Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is an experiential learning (Service-Learning (SL) category) course open to all students from any discipline who have achieved sophomore status.   Service-learning is an important component of experiential learning and is intentionally integrated into the undergraduate learning experience by giving students the opportunity to use what they’re learning in the classroom and make a difference in the lives of others through education and the equipping of various life and job skills. As a result, SIFE student teams develop, innovate, and implement an assortment of sustainable projects and programs for the benefit of the Belmont, Nashville, Middle Tennessee, and global community.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Per the charge of SIFE headquarters, each Belmont SIFE project will meet the following pedagogical objectives:

• Teaching entrepreneurship
• Teaching success skills
• Teaching the benefits and function of a market economy
• Teaching ethics
• Teaching financial literacy
• Teaching environmental sustainability

SIFE students will also learn and understand concepts related to a market economy and free enterprise system, as well as work individually and in teams to create and develop, implement, and evaluate outreach projects designed to involve students, faculty, and the community in an educational awareness of a free enterprise system.

In addition, SIFE students will (1) develop leadership, negotiation, persuasion and written and oral presentation skills, (2) refine marketing and management skills as they work to implement, evaluate, and improve projects, and (3) develop a better understanding of the importance of conducting business in a professional and ethical manner.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Assessment of Student Learning:

Course grading and assessment is based on developing and completing all reading assignments with written responses, a midterm reflection essay, a final reflection essay, and participating in an existing project (minimum one hour per week).  Project participation accounts for 33% of the grade (logging hours throughout the semester as to be determined by your project leader). 33% of your grade will be determined through your tri-weekly written response’s ability to demonstrate your understanding of the reading assignments. The remaining 33% of the semester’s grade will be represented by successful completion of an end-of-semester individual reflection. All assignments will be graded on the merit and will be awarded a grade of pass/fail. As you can see, failing to fully complete any one part of the assigned requirements will lead in a grade of D, while failure to fully complete any two components will result in a failing grade. Note: Please post all assignments on SIFE dropbox.

Project participation will be evaluated on:

1.         Creativity/Innovation

2.         Clarity of project objectives

3.         Professionalism

4.         Cost Efficiency (if applicable)

5.         Organization of project

6          Effectiveness in working with others

7.         Involvement of the community and students

8.         Effectiveness in accomplishing objective(s)

9          Actual completion or intended continuation

Group Meeting Attendance:

We will meet as a group weekly with all SIFE members in order to discuss all SIFE projects as well as competition information and project work.  Two (2) absences are allowed without an excuse.  Please notify the instructor or SIFE student leaders by e-mail when absences are to occur.  Your e-mail is confirmation in your student record.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Service Activities

Service and Service Log: Once you are plugged into a SIFE project, you must complete at least one hour a week of service with that project.  If a regularly scheduled service time must be missed, you must rearrange for that time to be completed within the same week based on the availability or capacity of your project.  After completing your service for the week, you must also sign in to Google and log your hours for your particular project, as well as a description of the work done that week.

Bi-weekly readings with written response: Out of the book When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, you will be assigned chapters which must be completed about every 2 weeks.  With each reading, a written response to the chapter’s opening and closing remarks are be emailed to the SIFE office (belmontsife {at} gmail(.)com) by the given due date.

Required Text: When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

“When Helping Hurts begins by establishing a solid biblical foundation for understanding the nature of poverty and its alleviation. This is more than an academic exercise, for people’s understanding of poverty shapes the strategies they use to minister to poor people. Building upon this foundation, the book then outlines several general principles for all poverty alleviation efforts including: the importance of distinguishing between relief, rehabilitation, and development; the difference between asset-based and needs-based strategies; and the advantages of participatory over blueprint approaches. These general principles are then applied to short-term mission efforts and to various economic development strategies appropriate for North American and international contexts, including jobs training, financial literacy, individual development accounts, and microenterprise development.”

- WhenHelpingHurts.com

Reading and writing assignments are to be completed or on the dates as follows:

Jan. 25

Read Preface and Introduction; Read Ch. 1 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 48-49)

Due: Questions 1-5

Feb. 10

Read Ch. 1 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 48-49)

Due: Questions 1-5

Feb. 22

Read Ch. 2 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 72-73)

Due: Questions 4-10

Read Ch. 3 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 98-99)

Due: Questions 1-2, 5-8

Mar. 4

Read Ch. 4 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 121-122)

Due: Questions 1-5

Read Ch. 5 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 139)

Due: Questions 1-3

Mar. 15

Read Ch. 6 – 8 and answer Reflection Questions and Exercise (pg. 198-199)

Due: Questions 1-3

May 4

Read Ch. 9

Due: Final Individual Reflection (See Below)

Final Individual Reflections:

You will be required to write one end-of-semester reflection. This reflection must demonstrate internal reflection and critical thinking regarding your experiences with your service project.  Consider the following list of questions and select at least four in order to frame your reflection.  There is no specific length requirement, however it will be important that this reflection is well thought out and demonstrate true learning.  A good reflection will be between 2-5 pages in length.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

Personal

• What did you learn?  What did you gain?
• What do you want to remember from the experience?
• Was your heart touched in any way?
• How are you different?  How are you the same as before you did service learning?

Relational

• What are you learning about the people you are serving?
• How are their pains and joys similar/different to yours?
• Did your relationships become mutual or did they remain one way? 
  • (i.e. Did you do all the giving and helping?  What did they give to you?)

Social

• How is the social world of the people you work with different from your normal social world
  • (the one you inhabit with your family and at Belmont)?
  • What is it like for you to have the experience of two social worlds?
  • Why is this situation like this? (How did it get this way?  What is its history? What causes it? 
    • What sustains it?)
  • What are the economic and political factors involved?
  • Who makes the decisions that affect people’s lives?  Who benefits?  Who pays?
  • What attitudes and behaviors help?  What attitudes and behaviors are problematic?

Tips for doing well in this class: Work closely with your chosen project and project leader. Prof. Gonas, Prof. Loes, and Prof. Stahl will monitor all work, and your attendance of your hourly commitment is your responsibility.  It’s usually fun and most students end up spending much more time than what’s required. The purpose of the writing reflections are to assess that you are actually reading and reflecting on what you read and on your service.  The final reflection paper’s purpose is to gauge if and how the course and readings have altered and integrated the idea of sustainable poverty alleviation in to your career goals in or outside of Belmont, personally or professionally. Using personal experiences during projects as well as referencing reading will be a focus of assessing your performance in the course.

Course Prerequisites: ECON 200 and FmResM 340

Objectives
When finished with this course, the successful student will be able to (1) Understand importance of housing in US society; (2) Identify institutions and special interests involved in the production, maintenance, regulation and distribution of housing; (3) Compare and evaluate alternative solutions to housing problems; (4) Collect, interpret, and report housing data.

Course Reading Materials
Medoff, P., & Sklar, H. (1994). Streets of Hope: The fall and rise of a Boston neighborhood. Boston: South End Press.
The Encyclopedia of Housing. HD7287.E53 1998. EHS Library reserve.
Solove, R. (2002). The use of oral and written history to build community identity and pride in the Weinland Park neighborhood. A Senior Honors Thesis, The Ohio State University. Packet, Neil Avenue COP-EZ.
University District Code Enforcement: An Assessment and Recommendations for Improvement. (http://facweb.arch.ohio-state.edu/jevanscowley/crp852/crp852.htm)

Course Grade

Daily assignments

The course grade will be determined according to the following scale:

Student Responsibilities

Class Attendance: Attendance is a non-negotiable requirement. The course is built around weekly discussions and activities, and participation is essential. Students are expected to remain for the entire class period and to participate fully in class discussion. Any announcements, handouts, or course material are the responsibility of the student.

Assignments: Each reading assignment should be completed prior to the date assigned. Students are expected to be prepared to discuss the reading assignment in class.

Written assignments should be typed. Written assignments should be turned in at the beginning of the class period. Assignments are to be submitted in class on the due date. Late assignments will not be accepted.

DATETOPICREADINGS/ASSIGNMENTS

Class 1
WHAT IS HOUSING? WHY AND WHEN IS HOUSING A PROBLEM?
Overview of course ? content, activities, service
Description of service-learning project
Read Medoff & Sklar, Introduction, pp. 1-6.
Introduction to Course and Text
Movie about Dudley Street
Weinland Park Slides

Class 2
HISTORY OF A NEIGHBORHOOD
Read Medoff & Sklar, Ch. 1, pp. 7-35.
Scan Solove report and University District Code Enforcement Report.
Submit written definitions of the following terms and describe specifically how the term is used in the reading (e.g., what were causes and effects of white flight in Dudley Street?)
- White flight
- Federal Housing Administration
- Urban renewal
- HUD
- Unemployment rate
- Redlining
- Blockbusting

Class 3
Orientation Meeting with BREAD Staff
What is BREAD?s mission? Who are BREAD members? What strategies are used to accomplish goals? What has BREAD accomplished?Read handout from BREAD

Class 4
INVESTING IN A NEIGHBORHOOD: NEIGHBORHOOD RESPONSE
Read Ch. 2
Define the term coalition and describe how the term is used in the reading–what coalitions were formed, how, with what result?
Submit two questions for class discussion.

Class 5
Meeting with BREAD Staff
Discussion of Project (purpose, timeline, process)
Discussion of content for interviews and preliminary development of questions

Class 6
ORGANIZING A NEIGHBORHOOD
Read Ch. 3, pp. 67-87.
Write two-three paragraphs describing the concept:
- community organizing (e.g., how is community organizing accomplished, what actions were taken to organize Dudley Street? What were the results/benefits?). Provide specific examples.

