Adrian College
Community Service-Office of Student Activities
Presidential Statement on Civic Engagement - Stanley P. Caine, former President of Adrian College
Community service is an essential element of the educational experience offered to students at Adrian College. Each year, hundreds of students, often in the company of faculty and staff members, participate in events and activities designed to respond to special needs in the community and to cultivate a commitment to lifelong community service. This effort begins each year with a "Community Plunge" during our Welcome Week. All members of our entering class go in groups into the community to assist with various worthwhile projects. In this way, new students become better acquainted with each other in a context that illustrates, in a practical way, our long time commitment to helping others.
Throughout the year, our students will be involved on a regular basis in worthwhile community service projects, including a Dance Marathon for children suffering from pediatric AIDS, house building through the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity, CROP walk to raise funds for Church World Service, Make a Difference Day, a blood drive and numerous other broad based events. In addition, through individual classes and organizations, many other students will go into the community to help and to learn the habits of service.
Adrian's devotion to community service stems naturally from its origins and traditions. Its first president talked of the "power of action," the obligation all educated persons had to utilize their talents and abilities to improve the lot of others.
We joined Michigan Campus Compact soon after it was created because its aims were consistent with Adrian's mission. The organization has been invaluable in providing community service training and opportunities for our faculty, staff and students. It has also effectively promoted the principles of service learning, wedding the theoretical and practical, and civic engagement, participation in the political process.
We are pleased to be a part of a movement that has brought so much benefit to so many persons, on the campus and in communities within and beyond our borders.