Over the next three years, MSU will extend programs to increase students' social and civic engagement within the community.
Administrators plan to add service-learning and internship courses, study abroad programs and a class on civic responsibility designed to bring together students from different departments.
This became possible because MSU was chosen along with 17 other universities to participate in Core Commitments Leadership Consortium — a grant from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, or AAC&U. There were 128 institutions that applied.
"We believe this is a time where we can build upon our existing strengths and also provide other institutions like MSU with a model, enhancing and extending responsible citizenship throughout the university and the wider community," said Stephen Esquith, acting dean of the Residential College in Arts & Humanities.
The $25,000 grant was supplemented with $33,000 from half dozen MSU offices, Esquith said.
Institutions were chosen based on their track records regarding social engagement and responsibility and a proposal outlining plans to extend such work on campus.
"Core commitments will draw on each school's own strengths in areas of ethics and civic responsibility and will help each school work through their own challenges to implementation instead of applying one perceived solution," said Nancy O'Neill, director of programs at AAC&U, in an e-mail.
Living-learning facilities are one of MSU's main strengths in this initiative, Esquith said. For example, Lyman Briggs School and James Madison College require students to participate in community service activities. They will work together with the new Residential College in Arts & Humanities, which will open this fall, on the grant projects.
Colleges and universities also were selected based on their "demonstrated ability" to carry out proposals, O'Neill said.
"The new residential college represents a very major investment by the university," Esquith said.
The money will be funded annually for three years, totaling about $170,000, Esquith said. After, there will be no need to renew the grant.
"This is designed to establish certain ongoing opportunities," he said.
"This is money to help us create a campus dialogue of a certain structure with institutional support so there wouldn't be a need for an additional grant."
The association's next step is to gather the grant recipients together to start the project and decide the best practices, O'Neill said.
"We will work with these schools to provide national leadership in making personal and social responsibility a central part of a high-quality undergraduate education for all students," she said.