Class 7
Meeting with BREAD Staff
Practice interview techniques
Interview assignments and schedules

Class 8
Continue development of Interview questions
Practice interview techniques

Class 9
Midterm Exam

Class 10
PLANNING
Read Ch. 4, pp. 89-113
Submit written definitions of the following terms and describe how the term is used in the reading (give very specific examples from the reading, e.g., description, causes/effects):
- bottom-up planning
- community assets
- community agencies
- moratorium
- comprehensive plan

Class 11
Time allotted for interviews
First Reflection Paper Due

Class 12
CONTROLLING THE PLAN
Read Ch. 5, pp. 115 -144
Submit written definitions of the following terms and write two paragraphs about how the term is used in the reading (what happened, why, with what effect?):
- eminent domain
- displacement
Submit two questions for class discussion

Class 13
Meeting with BREAD Staff
Discuss findings from interviews
Plan structure and content of final reportRead all interview reports

Class 14
FINANCING THE PLAN
Read Ch. 6, pp. 145-167
Submit written definitions of the following terms and describe how the term is used in the reading:
- land trust
- homeowners classes
- Community Investment Coalition

Class 15
Meeting with BREAD Staff
First draft of interview reports due

Class 16
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Read Ch. 7, pp. 169-201
Write 3-4 paragraphs about the concept. Community development ?with people in mind? , and discuss economic trends that undermine community development.

Class 17
Meeting with BREAD Staff
Work on Final Report

Class 18
LESSONS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Read Ch. 9, pp. 245-288
Discuss the following quote: ?Community development must begin by recognizing and reinforcing resources within the community.? (P. 254).

Class 19
Class discussion and work on Final Report

Class 20
FINAL REPORT DUE

Class 21
Final Exam ? 3:30 p.m.

FINAL REFLECTION DUE BY JUNE 10

Service-Learning Project in FRM 611

1. Service-learning is a way of teaching and learning that emphasizes active learning, reciprocity with community groups, and reflection on connections between service and learning. Active learning means that students learn and develop through active participation in organized service activities in the community. Students devote structured time in reflection or analysis of the connection between the service activity and concepts taught in the course.
2. The service-learning project for this course is to collaborate with the BREAD organization to collect stories from eight to ten typical workingclass and workingpoor households representing a range of household (single parent; single, no children; married parents; immigrant families; and senior citizens) and employment characteristics and housing needs. The purpose of the project is (1) to gain understanding of how the difficulties they have in securing housing have affected their lives in terms of job opportunities, access to health care, access to child care, transportation, and overall quality of life; and (2) to connect housing needs with Affordable Housing Trust supply characteristics (based on financial data from interviewees in order to determine whether any of them could afford AHT housing).
3. Students will work in pairs to interview families selected by the BREAD organization. Preparation for the interview process will be provided in class. Interviews will be taped and the contents transcribed in preparation for development of an interview report. Students will use the content from the interview to answer questions posed by BREAD about housing needs and to identify themes in the responses.
4. After initial interview reports are completed, the class will read and analyze results of all interviews, looking for common themes and differences. Students will identify themes related to housing needs, barriers to housing, AFT supply and need. The final report (one report prepared by all students) presents case studies representing family/household types, problems encountered, and solutions as well as summaries of problems and observations about housing problems. BREAD will use this report as support for their analysis of the effectiveness of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund in addressing housing needs of the working poor.

Final Reflection Paper
Write an essay on your reflection on the topics addressed and community project addressing the following questions:

1. What did you learn about problems of low-income, disinvested neighborhoods ? include course reading and discussion and interactions with families and with BREAD staff.
2. Outline a proposal for discussion with Weinland Park residents regarding possible collaborative projects with OSU that could contribute to Weinland Park?s capacity for planning and organizing and implementation. Your proposal should be wholistic and draw on materials provided in class as well as your discussions and observations and reading about other neighborhoods.

Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1800?s observed that the strength of American democracy lay in its spirited voluntary associations and emphasis on community. He declared however, that democracy and its manifestation of individualism, while a virtue, could become a vice when taken to extremes, especially in the form of hyper individualism. Several contemporary scholars have revealed that America has already reached this vicious stage of its democracy, one in which people are so preoccupied with their own concerns and successes that they have shut out of their consciences and consciousnesses the concerns of others in a society. Individuals? preoccupation with self-advancement has led to the corrosion of social capital ? the connections and cooperation among people, and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness – considered by many social scientists as the raw material of society, and as vital as language, for a humane society.

American higher education represents the mainstay of individualism, operating on the assumption that its primary purpose is to disseminate skills and technical tools, considered indispensable for realizing the self-contained American Dream. Through its detachment from complex social problems, American education has cultivated leaders who are generally apathetic towards the multifaceted structure of society. From an economics perspective, conflict, competition and distrust are virtues that allow the invisible hand to serve its ordained function ? atomistic self-fulfillment. And individuals may ?use? and discard others insofar as it advances his/her self-interest. The common good of society is then measured by one?s level of income and wealth, and the wealthier and more individualistic a person is, the more characteristic s[he] is of the ideal human being. Corollary: The underclass of society exists because of its inability to compete in a neo-Darwinian world.

Despite the atmosphere of instrumental individualism in higher education in general and in economics in particular, this course takes as given that education as a vital agent of democratization where the good of an individual is judged in relation to the good of others and of society in general. Moreover, this course assumes that all people, irrespective of their economic status, matter, and that humans are social beings interested in the welfare of self as well as others. To effectively engage in this form of learning, we will take this course into the streets of the local poor community of Spring Hill. In partnering with local leaders and members of the community, we will facilitate the development of business planning by Spring Hill members who are interested in starting a business, or improving upon an existing business.

CENTRAL QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED

Is there a way not only to "teach the poor to fish," but also to create structures for the poor to acquire the equipment for fishing? In this course, we will pay serious attention to the role of microcredit as a sustainable moral and economic concept to enable the entrepreneurial poor to transcend their economic status. Questions we will address include:

• What is material and non-material poverty? How is poverty measured economically, religiously, and philosophically?
• What are the economic and non-economic causes of poverty? Low wages? Minimum wage laws? Low skills level? Lack of land and capital? Individual attributes? A culture of poverty? Laziness? Lack of intelligence? Oppressive institutional forces (the church, the government, political leadership)? Charity and philanthropy that diminish incentive?
• Does microcredit lead to long-term alleviation of poverty for the poor?
• Is it is possible that through microcredit leaders can learn to respect the manner in which the poor attempt to face their problems through self-help group activism?
• Can self-help groups facilitate a sense of enablement through self-esteem and community solidarity?
• In other words, can microcredit serve as a vehicle to dispel false theories that the poor are victims of their own vicious cycles of poverty and destitution?
• Do faith-based microcredit agencies have a vital role to play?
• Can free enterprise at the level of microenterprise help the poor escape from material and non-material poverty through generating greater income, economic confidence, social mobility, and active political participation?
• Is microenterprise an example of Adam Smith?s world of unhindered competitive markets?

Required books:

Allan G. Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference. Mayfield, 2005.
Daniel Goleman: Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam (2006)
Deepa Narayan, Voices Of The Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us?? World Bank, 2000 Oxford . Vol.1
Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. Penguin ISBN-10: 0143036580
Practical Microfinance: A Training Manual. Practical Action # ISBN-10: 1853395633

COURSE STRUCTURE

• Seminar format. The course will be taught as a seminar. Each student will formulate 2 analytical questions for discussion based upon readings/documentaries. Will count 20% towards your final grade.
• MICROCREDIT WORKSHOPS: Business development plan/ Grant proposal. Will count 20% towards your final grade.
• Research Project. One of the following topics, or you may suggest your own topic. Will count 20% towards your final grade
  1. Each student will complete an empirical research project that studies a microcredit program that is a secular or faith-based agency. Students will report on their research toward the end of the course.
  2. An empirical analysis of the people of Spring Hill ? through interviewing and case studies.
• Midterm exams: 20%
• Final exams: 20%

Business Development Workshops to be held in Spring Hill community:

Defining Your Vision: What is Entrepreneurship? What Do You Want to Do? What are Your Talents and Abilities? What are Your Goals? What can CHOMI Do for You?

After workshop exercise: Write a journal highlighting your experience with Spring Hill citizens today – either those who are the workshop, or those whom we will interview on the progress made on their businesses. Reflect on what you perceive to be their ambitions, challenges and major stumbling blocks to fulfilling their dreams.

Defining Your Product, Competition and Marketing Plan, Product Description and Price Setting.

After workshop exercise: Write a journal highlighting your experience with Spring Hill citizens today – either those who are the workshop, or those whom we will interview on the progress made on their businesses. Reflect on what you perceive to be weaknesses and strengths in their business perceptions, their marketing strategies, and their product descriptions.

Managing your Financial Flow: Cash Flow, Financing, Expenses, Market Analysis.

After workshop exercise: This is the most difficult of business workshops, since it involves math. Write a journal highlighting your experience with Spring Hill citizens today – either those who are the workshop, or those whom we will interview on the progress made on their businesses. How would you rate citizen?s understanding of cash flow and market analysis? Are you aware of their challenges as they progress towards completing of their business plans? Identify topics and concerns that we will address next week.

Managing Your Business, Financial Statements, Insurance, Profits, Forecasting, Setting Up Your Business.

