Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Paul J. Zingg, has established this year a group of campus leaders to examine and explore Cal Poly s pursuit of community service and service learning initiatives and activities. In addition, the Provost has commissioned a parallel effort to explore the “”Engaged University”" concept championed by the Kellogg Foundation. These activities indicate Cal Poly s support of the Presidents Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education and our obligations to sustain public trust in our endeavors.

Community service, service learning, and community-based learning are longstanding traditions in the mission and purpose of Cal Poly and are regular elements of the educational environment provided our students, both curricular and co-curricular. One aspect of developing an Engaged University model at this campus will be to catalog and document the scope and impact of Cal Poly s engagement activities.

In addition, earlier this academic year, Provost Zingg also initiated the formation of a task force on Institutional Accountability and Learning Assessment, which has as one aspect of its charge defining our goal as a teaching/learning community. Also, the theme of Cal Poly s accreditation self-study for WASC is “”Cal Poly as a Center of Learning.”" This self-study has been hailed by WASC as one of the most innovative, candid, and successful in the history of the Association.

Community service program web site: http://www.calpoly.edu/~slad/csl/