The Daily Bulletin Archive

From the College and Community Partnerships Office
The College and Community Partnerships Office is collecting information to apply for a Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Award.

Community service is loosely defined as “volunteer work that is beneficial to the community.” On the Buffalo State campus, the words “community service” can have several meanings. Students may be involved in a class that conducts a community-service project; other students may be part of a service-learning class. We have Buffalo State Community Service Day, Day of Caring, and other events where students have a chance to help out. There are numerous community-service and fundraising efforts by our student and Greek organizations and student-athletes. Fundraising may benefit a local group, such as Habitat for Humanity.

The Newman Center’s alternative spring breaks are another example of community service. Many of our students are tutors or mentors, or have other peer leadership roles. Some community-service initiatives draw attention to homelessness or dating issues, or involve the gathering of warm clothes and food for those less fortunate. Numerous students volunteer their time both on and off campus, and it may never be “officially” recorded anywhere. Students are often involved in their own neighborhoods via community or faith-based organizations, in scouting, or other worthy causes.

All these endeavors are mutually beneficial and send a clear message that Buffalo State students are involved in the community. Community service should be recorded in terms of hours committed per student per semester. This is done on a limited basis on campus, or is part of a program itself, such as those hours recorded in Volunteer and Service Learning; still hundreds of hours are undocumented.

The College and Community Partnerships Office is attempting to capture these volunteer hours from student organizations on campus to prepare an application for aHigher Education Community Service Honor Roll Award. The competitive national award highlights campus engagement with the community during the period of July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.

The deadline to submit a description and the number of volunteer hours to the College and Community Partnerships Office is September 20: call 878-5444 or send e-mail to partner@buffalostate.edu. We want Buffalo State students to gain proper recognition for all they do in the community!