After workshop exercise: Write a journal highlighting your experience with Spring Hill citizens today – either those who are the workshop, or those whom we will interview on the progress made on their businesses. Work with members on an imaginary exercise, and lead them through analysis of financial statements and forecasting. Investigate government requirements for the business category of your client, e.g. day-care: what are the legal requirements and conditions for operating a day-care, either at an independent business facility, or at your home.

1. Your Business And Government: taxation and licensing for your product
2. Using the internet to facilitate your business

After workshop exercise: Write a journal highlighting your last formal experience with Spring Hill citizens today – either those who are the workshop, or those whom we will interview on the progress made on their businesses. You have learned much about clients in your interaction with them the first 5 weeks. Frame a set of questions that you feel you could ask your clients in our next meeting. These questions must not be intrusive, and must be motivated by your interaction with them, and an understanding of their feelings . Turn these questions to me within 2 days, and then meet with me to discuss your questions before next class.

Analytical Paper

Evaluate your Spring Hill experience and the business development workshops. Make suggestions for improving community relations, and how to become more effective service-learners.

The following areas need to be addressed:

• Please critically evaluate the degree to which the academic component of this class prepared you for the service learning component.
• Discuss ways in which you have developed as a citizen as a result of your experience in this class, both in and out of the university setting.
• Do you feel that the business workshops have helped you understand the privilege and power that comes with certain demographic variables, and not with others?
• If you were to write a ?privilege exercise? specifically w.r.t. the entrepreneurial poor, how would it differ from the exercise undertaken at the beginning of the semester?
• Use your readings by Sachs, Sen, Narayan, Johnson, Yunus, Lasch and Putnam, among others to determine the effectiveness of our workshops in functioning as a social justice process. Please substantiate your answers.

Research Resources : Networks of Organizations

INTERACTION (American Council for Voluntary International Action). InterAction is a coalition of more than 150 non-profit organizations working worldwide – and the United States' leading advocate for humanitarian assistance to the world's poor. 1717 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D. C., Suite 801; 202-667-8227. www.interaction.org.

SEEP (Small Enterprise Education and Promotion Network). 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. 212-808-0084. E-mail: seepny {at} undp(.)org. For a complete listing of all SEEP publications, see www.pactpub.com.

MICROFINANCE NETWORK. The Network is an international association of 23 leading microfinance practitioners. www.bellanet.org/partners/mfn/

MICROFINANCE AND COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES ON THE WWW.

Microenterprise Innovation Project of USAID (MIP). www.mip.org
The Virtual Library on Microcredit. www.soc.titech.ac.jp/icm/
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) www.worldbank.org/html/cgap/cgap.htm
The Enterprise Development Website. www.enterweb.org
Microcredit Summit. www.microcreditsummit.org
Microfinance Network. www.bellanet.org/partners/mfn
Start-Up Education. www.opens.org
National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. www.nftebiz.org
Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education. www.celcee.edu
National Congress for Community Economic Development. www.ncced.org
National Association of Community Development Loan Funds. www.nacdlf.org
National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. www.natfed.org
Community Development Financial Institutions. www.cdfi.org/cdfi
National Economic Development and Law Center. www.nedlc.org
Community Development and Fair Lending. http://home.att.net/~bdedman/index.htm

Required Texts:

Bradley Schiller, The Economics of Poverty and Discrimination, 8th edition, Prentice Hall, 2001.

Jonathan Kozel, Amazing Grace, Crown Publishers, 1995. You should start to read Amazing Grace immediately and try to finish it within the first month of class.

Course Objectives:
This course examines poverty in the United States, emphasizing the experience of the past thirty years. It explores how poverty is measured, the underlying causes of poverty, and policies that might be used to combat poverty. Emphasis is given to the special problems of urban poverty and poverty among children.

Method of Instruction:
The course has a service learning format. Thus, it includes lectures, readings, classroom discussion, and weekly service in a poor community. We will be tutoring elementary school children (ages 6 to 10), helping them with reading, math and completion of homework. Central to the course is the idea of praxis: readings and class work helps us to understand the broader structures within which our service takes place, and reflections on the service cause us to reach new understandings of the classroom material that we cover. Ideally, this course will promote the acquisition of new knowledge and experiences that will contribute to personal transformation of the student, and a desire to work for social transformation that promotes justice and love. It is critical that each student participate in his or her own education.

Grades:

1. A weekly journal worth 10% in total. The weekly journal must be a critical reflection of what the student experiences and observes in the tutoring session. The entry should include how the experience relates to the material covered in class, questions that the experience raises that are related to the study of poverty, and personal/emotional reactions to the experience. These entries should be one to two typed pages, and will be collected at the start of class on the Thursday following the Tuesday tutoring, and will be marked down by ten percentage points (e.g., from 90% to 80%) for each day they are late.

2. A final 10 page paper worth 20%. The paper will tie together the weekly experiences, the readings and class discussions, and will be handed in on the last day of class. Final papers must be brought to the Writing Center before they are submitted to me. The paper and weekly journal will serve to satisfy the writing enriched requirements.

3. Two in class tests, each worth 25% of the final grade. There are no makeup tests except for legitimate and fully documented extenuating circumstances. Examples are athletic competitions in which a student must participate, and a serious illness. Students must notify me of their inability to take an exam in advance of the test whenever possible, and I reserve the right to determine what is legitimate. If a student misses an exam without a documented, valid excuse, the student's grade for that test will be automatically reduced by twenty five percentage points (e.g., from an 80% to a 55%). The dates for the midterms are 2/28/02 and 4/30/02.

4. Class participation accounts for 20% of the final grade and covers preparation, attendance, in class written reflections, and a willingness to contribute informed opinions on topics under discussion. Students are expected to attend all classes and must attend all tutoring sessions, unless they have a legitimate, documented excuse. Each three classes a student misses will cause their participation grade to fall by ten percentage points.. If a student simply attends class and does nothing more, the highest participation grade that can be earned is a 70%. If a student misses one tutoring session, his or her maximum final grade will be a "B". Missing two tutoring sessions will cause a student to fail the course.

Course Outline and Associated Readings

I. Studying Poverty in the University

A. Ellacuria, The University, Human Rights and the Poor Majority (reserve room).
B. Sobrino, The Cost of Speaking the Truth (reserve room).
C. Ellacuria, The Task of a Christian University (reserve room).

II. Why Care About Individuals Who are "Poor"

A. Economic Justice for All, pp. 44 62 (reserve room).
B. Preferential Option for the Poor (reserve room).
C. A Contract Response: John Rawls (reserve room).

III. Measuring the Amount and Degree of Poverty.

A. Schiller, chapter 1 and 2.
B. Federman, et al., What Does It Mean to be Poor in America? (reserve room)
C. Brooks Gunn and Duncan, The Effects of Poverty on Children (reserve room).

IV. Why Does Poverty Exist?

A. Overview.
1. Jennings, Persistent Poverty in the United States (reserve room).
2. Ranney, Class, Race, Gender and Poverty (reserve room).

B. The role of economic forces.
1. Schiller, chapters 3 and 4.
2. State of Working America (reserve room).
3. Kim, The Working Poor: Lousy Jobs or Lazy Workers? (reserve room).

C. The role of education.
1. Schiller, chapters 8 and 9.
2. Somebody's Children (reserve room).

D. The role of social organization: ghetto poverty and the "underclass" debate.
1. Schiller, chapter 7.
2. Gans, The Invention of the Underclass Label (reserve room).
3. Katz, Reframing the Underclass Debate (reserve room).
4. Franklin, White Uses of the Black Underclass (reserve room).

E. The role of government assistance: the welfare debate.
1. Schiller chapter 11, pages 193 to 205.
2. Polakow, Savage Distributions (reserve room).

V. Fighting Poverty.

A. Schiller, chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14.
B. Blank, Fighting Poverty: Lessons from Recent U.S. History (reserve room).
C. Children and Poverty: Analysis and Recommendations (reserve room).

Mary Lou Finley, Ph.D., instructor

Wednesday evenings, 7-9:30 p.m.
Antioch University Seattle
Credits: 4 (3 or 5 by arrangement)

COURSE INTENTION

It is the intention of this course to provide a framework for seeking to understand the root causes of the expansion of homelessness in the U.S. during the last 20 years, to convey a sense of the experience of homelessness and its consequences, and to explore efforts to meet the immediate needs of the homeless as well as advocate for long term change which can prevent homelessness.

LEARNING GOALS

1. To gain a greater understanding of the paths to homelessness.
2. To understand how homelessness is related to larger social and economic forces in U.S. society of the 1980s, 1990s, and in the new decade ahead.
3. To gain an experience of and a "feel for" the situation of homeless people in order to have one's own observations to compare to the rhetoric of public debate and to use as a basis for clarifying one's own values and commitments.
4. To understand the services which have been developed to assist people who are homeless and to begin to develop one's own analysis of what is needed
5. To develop skills in critical thinking about social issues and social policy, and to apply those skills to questions related to homelessness.
6. To develop skills in thinking as a social scientist about social issues.

READINGS FOR THE COURSE:

Liebow, Elliot. Tell, Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women. New York. Penguin Books, 1995 (1993).

Baumohl, Jim (ed.) for the National Coalition for the Homeless. Homelessness in America. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1996.

Vanderstaay, Steven. Street Lives: An Oral History of Homeless Americans. Gabriola Is, BC: New Society Publishers, 1992. (NOTE: Selections from this book are being reprinted and will be available in class. The book is out of print.)

Real Change (Jan and Feb. issues ), the Seattle homeless newspaper. (Please buy your own copy from a street vendor or from the Real Change office, 2129 2nd Avenue.)

