UW-Madison receives national service award

For the second year in a row, the Corporation for National and Community Service has honored the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a university can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement.

Schools apply for the honor and are judged based on the scope and innovation of their service projects, the percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service and the extent to which the school offers service-learning courses.

UW-Madison currently offers dozens of service-learning courses through the continually expanding Morgridge Center for Public Service. The center, as well as hundreds of campus fraternities, sororities and student organizations, promotes volunteering and community service.

The university was one of 546 schools honored. Madison’s Edgewood College also made the honor roll list.

“I’m truly thrilled that we’ve received this national recognition — two years in a row -for all the great service-learning and community-based research that our students are doing,” says Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching and learning. “The staff at the Morgridge Center can feel very proud of what they’ve accomplished.”

“Any success the center has is due to our ability to help marshal the concerns and dedication of many communities who understand the idea of the commonwealth,” says Michael Thornton, professor of Afro-American studies and faculty director of the Morgridge Center.

“Any recognition we receive must be seen as the work of many people, on and off campus, who create coalitions to bring us closer to what our country should be all about: hope, fairness and justice for us all,” he adds.