Before a course begins, the service learning staff assists faculty in developing appropriate service experiences and identifying key community partners. Throughout the semester, the service learning staff provides continuing support to faculty and students by managing many of the logistical aspects of the projects, by maintaining open lines of communication between the faculty, students and community partners and by assisting students in reflecting upon their work within the community. Students demonstrate what they have learned through research and essay papers, journals and class participation. Faculty assess a student's learning through one or more of these methods. Most importantly, students benefit by experiencing first-hand the theories and concepts taught within the classroom.
Students also experience benefits beyond academic development.
Benefits include increased understanding of multi-culturalism and diversity, increased awareness of social issues, increased civic responsibility and increased development of critical thinking skills. A Society for Debate Patterned on the formats of the Cambridge Union Society and the Oxford Union Society of Great Britain, the Forum enables students to exchange ideas with locally and nationally recognized experts in a series of debates on topics of contemporary concern such as gun control, the ordination of women, capital punishment, campus hate speech codes and affirmative action. Students join the Forum by registering for COMM 222 or COMM 322 and by attending weekly meetings. In those meetings, students formulate debate topics for the semester, prepare research and arguments for public debates, as well as engage in more casual in-class debates. Each fall, Forum members match wits with a team of traveling British student debaters in a lighthearted British debate.