Optional Reading in the Library:

Snow, David and M. Gerald Bradford (eds.) Broadening Perspectives on Homelessness (special issue), American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 37 No. 4, February, 1994.

Joanne Passaro, The Unequal Homeless: Men on the Streets, Women in Their Place. New York and London: Routledge, 1996

COURSE OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

#1 – Jan. 5

Review of syllabus and course goals
Discussion of definitions of homelessness
Who are the homeless?
Approaching homelessness from the sociological perspective; C. Wright Mills: "personal troubles and public issues"
Analysis Vision Strategy
(no reading)

THE EXPERIENCE OF HOMELESSNESS

#2 – Jan. 12 – DAY TO DAY LIFE (and an overview of homelessness)

Routines of daily living
Work and family
Gender and race differences among the homeless

Reading:
E. Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am: Preface, Intro., Ch. 1 3
Ch 2 in Homelessness in America: Martha Burt: "Definitions and Counts"

Optional Reading:
Ch 1 in Homelessness in America: Kim Hopper and Jim Baumohl, "Redefining the Cursed Word: A Historical Interpretation of American Homelessness,"

#3 – Jan. 19: SURVIVAL AND SUPPORT: SHELTERS, SERVICES, COMMUNITY

Homeless shelters as a human services response
Social support and community among homeless people
The limits of "shelterization"

Reading:
-E. Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am: Ch 4 6.
In Street Lives: Tray Casey, pp 16 17.
-In Homelessness in America:
Ch 8, David Now, et. al. "Material Survival Strategies on the Street: Homeless People as Bricoleurs" pp 86 96
Ch. 15 Maria Foscarinis, "The Federal Response: The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act"

Optional Reading:
-Ch 16 in Homelessness in America: Vicki Watson: "Responses by the States to Homelessness"

PATHS TO HOMELESSNESS: HOUSING, INCOME, FAMILY AND PERSONAL VULNERABILITY

#4 – Jan. 26 HOUSE AND HOME: THE DECLINE OF LOW INCOME HOUSING AND ADVOCACY EFFORTS FOR THE HOMELESS

The decline of low income housing: displacement and gentrification.
Public housing and government policies
Subsidizing housing for the poor
'80s and '90s organizing efforts
Race and ethnic differences in homelessness

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch 3: Paul Koegel et al., "The Causes of Homelessness" pp. 24 33.
Ch 4: Cushing Dolbeare, "Housing Policy, A General Consideration," 34 45.
Ch 7: L. Aron and T.J. Fitchen, "Rural Homelessness: A Synopsis", pp 81 85.
Ch. 11: Kim Hopper and Norweeta Milburn, "Homelessness Among African Americans: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective."
Ch 12: Susan Gonzales Baker, Homelessness and the Latino Paradox" pp 132 140.
In Street Lives: Batman, pp 8 9 and Tanya, pp 21 22
Article from The Weekly of Dec 23. 1999: Nina Shapiro, "Public Housing's Bright New Face" (Library)

Optional Reading
G. Blasi. "And we are not seen: ideological and political barriers to understanding homelessness". American Behavioral Scientist pp. 563 586. (Library)

#5 – Feb. 2 – INCOME, JOBS, AND FAMILY SUPPORT

Changing nature of jobs in America
Special problems of young workers
Changing distribution of income in the U.S.
Welfare "reform" and its potential impact on homelessness
Race and poverty in the US
Family relationships and support

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch 5. Bristow Hardin, "Why the Road off the Street is Not Paved with Jobs", pp. 46 62.
Ch 6: M. Greenberg and J. Baumohl, "Income Maintenance; Little Help Now, Less on the Way." pp. 63 77.
Ch. 19 Rob Rosenthal. 'Dilemmas of Local Anti homelessness Movements." pp 201 212.
In Street Lives:
Ch 2: Work and Its Discontents pp29 48

Optional reading
Ch 2 and 3 "House and Home" and "Beyond the Panopticon: the Nuclear Family, Men and Social Control" in Joanne
Passaro, The Unequal Homeless (Library)

#6 – Feb 9. – PERSONAL VULNERABILITIES AND HOMELESSNESS: MENTAL HEALTH, ADDICTIONS, HEALTH PROBLEMS and FAMILY VIOLENCE

Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill: relation to homelessness
Drug and alcohol addictions among the homeless
Health problems: cause or consequence of homelessness?
Battering within relationships as a route to homelessness
Battered women's shelter movement
Street youth: family abuse, disruption
Legal issues of homeless youth

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch 17: Deirdre Oakley and Deborah Dennis, "Responding to the Needs of Homeless People with Alcohol, Drug, or
Mental Disorders," pp. 179 186.
Ch 9 R. Rosenheck et al., "Homeless Veterans", pp. 97 108.
In Street Lives:
DanieI 30 132; Sherry 144 146; Ron 147 149: Marsha 168 169; Lana 84 88; Martin 89 91.

Optional Reading:
Ch 4 from The Unequal Homeless: Men on the Streets, Women in their Place by Joanne Passaro, (Library)

#7 – Feb 16: PUBLIC ATTITUDES, CIVIL LIBERTIES, AND THE HOMELESS IN PUBLIC SPACE

Controversies over the homeless in public space
Seattle issues: panhandling, parks, tent city
Public attitudes toward the homeless; politics and attitudes

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch. 14 Harry Simon, "Regulation of the Homeless in Public Space", pp 149 159.
Ch 13 Bruce Link et al., "Public Attitudes and Beliefs About Homeless People", pp 143 148
Feb 1 issue of Real Change

Optional Reading:
-Giuliani's policies for the homeless in New York City: articles in the New York Times; search the internet for recent developments

SPECIAL (OPTIONAL) SESSION – Thurs. Feb 17: FIELD TRIP TO LEGISLATURE IN OLYMPIA FOR HOUSING LOBBY DAY

Current public policy issues regarding housing and homelessness

SPECIAL TOPIC: FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

#8 – Feb 23: HOMELESS FAMILIES AND THE EFFECTS OF HOMELESSNESS ON CHILDREN

Emotional and health issues
Educational issues
Approaches to educating homeless children
Homeless families and the child welfare system: The Washington State class action suit and the Homeless Families Plan

Reading:
In Homelessness in America
Marybeth Shinn and Beth Weitzman "Homeless Families Are Different", pp 109 122.
In Street Lives: Chapter 8 Families 157 182

SUMMING UP

#9 – Mar 2: FOSTERING CHANGE: POLITICS, POLICY, AND GRASSROOTS

What kinds of changes are needed?
Where can we go to seek for workable ideas for change?:
America politics and the dilemmas of homelessness
What kind of advocacy?

Reading:
E. Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am Ch. 7, pp. 223 234.
In Homelessness in America
Ch 18 Eric Lindblom, "Preventing Homelessness", pp 187 200
In Street Lives
Ch 9. "Solutions", 183 223
Real Change mid Feb or early March issue

Optional Reading:
K. Hopper and J. Baumohl, "Held in abeyance: rethinking homelessness and advocacy." in American Behavioral Scientist 522 552. (Library)

#10 – Mar 9: REPORTS FROM STUDENT PROJECTS

(No reading)

1. Reading and class participation

Students are expected to do the reading for the course and come to class prepared to discuss it. Class discussion is an important part of the course. We will sometimes use small groups, and it will be important to be familiar with the readings in order to fully participate.

2. Summary and critique of one reading

Everyone will be asked to pick one of the more advanced articles (e.g., those from the professional literature) and make a 10 minute presentation on it to the class.

This should include a summary of the article's main points and a brief critique of it (e.g., your ideas about what is most important about the article and what you didn't like about it, what you see as its weaknesses). The intention is that your summary can serve as a springboard for class discussion.

3. Interpretive essays

Two short (4 5 page) interpretive essays will be expected for the course. These will allow you to synthesize and reflect on material from the readings and class discussions.

DUE: Feb 2 and Feb 23

4. Individual or collaborative project

This can be either (a) a service learning project or (b) a research project which involves collecting data in the community. A report on this project should be written into a 7 10 page paper and also summarized in a class presentation during the last week of the quarter.

(a) Service learning
In this project you are encouraged to find an agency or organization providing services to the homeless or working on issues relevant to this course. You will be asked to spend some time working as a volunteer for the organization, in a way which will provide a good learning experience for you (about 10 hours over the course of the quarter).

For your project, write a paper on what you have learned from this experience. Your learning may be both content and skills oriented: that is, what did you learn about homelessness about the people involved, the institutional contexts in which they find themselves; and what skills did you develop, what did you learn about your own interests, strengths, and capacities in this context.

We will have some skill building sessions in class on reflecting on what you are learning as an aid in this process.

I have some suggestions about places which would welcome volunteers. However, you may also wish to seek out places in your own community.

(b) Small research project:

For this option, you should select a research topic relevant to the ideas in the class and interview one or two people to collect information on it. You may also need to collect some written information, though this should not be primarily a library research paper. Prepare a paper to write up your results.

Either of these could be collaborative projects among two or more members of the class.

DUE: January 12: A paragraph describing what you would like. to do for your project.

DUE: March 9 : a paper (7 10 pages) describing the results of your service learning or research.

It is my hope that this project will allow you to explore some aspects of homelessness which are new to you, and which you will find challenging. If you haven't had any experience with homeless people or organizations, I would encourage you to choose something which will expose you to this world. If you have already been working with the homeless, I would encourage you to do something which will allow you to stand back and think more clearly about what it all means and what needs to be done: perhaps interview some key policy makers or activists, or do phone interviews with key people working at a national level on some aspects of the problem.

