undergraduates)

 University of Wisconsin-Madison                93
 University of Colorado-Boulder                 74
 University of California-Berkeley              70
 University of Texas-Austin                     68
 University of Oregon                           67
 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor               65
 University of Virginia                         63
 University of California-Santa Cruz            60
 University of Washington                       58
 Pennsylvania State University                  56

Small Schools (under 5,000 undergraduates)

Middlebury College                             32
Tufts University                               22
Colby College                                  21
Johns Hopkins University                       19
Dartmouth College                              19
Whitman College                                19
University of Chicago                          18
St. Olaf College                               18
Willamette University                          17
Smith College                                  17
ROTC Enrollment

The schools with the highest annual enrollment.

Navy (for 2001)

 Texas A & M University                        313
 The Citadel                                   209
 University of San Diego                       201
 Virginia Polytechnic Institute                200
 Purdue University                             161
 Villanova University                          152
 University of Colorado                        130
 Jacksonville University                       127
 University of Notre Dame                      127
 George Washington University                  124

Air Force (for 2000)

 Texas A & M University                        512
 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Fla.    413
 Norwich University, Vt.                       243
 The Citadel                                   235
 Brigham Young University                      220
 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Ariz.   217
 University of Arizona                         196
 Virginia Tech University                      186
 University of Washington                      175
 Washington State University                   172

Army (for 2001)

 The Citadel                                   805
 Texas A & M University                        688
 University of Georgia                         600
 Virginia Military Institute                   589
 North Georgia College                         502
 Western Illinois University                   415
 University of Alabama-Birmingham              341
 Norwich University, Vt.                       322
 University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez            320
 New Mexico Military Institute                 318
The Worst of the Worst: Schools in Violation of Law,
according to 1999-2000 Dept. of Education data

ALCORN STATE UNIVERSITY
ALLEN SCHOOL
ALLEN UNIVERSITY
ALLENTOWN COLLEGE OF SAINT
FRANCIS DE SALES
AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COLLEGE
AMERICAN RIVER COLLEGE
AQUINAS COLLEGE, MASS.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE, N.Y.
ART INSTITUTE OF PITTSBURGH
ASSUMPTION COLLEGE
ATLANTA TECHNICAL INSTITUTE
AURORA UNIVERSITY
BELHAVEN COLLEGE
BLAIR COLLEGE
BOSSIER PARISH CC
BREWTON PARKER COLLEGE
BRICK COMPUTER SCIENCE INST.
BROWN COL. OF COURT REPORTING
& MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION
BROWN INSTITUTE
BURLINGTON COLLEGE
BUTLER UNIVERSITY
CALIFORNIA COL. OF ARTS & CRAFTS
CALIFORNIA CULINARY ACADEMY
CAMBRIA COUNTY AREA CC
CAPITOL COLLEGE
CCS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
CENTRAL METHODIST COLLEGE
CENTRAL MISSOURI STATE UNIV.
CHI INSTITUTE
CHICAGO SCHOOL OF PROF. PSYCH.
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIV.
CHURCH OF GOD THEOLOGICAL SEM.
COLLEGE OF MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH
COLLEGE OF SANTA FE
COLLEGE OF SAINT JOSEPH
COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS
COLUMBIA COLLEGE
COLUMBIA JUNIOR COLLEGE
COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
COLUMBIA UNION COLLEGE
COMMONWEALTH BUSINESS COL.
COMPUTER EDUCATION INSTITUTE
CONVERSE COLLEGE
COUNTY COLLEGE OF MORRIS
DELGADO CC
DICKINSON COLLEGE
DULL KNIFE MEMORIAL COLLEGE
EASTERN COLLEGE
FLORIDA NATIONAL COLLEGE
FRANKLIN COLLEGE
FREE WILL BAPTIST BIBLE COLLEGE
GARRETT EVAN.THEOLOGICAL
SEM.GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY
GEORGIA MEDICAL INSTITUTE
GLOBAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE
GOUCHER COLLEGE
HOLY NAMES COLLEGE
HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
IMMACULATA COLLEGE
INSTITUTO TECNICO DEL FUTURO
KATHARINE GIBBS SCHOOL
LABOURE COLLEGE
LANDMARK COLLEGE
LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE
LOUISIANA COLLEGE
MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE
MASS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND
ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCE
MASSACHUSETTS INST. OF TECH
MASTER'S COLLEGE AND SEMINARY
MCINTOSH COLLEGE
MERCER COUNTY CC
METHODIST THEOLOGICAL SCHL. OHIO
MIDWESTERN UNIVERSITY
MILWAUKEE SCHL. OF ENGINEERING
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE UNIV.
MOHAWK VALLEY CC
MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE
MUSICIANS' INSTITUTE
NATIONAL COL. OF CHIROPRACTIC
NATIONAL HOLISTIC INSTITUTE
N.C. SCHL. OF THE ARTS
NORTHEAST WISCONSIN TECHNICAL
COLLEGE
NOTRE DAME COLLEGE
NOTRE DAME SEMINARY
OCEAN COUNTY COLLEGE
ORLANDO COLLEGE
OTIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
PACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION
PARKS COLLEGE
PEIRCE COLLEGE
PLATT COLLEGE
PROVO COLLEGE
RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE
RANGER COLLEGE
ROCHESTER BUSINESS INSTITUTE
ROCKLAND CC
SAINT FRANCIS COLLEGE
SAINT JOSEPH COLLEGE
SAINT LUKE'S COLLEGE
SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
SHELBY STATE CC
SISSETON-WAHPETON CC
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE
UNIV.
SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY-A & M COL.
SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE
SPALDING UNIVERSITY
SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE IN ILLINOIS
TEIKYO POST UNIVERSITY
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
TEXAS COLLEGE
TEXAS LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY
THE AMERICAN INTERCONTINENTAL
UNIV.
THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER
THE CREATIVE CIRCUS
THE MEDIX SCHOOLS
THE SAGE COLLEGES
THOMPSON INSTITUTE
TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGY CENTER
AT MCMINNVILLE
TRINITY COLLEGE OF PUERTO RICO
TRUMBULL BUSINESS COLLEGE
TULSA CC
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-CLEAR LAKE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
UNIVERSITY OF FINDLAY
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-UNIV. PARK
UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN
UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
VALLEY FORGE MILITARY COLLEGE
WADE COLLEGE
WARREN WILSON COLLEGE
WEBBER COLLEGE
WEBSTER UNIVERSITY
WESTERN UNIV. OF HEALTH SCI.
WESTWOOD COL. OF AVIATION TECH.
WESTWOOD COLLEGE OF TECH.
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INST.
WORLDWIDE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA


Research by Carmen Carmen

throws over lover for another. [Fr. Lit.: Carmen; Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190]

See : Faithlessness


Carmen

the cards repeatedly spell her death. [Fr.
 Mauriello, Deanna Zammit, Scott Lauck, Lisa Smith, Takashi Yokota. Graphics by Christina Larson.

JOSHUA GREEN Joshua Green is a senior editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly who writes primarily about U.S. politics.[1][2]  is an editor of THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Washington Monthly Company
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2002, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:includes table: Percentage of Federal Work-Study Funds Used for Community Service
Author:Green, Joshua
Publication:Washington Monthly
Article Type:Statistical Data Included
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Jan 1, 2002
Words:5120
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