New guide lists UW-Madison as ‘college with a conscience’

Its 80 service-learning courses, prestigious awards to students who engage in community service, student-led service-to-the-community initiatives and the very presence of its Morgridge Center for Public Service have earned the UW–Madison a berth in the new guidebook “Colleges with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement” (Random House/Princeton Review, 2005).

Eighty-one institutions, selected from a pool of more than 900, are included in the guide, which has just gone on sale. The editors took the effect of service on student admission, level of student activism, institutional support for service learning and more into account in making their choices.

“There’s a lot going on at UW–Madison to catch an editor’s eye,” says Randy Wallar, associate director of the Morgridge Center, both a clearinghouse for students and faculty interested in volunteering as well as a resource for faculty and staff who want to incorporate service or community-based research into the curriculum.

Wallar says that UW–Madison’s tradition of reaching out to the larger community, beginning with the century-old Wisconsin Idea, makes the university uncommonly attractive to both students and faculty.

“Our legacy of civic engagement makes Madison very attractive place to many people,” he says. “Service learning and community-based research produces superior scholars – and citizens – who remain actively involved throughout their lives. They are not only knowledgeable about important social, economic and political issues but also motivated to do something about their root causes. They understand that they have a responsibility to try to improve their community, whether on the local, national or global level.”