A FINAL NOTE:
I would like for you to think about what you would like to get out of this class, and to work with me to be sure that you have a plan for accomplishing your goals in the context of the goals for the class. The class will surely have students with varying degrees of familiarity with this subject, and what works for one might not be appropriate for another. It is my hope that within the framework of the class you will be able to find a way to pursue your particular interests and develop your own thinking and your own skills.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING PAPERS FOR SERVICE LEARNING AND RESEARCH PROJECTS

SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS

In writing about your service learning project, the goal is to briefly describe what you did and then to describe what you learned from this activity. I would expect that your learning will relate in some way to the goals of the class (though there may be rare circumstances in which the major learning is of another sort.)

1. Description of what you did:

Consider including information on topics such as these:

Where were you working? Describe the organization and the part of it you were most associated with.

Why did you choose this organization? does it have a particular appeal to you, or do you see its approach as particularly compelling for some reason?
What type of population is served by this setting?

What did you expect to do when you decided to go to this organization? Did the plan for your activities change when you were actually there?
Who did you work with? Clients? Other volunteers? Staff?

2. What did you learn?

You, can think of this work and learning as similar to a small pilot research project. While you will have a limited amount of "data" to draw conclusions from, go ahead and suggest what you have learned even from this limited information. Often in these initial insights and hunches are the seeds for ideas which could be pursued later and which may prove to be important.

The following are meant to suggest possible areas to write about; pick and choose among them, or identify your own.

Possible areas of learning:

- the daily life and routines of people you studied
- the ways the people adapt to their situations (or rebel against them
- the causes of their situation
- description of the community project
- how is this program or project addressing the needs of the people?
- how would you judge the effectiveness of the program or project?

Reflection on what you learned:

Whatever the topic of your learning, consider what this new learning means to you and what implications it has. For example, you could consider questions such as:

*Did what you learned confirm what you had previously expected or was it a surprise? (Compare with any relevant readings; look for confirmation or contrasts).
*Did this learning raise new questions for you? What are they? What might need further exploration?
*What implications does this have for social policy?
*What implications does this learning have for you personally or your future pursuits?

Nancy Brooks
Economics Department, UVM
231 Old Mill Bldg
656-0946, nbrooks {at} zoo.uvm(.)edu
office hours: Tues. 2:00-3:30, Wed. 1:30-3:00 pm

Project-related websites
1. Burlington/UVM COPC- www.uvm.edu/~copc
2. HUD Office of University Partnerships- www.oup.org
3. COPC research from around the country- www.oup.org/research/copcresearch.html
4. City of Burlington www.ci.burlington.vt.us
5. University of Vermont www.uvm.edu

Overview:
This field study course asks what are the economic impacts of UVM on the regional/local economy and how might the university change its employment and purchasing to further benefit the residents of lower income areas of Burlington. It begins with an overview of the needs and assets of the Burlington economy and then looks at the role of UVM, and its almost $300 million annual budget, in that economy. The course then looks at a variety of topics related to local economic development, and the role of local institutions in development, for the remainder of the class.

A major part of the course is the field projects carried out by students either individually or in teams. Building on the research and outreach work of students in previous classes, this semester students will study and implement ways to sustain employment and purchasing activities/partnerships and to evaluate their impacts on UVM and local residents and economy.

The UVM/Burlington Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) oversees the UVM Impacts Project that provides support for this class. The Impacts Project Advisory Committee of UVM, City and Community representatives will provide guidance for the class field work.

Goals
1. Strengthen or develop student skills in (a) analysis, interviewing, surveys, and other research methods, (b) writing, presentation, website construction and other forms of communication, and (c) working independently and in teams.
2. Learn the basic theoretical concepts underlying economists understanding of local economic development.
3. Provide findings and recommendations to advisory committee of UVM/Burlington COPC UVM Impacts project.
4. Contribute to positive workforce and business development impacts on Old North End residents.
5. Contribute to the building of lasting partnerships between community members and organizations and UVM.

Course Format and Requirements:
1. The course will operate as a task force of the UVM Impacts Project, charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing strategies to sustain and evaluate the positive impacts of UVM employment and purchasing on this economy and on the residents of the Old North End of Burlington. Individuals and groups with specific knowledge related to this task will be invited to the class to share their information with task force members, and help guide student research/implementation activities.

2. Class members will each be in a small study team (2-3 members) assigned to focus on various issues.

3. Since the success of the task force depends on the contributions of all members, and each member needs to be kept abreast of the work of others, class attendance is mandatory.

4. Each class member will keep a journal recording questions, ideas, information, reflections, and other entries related to the class and the topics under study. In addition, students will write three reflection essays in their journal during the semester. The instructors will review the journal and a reflection essay on October 1, November 5 and December 3. The journal and reflection essays are required but will not be graded.

5. Student teams will prepare assignments related to the analysis of the local economy and of university impacts, and develop questions in advance of class for any guest speakers and on any readings. Since the class has a task force structure, students may also be given other individual or small group assignments based on questions raised during a particular meeting of the task force.

6. Students will make regular progress reports to the class, prepare their own written reports, and work together to prepare and present a final report to members of the UVM Impacts Project Advisory Committee.

7. Grades will be based on attendance, participation, and journals (20%), individual and group assignments (30%), and final individual or team reports (50%).

Resources:
In addition to the resources brought to the class by the instructors, students, and visiting speakers, we will draw on a series of readings and reference materials kept on reserve in Bailey-Howe Library or available on the Burlington/UVM COPC website. Some or all of the required readings will be at the reserve desk.

Outline and Assignments:

August 27:
Introduction

1. Course Purpose, ApproachTask Force Structure; Service Learning

2. Local Economic Development
Goals
Methods of Analysis:
Performance, Structure, Resource Analysis
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT)
Sources of Information:
Cortright and Reamer, Socioeconomic Data for Understanding Your Regional Economy (one copy available for use by class members)

3. Role of Class in the UVM/Burlington COPC; Research and Outreach Results to Date COPC Proposal Summary and UVM/Regional Economy Project Description (handout and go over in class)

Assignment:
Old North End Walk
Read Mt. Auburn Associates, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Assessing Your Local Economy (handout)
Do readings for 9/3 class
Exercise: Develop a Preliminary Plan for Analysis of Burlington Economy

September 3:
Economic Analysis, Institutional Impacts, and Local Economic Development

1. Meet in the Bailey-Howe Library Instruction Center at 5pm for discussion of socioeconomic data for local economic analysis with Scott Schaffer, Library Assistant Professor

2. Burlington Economic Analysis
Review Student Plans
3. Role of Institutions in Local Economy: Universities
University impact studies
Closer look at UVM
4. Making the Case for Local Economic Development
Michael Shuman Address to COPC Conference, Economic Engines in Action, April 12, 2002 (Video)

Readings:
Blakely, Planning Local Economic Development, Ch 1.
Shuman, Going Local, Ch. 1

Assignment:
Exercise: Complete analysis of performance, structure and resources of Burlington Economy and prepare SWOT analysis

September 10
Burlington Economy, Sustainability, and Development Strategies

1. Burlington and Sustainability
Mayor Peter Clavelle Talk (301 Williams, 3:30-4:45)

2. Meanings of Sustainability
Environmental
Institutionalization

3. Student Reports on Burlington Economy
Performance, Structure, Resources, SWOT

4. Overview of LED Strategies

5. UVM and the Burlington Economy

Assignment:
Take in community dinner, Multi-Generational Center, 241 N. Winooski Ave. 5:30, Thursday September 12

Readings:
Institutionalization:
- Lessons from COPC Program, HUD, June 2002 Ch 1, 4, 5
- Institutionalizing Community Outreach, Development and Partnerships: Case Study of Springfield College

Sustainability:
- Impact of UVM s Employment and Purchasing Policies and Practices on Local Businesses and Lower Income Residents (June 2000)
- Update of Impacts Report (August 2001)
- List of activities, accomplishments (Fall, 2001)
Reference: Leveraging Colleges and Universities for Urban Economic Revitalization: An Action Agenda (one copy available for use by class members)

Exercise: Pick one activity and partnership from Impacts list (fall 2001) and prepare one page memo on the steps needed to make this activity/partnership sustainable

September 17:
Institutionalization and Sustainability

1 Institutionalization of Outreach and Partnerships
Discuss COPC lessons and Springfield College; Efforts at UVM
2. Sustaining Impacts Project Activities and Partnerships
Discuss student memos

3. Develop a sustainability project proposal for Advisory Committee

Assignment:
Read evaluation materials for 9/24 class

Exercise: Pick either the Employment or Purchasing part of the Impacts Project and develop a preliminary design of how you would evaluate these activities and partnerships. How can you tell if this part of the project has been successful?

September 24:
Evaluation Methods, Measures, Indicators

1. Evaluation methods for projects, programs, policies, strategies, organizations

2. Dimensions and measures of success; Community indicators

Readings:
- Mt. Auburn Associates, Evaluating Development Loan Funds, pp. 4-17
- Weiss, Carol, Nothing as Practical as Good Theory: Exploring Theory-Based Evaluation for Comprehensive Community Initiatives in Connell, James, Anne Kubisch, Lisbeth Shor, and Carol Weiss, New Approaches to Evaluating Community Initiatives
- Hart, Maureen, Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators, pp. 3-31.

3. Develop an Impacts Evaluation Proposal for Advisory Committee

Assignment:
Read materials assigned for 10/1 class.
Prepare for meeting with Impacts Project Advisory Committee

Note: Beginning with the next class, we will spend half our class time on field project work and the other half on a series of topics related to that work and to the field of local economic development.

