Program Operation The Service Learning Program facilitates service learning at Marquette in the following ways:

1. Course Selection: informing faculty about service learning and encouraging them to offer a service option for their course(s); selecting courses to participate in the SLP; communicating to students about which courses include a service component.
   
   For the pilot semester (Spring, 1994), all faculty were polled to learn who would want to include a service option in one or more courses. Nearly 60 faculty expressed interest in joining the project. Ten courses were selected to participate. A similar process has been employed to locate courses for each ensuing semester, with the following results:
   

   Semester	Total Number of Courses	Number of New Courses	Number of Faculty New to SL
   Spring, 1994	10	9	10
   Fall, 1994	15	14	8
   Spring, 1995	22	10	10
   Fall, 1995	24	11	10
   Spring, 1996	31	10	6
   Fall, 1996	35	12	11
   Spring, 1997	43	18	9
   Fall, 1997	32	10	9
   Spring, 1998	43	11	8
   Fall, 1998	40	5	10
   Spring, 1999	44	3	2
   Fall, 1999	41	6	11
   Spring, 2000	43	6	6
   Fall, 2000	44	5	5
   Spring, 2001	49	4	6
   Fall, 2001	50	5	7
   Spring, 2002	50	5	7
   Fall 2002	57	7	8
   Spring, 2003	52	7	7
   Fall 2003	59	6	7
   Spring, 2004	52	8	8
   Fall 2004	52	6	8

    

    

2. Faculty Development: providing ongoing training and support to faculty who use service learning in their classes.
   
   The Program Administrator meets individually with faculty members before they use service learning in a course for the first time. They discuss the content of the course, which elements might be enhanced by a community experience, and ways of setting up the course. At the end of each semester, the program hosts a gathering--usually a luncheon--so that faculty can compare notes and share their wisdom about service learning. Sometimes these gatherings also involve representatives from the community agencies that serve as placement sites for service learning students. Both the faculty and the site coordinators benefit from communicating in person with one another.
   
   At the end of each spring semester Service Learning sponsors a one-to-three-day workshop to enable Marquette faculty to discuss this teaching method in detail. Evaluations from faculty attending these workshops were uniformly and overwhelmingly positive. Most attendees have gone on to use service learning in one or more courses. 
   
   
3. Placement Selection: contacting local community agencies and schools; selecting those agencies with potential to provide a variety of meaningful service experiences for students.
   
   Community service placements are carefully chosen to complement the content of each service learning course. In some courses (e.g., Philosophy of Community), the possibilities for placements are very broad. In others, such as Theology of Non-Violence, the number of placements that will fit the course is fewer and much more specific. Finding these specialized placements often requires both an extensive knowledge of community organizations and a fair amount of creativity.
   
   In addition to the sites offered by the program for each course, students are also free to locate their own placements, with the approval of the professor. These are known as independent placements. The following table shows the community involvement by service learners over the life of the program.

   Semester	Number of Placement Sites	Number of Independent Sites	Total Number of Placements
   Spring, 1994	15	24	39
   Fall, 1994	35	19	54
   Spring, 1995	50	15	65
   Fall, 1995	57	21	78
   Spring, 1996	59	27	86
   Fall, 1996	65	27	92
   Spring, 1997	75	17	92
   Fall, 1997	63	10	73
   Spring, 1998	99	18	117
   Fall, 1998	76	16	92
   Spring, 1999	97	16	113
   Fall, 1999	87	17	104
   Spring, 2000			102
   Fall, 2000	85	~20	~105
   Spring, 2001	88	26	114
   Fall, 2001	80	40	120
   Spring, 2002	71	24	95
   Fall, 2003	96	30	126
   Spring, 2004	97	16	113
   Fall, 2004	108	16	123

   ~ = estimated number

    

   In all, over 150 agencies have served as sites for service learning students. These agencies are located in more than 35 of Milwaukee's neighborhoods.
   

4. Student Placement: informing students about placement possibilities; matching students with a school or agency that provides service experiences complementing material learned in class.
   
   During the first week of classes, Service Learning staff attend each of the service learning courses (with the approval of the professor) to orient the students to the program and to introduce them to the placements selected for the course. Description sheets for each placement are compiled into a packet and left with the classes.
   
   The official sign-up for Service Learning occurs in the second week of classes. Each of the Service Learning Student Coordinators is responsible for 6-8 placement sites and signs students up for those sites, providing extra information when needed. The following is a table showing the numbers of students participating in Service Learning each semester:
   

   Semester	Students Placed by SLP	Independent Placements	Total Students Placed
   Spring, 1994	127	30	217
   Fall, 1994	265	25	420
   Spring, 1995	256	24	382
   Fall, 1995	320	32	442
   Spring, 1996	356	32	~461
   Fall, 1996	450	30	~528
   Spring, 1997	511	29	~590
   Fall, 1997	357	23	445
   Spring, 1998	528	22	591
   Fall, 1998	452	28	515
   Spring, 1999	654	46	748
   Fall, 1999	528	20	727
   Spring, 2000			694
   Fall, 2000	651	25	676
   Spring, 2001	806	32	838
   Fall, 2001	778	44	822
   Spring, 2002	729	34	763
   Fall, 2002	1007	27	1034
   Spring, 2003	853	42	895
   Fall, 2003	871	33	904
   Spring, 2004	668	67	735
   Fall, 2004	833	20	853

   ~ = estimated number

    

    

    

5. Student Preparation: familiarizing students with the Service Learning Program; orienting them to their placement site; instructing them in the tasks they will be performing.
   
   Besides the in-class orientations mentioned above, each semester the program sponsors a training session to prepare students to participate fully in their service learning experience. Beginning Service Learning Training covers the basics: how to communicate with their Student Coordinator, how to go about connecting the service and the learning, what to do if they "don't get it," etc.
   
   Before students begin their community service work, they attend individual and/or small group orientations for their specific placement sites. These site orientations acquaint students with the agencies and with the jobs they will be doing.
   
   
6. Student Monitoring and Assisting: insuring that students get to placement sites and fulfill their service commitment; providing an avenue for students to address placement-related problems; enabling students to reflect on service learning experience.
   
   Student Coordinators serve as liaisons between the agencies and the service learning students. They assist students with transportation problems, set up site orientations, help with placement problems, report service hours to faculty, discuss service experiences with students, produce service learning newsletters, and organize staff inservices.The student staff also plan and facilitate reflection sessions which allow service learners from the various courses to process the issues and feelings that arise from their experiences in the community and discuss ways of linking the service to course content.