October 1:
Local Economic Development Theories

1. Meet with Impacts Project Advisory Committee (5-6pm)

2. Discuss Advisory Committee meeting recommendations and class field projects

3. Theory and Issues of Local Economic Development.

Reading:
O Sullivan, Urban Economics, Chapter 6 Urban Economic Growth Blakely, Ch. 3
Schramm, Richard, Local, Regional and National Strategies, Chapter 9 in Bruyn, Severyn and James Meehan, ed., Beyond the Market and the State: New Directions for Community Development

Assignment: Do readings assigned for 10/8 class
Exercise: Prepare field project plan

October 8:
Local Economic Development Policies

1. Overview of Governmental and Institutional Local Economic Development Policies

2. COPC s Targeted Buy Vermont data and the data analysis.

Readings:
- Glaeser, E., H. Kallal, J. Scheinkman and A. Shleifer (1992) Growth in Cities, Journal of Political Economy, 100, 1126-1152.
- Persky, D., D. Ranney and W. Wiewel (1993) Import Substitution and Local Economic Development, Economic Development Quarterly, 7, 18-29.

3. Work on field projects

Assignment:
Begin work on field projects
Do readings assigned for 10/15 class

October 15:
Participative, Comprehensive, Sustainable Development: Case Study of Burlington s Enterprise Community Part I

1. The Burlington Old North End Enterprise Community; Theories of Change

2. Theories of Participation and Collaboration

3. Resident Participation; Organizations, Partnerships and Collaboration

Reading:
Article on empowerment zones/enterprise communities (to be assigned)
Common Ground (excerpts)
Schramm, Theory and Practice of Community Economic Development: Lessons from Burlington Vermont s Enterprise Community part I

4. Work on field projects

Assignment:
Read assignment for 10/22
Continue work on field project

October 22:
Participative, Comprehensive, Sustainable Development: Case Study of Burlington s Enterprise Community Part II

1. Theory of Comprehensive, Holistic Development

2. Program of Economic, Social and Physical Development

3. Goals and Indicators; Evaluation Results

4. Work on field projects

Reading:
Schramm, Theory and Practice of Community Economic Development: Lessons from Burlington Vermont s Enterprise Community part II

Assignment:
Read assignment for 10/29
Continue work on field project

October 29:
Participative, Comprehensive, Sustainable Development: Case Study of Burlington s Enterprise Community Part III

1. Theory of Community Economic Development and Sustainability

2. Enterprise Community Model of Workforce and Business Development

3. Evaluation Results

Reading:
Schramm, Theory and Practice of Community Economic Development: Lessons from Burlington Vermont s Enterprise Community part III

4. Work on field projects

November 5 December 3:
Remaining classes will be devoted to field project completion and presentation, with additional topics and/or speakers to be determined by class members.

December 3:
Presentation and discussion of results and initial analysis with members of the Advisory Committee

December 13:
Final wrap-up of the semester will take place during our scheduled exam period.

References

Bingham, Richard and Robert Mier (eds.), Theories of Local Economic Development: Perspectives from Across the Disciplines (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993)

Bingham, Richard and Robert Mier (eds.), Dilemmas of Urban Economic Development: Issues in Theory and Practice (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997)

Black, Sherry Salway, Redefining Success in Community Development, The Indigenous Planning and Development Times Issue 3, Fall 1997, (or from the Filene Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA)

Blakely, Edward and Ted Bradshaw, Planning Local Economic Development: Theroy and Practice, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000, 3rd Edition)

Bruyn, Severyn and James Meehan, ed., Beyond the Market and the State: New Directions for Community Development, (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1987)

Fosler, R. Scott, ed., Local Economic Development Strategies for a Changing Economy, (Washington, D.C.: International City Management Assoc., 1991)

Galston, William and Karen Baehler, Rural Development in the United States: Connecting Theory, Practice, and Possibilities (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997)

Hart, Maureen, Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators (Ipswich, MA: QLF/Atlantic Center for the Environment, May 1995)

Keating, Dennis, Norman Krumholz, and Philip Star, Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1996)

Malizia, Emil and John Feser, Understanding Local Economic Development (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University, Center for Urban Planning Research, 1999)

Meeker-Lowry, Susan, Invested in the Common Good, (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1995)

Mitchell, Stacy, The Hometown Advantage (Minneapolis, MN: The Institute for Local Self Reliance, 2000)

Murray, Michael and Larry Dunn, Revitalizing Rural America: A Perspective on Collaboration and Community (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996)

Perry, Stewart and Mike Lewis, Reinventing the Local Economy, (Port Alberni, British Columbia: Centre for Community Enterprise, 1994)

Roseland, Mark, Toward Sustainable Communities (Stony Creek, CT: New Society Publishers, 1998)

Shragge, Eric (ed.), Community Economic Development: In Search of Empowerment (Montreal/New York: Black Rose Books, 1997)

Shuman, Michael, Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age, (New York: The Free Press, 1998)

2. Economic Context/Economic Analysis

Ben David-Val, Avrom, Regional and Local Economic Analysis for Practitioners, (New York: Praeger, 1991)

Berne, Robert and Richard Schramm, The Financial Analysis of Governments (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986)

Harrison, Bennett and Barry Bluestone, The Great U-Turn (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1988)

Hustedde, Ron, Ron Shaffer and Glen Pulver, Community Economic Analysis: A How To Manual (Ames, Iowa: North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Iowa State University, 1984)

Korten, David, When Corporations Rule the World (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1995)

Kretzmann, John and John McKnight, Building Communities from the Inside Out, (Evanston, IL: Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University, 1993)

Madrick, Jeffrey, The End of Affluence: The Causes and Consequences of America s Economic Dilemma, (New York: Random House, 1997)

Mander, Jerry and Edward Goldsmith, The Case Against the Global Economy and for a Turn toward the Local (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996)

Mt. Auburn Associates, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Assessing Your Local Economy (Boston, MA: Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development, 1994)

Schramm, Richard and Duane Wilcox, Cost-Benefit Analysis for Local Governments (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Local Government Program, 1981)

Shaffer, Ron, Community Economics: Economic Structure and Change in Smaller Communities (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989)

Stephan Michelson, Community-Based Development in Urban Areas, in Robert Friedman and William Schweke (eds), Expanding the Opportunity to Produce: Revitalizing the American Economy through New Enterprise Development (Washington, DC: Corporation for Enterprise Development, 1981)

3. Employment Training, Job Development

Clark, Peggy and Steve Dawson, Jobs and the Urban Poor: Privately Initiated Sectoral Strategies (Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, November 1995)

Dewar, Tom and David Sheie, Promoting Job Opportunities, (Baltimore: Annie Casey Foundation, 1995)

Harrison, Bennett, et al, Building Bridges: Community Development Corporations and the World of Employment Training (New York: Ford Foundation, 1994)

Jobs for the Future, Mt. Auburn Associates, Nancy Nye, Brandon Roberts and Associates, and Richard Schramm, Federal Jobs Policy: History, Current Status, and Future Challenges (Oakland, CA: Neighborhood Funders Group, March, 1996)

Nye, Nancy and Richard Schramm, Federal Jobs Policy and Support for Community Economic Development (Oakland, CA: Neighborhood Funders Group, March, 1996)

O Regan, Fred and Maureen Conway, From the Bottom Up: Toward a Strategy for Income and Employment Generation Among the Disadvantaged (Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, 1993)

Seigel, Beth and Peter Kwass, Jobs and the Urban Poor: Publicly Initiated Sectoral Strategies (Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, November 1995)

Stillman, Joe, Making the Connection: Economic Development, Workforce Development, and Urban Poverty (New York: The Conservation Company, 1994)

4. Social Business

Adams, Frank T. and Gary B. Hansen, Putting Democracy to Work (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 1992)

Callenbach, Ernest et al, EcoManagement: The Elmwood Guide to Ecological Auditing and Sustainable Business (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1993)

Chappell, Tom, The Soul of Business (New York: Bantam Books, 1993)

Dickstein, Carla, John Piotta and Elizabeth Sheehan, Sustainable Development in Practice: Coastal Enterprises, Inc. s Experience, (Medford, MA: Filene Center, Tufts University, 1997)

Hawken, Paul, The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (New York, NY: Harper Business, 1993)

Makower, Joel, Beyond the Bottom Line: Putting Social Responsibility to Work for Your Business and the World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994)

Nye, Nancy and Schramm, Richard, Building a Learning Organization: Final Evaluation Report of Replication of Cooperative Home Care Associates for Charles Stewart Mott (Flint, MI) and Ford Foundation (New York, NY), June 1994

Nye, Nancy, Melvyn Col

You will develop (or strengthen) community awareness and involvement (FGCU's learning outcome # 9):

        1.1. Participate collaboratively in community service projects.

2) You will develop (or strengthen your) problem-solving abilities (FGCU's learning outcome # 7):

2.1.You will apply critical, analytical and creative thinking in order to recognize and solve problems;

2.2. You will work individually and collaboratively to recognize and solve problems.

These goals will be accomplished by meetingthe following objectives:
By the end of the semester you will have:

1) Completed, documented and reflected on at least 10 hours of economic-related service learning activities;

2) As a team and individually, you will employcritical thinking skills to solve group assignments, class experiments and examquestions dealing with the following issues (Source: National Council ofEconomic Education):

• Productive resources are limited. Rational Economic Agents decide how to use these resources by comparing the marginal costs of alternatives with the marginal benefits.

• People respond to positive and negative incentives.

• Voluntary exchange occurs only when all participating parties expect to gain. This is true for trade among individuals or organizations within a nation, and usually among individuals or organizations in different nations.When individuals, regions, and nations specialize in what they can produce at the lowest cost and then trade with others, both production and consumption tend to increase.

• Markets exist when buyers and sellers interact. This interaction determines market prices and thereby allocates scarce goods and services. Prices send signals and provide incentives to buyers and sellers. When supply or demand changes, market prices adjust, affecting incentives.

• In a perfectly competitive market, competition among sellers is likely to lower costs and prices, and is likely to encourage producers to produce more of what consumers are willing and able to buy.

• Income for most people is determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell. What workers earn depends, primarily, on the market value of what they produce and how productive they are.

• Entrepreneurs are people who take the risks of organizing productive resources to make goods and services. Profit is one of the incentives that leads entrepreneurs to accept the risks of business failure.

• There is an economic role for government in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. Costs of government policies sometimes exceed benefits. This may occur because of incentives facing voters, government officials, and government employees, because of actions by special interest groups that can impose costs on the general public, or because social goals other than economic efficiency are being pursued.

How will these goals be evaluated?

Grading Policy

Your final grade will be based on the following criteria:

1) Exams, 65% of your grade:

There will be 3 exams. All exams will be comprehensive. This is intended as a tool to reinforce your knowledge and effective use of the economic concepts and ideas you will learn this semester.

1.1. Definite Exam Schedule and TentativeExam Material*
 
 

Exam 1	September 27, 2001	Click here for tentative schedule of topics.  All exams are comprehensive
Exam 2	November 6, 2001	Click here for tentative schedule of topics.  All exams are comprehensive
Exam 3	Finals Week	Click here for tentative schedule of topics.  All exams are comprehensive

• The exam format will be multiple choice, short answer, true/false, word problems and essay.
• I do not "curve" exams. I believe that such procedures eliminate all the inherent incentives you have to do your best. Exam questions that seem "unfair" and/or extremely difficult for all students will be re-considered as I grade the exams.
• I know that the unexpected happens.Honest and open communication (that can be supported with evidence and/ora doctor s note) is encouraged. Please notice: Taking your daughter to the doctor is, according toJ. Stanziola, an emergency; taking your cat (i.e., pet, etc) to the vet is a decisionyou make.  You getting hit by a car is an emergency; getting married theday of the final exam is a decision you make.
  If you experience an emergency and can document it, you will be allowed to takea make-up exam.  All make-up exams will be oral examinationsand must be made up within one week of the formal exam. If you make a decision that prevents you from being in class, you should be willing to bear the full opportunity cost of your actions.

• You can expect AT LEAST one in-class group assignment every class. These assignments will ask you to apply and retain concepts discussed in THINKWELL's Economics.
• As you are watching these chapters, you are to take notes, and write down any questions you may have on the subject. Solve the guided quizzes Thinkwell has on line.
• Live the moment!  You should have an active conversation with the guy on the video.
• Your active commitment to this class is imperative.  You are to watch the videos assigned before coming to class.    
• I DO NOT LECTURE IN CLASS.  I see myself as a facilitator, referee that can help you in the process of retaining and applying the ideas you have acquired watching the THINKWELL videos.
• These assignments will follow a cooperative learning approach.
• I know that the unexpected happens.Honest and open communication (that can be supported with evidence and/ora doctor s note) is encouraged.  You can miss up to ONE group assignment. To make up group assignments, you need to provide written evidence of youremergency.  
  

• Service learning experiences support the FGCU undergraduate learning goals and outcomes, foster civic responsibility, and develop informed citizens who participate in their communities after graduation in personally and professionally relevant ways.
• Service learning facilitates an appreciation for the interconnectedness of individuals, the communities in which they live, and the resources required to sustain both.
• A KEY ingredient of Service Learning is the chance to apply what you are learning in the classroom to real life situations.

For this class, you will have to complete at least 10 hours of service learning hours related to one or a number of the choices listed below:

Service Learning Options

• To receive a grade for your service learning activity, you are to carefully document your time, fill out a service agreement and verification form, and write a reflection paper.  
  • Your reflection paper should discuss the following questions: Based on your experiences related to your service learning activity, 1) Do you believe social capital fosters, facilitates, and/or sustains business practices and/or entrepreneurship? Why? How? 2) Is social trust needed to foster, facilitate, and/or sustain business practices and/or entrepreneurship? Why?  3) Do entrepreneurs and business managers have a "social responsibility"?  Why?  Please refer to Friedman's views on this subject.  
• HALF OF YOUR GRADE will be based on the completion and documentation of 10 service learning hours.  You can work in groups of 1-2.  For "VISA", you would be working as a group of five.  For "Entrepreneurship Assistance", you would be working as a group of "30". 
• HALF OF YOUR GRADE will be based on your reflection paper.  EACH of you has to write an individual reflection paper (except the 15 students working on the database of economic indicators and Entrepreneurship Assistance.)

  IMPORTANT DEADLINES

  1. September 4, 2001: Select service learning options.  Remember, space is limited.  

  2. I will place a sign-up sheet for each of these projects outside my door.  If you select to engage in an economic-related service learning activity that is not listed here (LISTED AS OTHERS ABOVE), you need to get my approval by September 4, 2001. 

  3. SERVICE LEARNING DAYS:  To allow you to work on your service learning projects, we will not meet on October 11, October 30 and November 29.  Please use this time wisely.  

  4. Reflection Paper and Agreement and Verification forms are due DECEMBER 4, 2001 at the beginning of class.

   

  I know that the unexpected happens.Honest and open communication (that can be supported with evidence and/ora doctor s note) is encouraged. Please notice: Taking your daughter to the doctor is, according toJ. D.Stanziola, an emergency; taking your cat (i.e., pet, etc) to the vet is a decisionyou make.  You getting hit by a car is an emergency; getting married theday of the final exam is a decision you make.  YOUR NOT PLANNING ON ADVANCE TO COMPLETE YOUR SERVICE LEARNING REQUIREMENT is not an emergency.  
  

• I encourage an environment of constant questioning, debate, challenge in the classroom.  You are encouraged to disagree with every word I say. Now, that does not mean that you are to be disrespectful of me or your peers.
• I expect nothing but your optimal performance.  This class requires you to be mindful (open to meaningful options) and intelligent (able to achieve desired outcomes).  Short Essay questions are examples of mindfulness.  There are no "right" or "wrong" answers for these short essay questions.  But you are to justify your claims using concepts/models/ideas learned in this class.  Multiple Choice questions are, on the other hand, intelligent questions.  They require that you acquire, remember, and retain concepts and ideas.
• Business students need a C to pass this class.  I follow a +/- system.  A C- is not a passing grade for Business students.

• Common Misconceptions about College, according to J.D. Stanziola:
  • One of the jobs of the professor is  to "give" grades.  That's not the way I see it.  I assess and evaluate your performance in the class.  You EARN your grade.
  • A grade reflects how smart you are.   That's not the way I see it.  A grade reflects the choices you made during a semester.
  • Incompletes (I) are given to those students that wanted to drop the class but missed the deadline.  That's not the way I see it.  An "I" will be given only to those students that are facing/faced an emergency or personal loss and have completed at least 70% of the class work.  It is up to the professor to assign an Incomplete.

Grades will be distributed as follows:
 
 

A = 94 -100	B+ = 87 -89	C+ = 77 -79	D+ = 67 -69
A- = 93 -90	B = 86 -84	C = 76 -74	D = 66 -64
	B- = 83 -80	C- = 73 -70	D- = 63 -60 Below 59 = F

]]> http://www.compact.org/syllabi/economics/principles-of-microeconomics/3994/feed/ 0 http://www.compact.org/syllabi/economics/an-analysis-of-the-economic-environmental-and-social-implications-of-the-proposed-seaview-avenue-industrial-corridor-for-the-city-of-bridgeport/3988/ http://www.compact.org/syllabi/economics/an-analysis-of-the-economic-environmental-and-social-implications-of-the-proposed-seaview-avenue-industrial-corridor-for-the-city-of-bridgeport/3988/#comments Fri, 11 May 2001 00:00:00 +0000 tdomf_26a6d http://compact.localhost.com/?p=3988
To be undertaken as a service learning project by Sacred Heart University students in Fall 2000 in
EC 211 The Economics of Social Issues
CA 21 Honors Communications

For Trashbusters and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council

Under the direction of:
Dr. Bridget Lyons, assistant professor of economics, Sacred Heart University
Dr. Marion Calabrese, associate professor of English, Sacred Heart University
Teresa Ralabate, environmental consultant, Life Systems, Inc.
Phyllis Machledt, director of service learning, Sacred Heart University


1. The Seaview Avenue Industrial Corridor Project

The City of Bridgeport adopted a Strategic Plan in 1996 that specified economic development goals for the city over a 20 year period. Two important goals of the plan were to develop 20,000 job opportunities over the 20 year period and to grow the tax base. The strategic plan led to a development plan based on a strategy of: downtown revitalization, neighborhood reinvestment, waterfront recapture, and industrial recovery. The city believes that one of the most significant growth opportunities lies in the so-called Lake Success Project. This project is planned for a 450 acre site, located primarily in Bridgeport with about 75 acres in Stratford, which is owned by DuPont Corporation. The site was used for years as an ammunition testing site and is now undergoing environmental cleanup. Upon completion of the cleanup, DuPont says it plans to develop a low-density corporate campus park.

In order to maximize the development appeal of the site, the city believes that access must be improved since currently the only access is through existing residential neighborhoods. Thus the city has proposed the Seaview Avenue Industrial Corridor Project, an improved roadway aimed at providing convenient access from the recently constructed I-95 Interchange at exit 29 to Lake Success. The city expects that the project will also increase retention opportunities for businesses south of the site and improve development opportunities along the two-mile corridor. The roadway improvement is expected to cost about $125 million.
At this time, the Maguire Group is conducting preliminary engineering studies and environmental assessments. The firm plans to analyze the project and alternatives during the summer and fall of 2000. The firm plans to publish and distribute the environmental assessment in May 2001 for public comment in July 2001.



2. The History of Sacred Heart University's Involvement in the Project

During the spring of 1999, Don Shea, a member of Trashbusters, a Bridgeport community group, contacted Phyllis Machledt, the director of service learning at Sacred Heart University, to request assistance in evaluating the impact of the proposed Seaview Aveue Industrial Corridor. She recommended contacting Dr. Bridget Lyons, professor of economics at the University. After several conversations with Mr. Shea, Dr. Lyons attended a public information meeting on the project where she met with members of Trashbusters and discussed what students might offer the group. Paul Timpanelli, President (??) of the Bridgeport Regional Business Center (BRBC), was also at the meeting and offered to discuss the project and related service learning opportunities. Professor Lyons concluded that the project would provide an excellent service learning opportunity for a course under development, The Economics of Social Issues. The students could meet the request of a local community group while gaining practical experience analyzing the numerous and complex issues faced by cities seeking economic development.

Realizing that the project would involve environmental issues, as well as economic and social issues, Professor Lyons contacted Teresa Ralabate, an environmental consultant at Life Systems Inc, who agreed to work as an environmental consultant for the group on a pro bono basis. Dr. Marion Calabrese, of the English department at Sacred Heart University, was also approached since so many of the issues involved communication. It was agreed that the Seaview Avenue Industrial Corridor would provide the basis for an interdisciplinary service learning project to be undertaken by students in Dr. Lyons' Economics of Social Issues course and Dr. Calabrese's Honors Communications courses during the Fall 2000 term.

During the summer Dr. Lyons, Dr. Calabrese and Ms. Ralabate, met with Paul Timpanelli and Janice Martin of BRBC, and Don Shea of Trashbusters. It was agreed by all that SHU students could serve the community's needs by first, undertaking an independent analysis of the economic, environmental, and social implications of the proposed Seaview Avenue Industrial Corridor and second, developing a plan to disseminate the information gathered. The project's scope and parameters were developed over the summer and approved. In August, Bethany Tassone of Maguire Group (the firm retained to prepare the Environmental Assessment and engineering study) contacted Dr. Lyons and offered to meet with the students as well.


3. The Proposal for an Interdisciplinary Service Learning Project Based on the Seaview Avenue Corridor Project

An economic analysis of the proposed Seaview Avenue Industrial Corridor will be conducted to identify potential benefits and costs to both public and private parties. The economic evaluation of any public policy initiative should include two components: an assessment of the costs and benefits of the proposal and consideration of how such costs and benefits will be allocated. The estimation of costs and benefits of a proposal includes measuring both the private and social costs and benefits. Social benefits include any improvements in social welfare, while social costs refer to reductions in social welfare. Indeed, the expected net impact on social welfare is the primary factor analyzed in most public policy debates. Private costs and benefits refer to reductions and improvements in the welfare of individuals or firms. Such costs and benefits are also important to analyze because they impact the net change in social welfare. Further, if the policy initiative involves corporate participation, the level of net private sector benefit will determine whether or not firm participation is expected to be profitable, and therefore likely. It is also necessary to consider how the expected social and private costs and benefits will be allocated since this will determine the impact of the policy, the sources and level of support and opposition, and the political viability of the proposal.

The Seaview Avenue Corridor proposal involves potential benefits and costs which might result from economic development, environmental, health and/or social factors.

The students undertaking the project evaluation will:

1. Identify general areas of potential impact
2. Each student will select an area of primary interest (economic development, environment, health, community or environmental justice) and form teams consisting of 2-4 students
3. Each team will identify and research specific benefits and costs in the selected area arising from the proposed corridor
4. On the basis of potential benefits and costs, develop recommendations aimed at maximizing benefits while minimizing costs
5. Develop a plan to disseminate information from the study
6. Incorporate research and recommendations into a written proposal and PowerPoint presentation
7. Presentation/Proposal to Trashbusters and BRBC


In order to develop a service learning project which could be completed in the confines of a 15 week semester, the first and third steps were begun during the summer. Students will research the potential impacts detailed below and may identify additional areas of potential impact through their research.


1. Areas of Potential Impact:

-Economic Development
-Environment
-Health
-Community
-Environmental Justice

2. Students Identify Area of Primary Interest and Form Teams by Area

-students should select area of interest by September 15th
-teams of 2-4 students formed by September 20th

3. Teams Identify and Research Specific Costs and Benefits of Proposed Seaview Avenue Corridor

3.1 Identification of Specific Costs and Benefits by Area

a. Economic development
-development of more attractive commercial space environment along corridor
-development of improved highway access to significantly increase the likelihood of a corporate park developing in Lake Success
-new employment opportunities
-retention of current employment in area
-expansion of tax base

b. Environment
-increase in air pollution
-increase in surface runoff
-impact on storm sewage system
-impact on terrestrial animals/plants
-Riparian impacts
increase in surface water pollution
impact on animals/plants
impact on wetlands

-increase in noise pollution
-hazardous waste
disturbance of existing sites
increase in production
-potential groundwater impact
-visual (aesthetic) impact/pollution

c. Health
-impact on air quality from additional traffic
-impact on air quality from additional industry
-impact on groundwater resources
-contamination risk

d. Community
-definition of relevant community
-displacement of some residents
-change in neighborhood
-increased commercialization
-impact on property values
-impact on historic resources
-impact on municipal resources

e. Environmental Justice
-do the costs outlined in a-d fall disproportionately upon the poorer members of the community?


The above are suggestions to facilitate analysis; additional areas of potential impact may be identified by students during their research.


3.2 Research on Specific Costs and Benefits by Area

-to be conducted by teams during Fall 2000
-initial research on potential impacts due October 19th, 2000


4. Recommendations Aimed at Maximizing Benefits while Minimizing Costs

-to be completed by November 17th, 2000


5. Develop Plan to Disseminate Information

-to be completed by November 17th, 2000

6. Incorporate Research and Recommendations into a Written Proposal and PowerPoint Presentation

-to be completed by December 1st, 2000 and then reviewed and revised


7. Presentation/Proposal for Trashbusters and BRBC

-date to be set subject to approval by Trashbusters and BRBC


Appendix A: Introduction to Service Learning

In order to re-emphasize the mission of the school and engage the students in helping the local community, Sacred Heart University introduced Service Learning into the curriculum in 1994, primarily in the areas of social sciences and communication. Service Learning has offered students the opportunity to learn about an academic subject through active participation in service experiences that are integrated into the curriculum. The service meets community needs and is directly linked to the content of the course. For example, students taking Conversational Spanish tutor children in bilingual classes or work in an elderly day care program for Spanish speaking senior citizens. A Service Learning writing course focusing on urban education involves students in inner city classrooms, while they study and discuss public policy issues related to education. Service Learning students in a research writing course exploring immigration issues visit weekly with elderly Russian Jews or help newly arrived immigrants learn English. In a religion course, Contemporary Moral Issues, Service Learning students work in soup kitchens, inner city tutoring programs, mental health centers, Habitat for Humanity, and women·s literacy programs.

A Service Learning course includes discussion, reflection and analysis of the service experience. It may also include student involvement in planning the project, contacting community members and grant writing when funding is needed. Service Learning may be required of all students in a course, or be an option in place of a more conventional research assignment. One of the aims of Service Learning is to turn passive learners into active learners, as students grapple with real life issues related to their course work. While providing meaningful service to the local community, the students also learn about citizenship and social responsibility.

Most Sacred Heart Service Learning programs occur in nearby Bridgeport, CT., a former industrial and manufacturing center with a very ethnically and racially diverse population. Since many of the businesses have moved out, unemployment is high and about one third of Bridgeport residents live in poverty. Many neighborhoods have been under great stress with serious crime problems, absentee landlords, and a transient population. Because of financial difficulties, the city has had to cut many important services, especially relating to the environment and many forms of pollution have added to the degradation of neighborhoods. Some groups in the city have looked to Sacred Heart to form partnerships to improve their neighborhoods.

In the past two years these requests have been the basis of Service Learning environmental projects in biology and economics courses. In the spring of 1998, a Freshman Honors class in environmental science, collaborated with 7th grade children from an inner-city elementary school, the local police, and community groups on the ecological restoration of an undeveloped woodland. The second Service Learning project was offered as an option in the Principles of Microeconomics course. In the spring of 1999, students selecting the service learning option conducted a feasibility study for Groundwork Bridgeport, a program which helps local community groups restore parks, reclaim vacant lots for green space or community gardens, build playgrounds, or do other physical improvements in the city. Most recently, students in the microeconomics course have assisted with a number of projects related to economic development including: an analysis of the available space in downtown area for the Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC), an analysis of existing restaurants in the downtown area for the BRBC, the development of a marketing plan to enhance the downtown area for the BRBC, planning and executing fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, analysis of the Jobs Expo with recommendations for future improvement, and planning the execution and marketing for the renovation of a historic home in Stratford.


It is our hope that the proposed interdisciplinary analysis of the Seaview Avenue Corridor will provide another fruitful service learning experience.

Appendix B: attachments of information on Seaview Avenue Corridor

More information to come