Adjunct Associate Professor, Sociology
The Michigan Community Scholars Program (MCSP) first opened its doors to students in academic year 1999-2000. It is a residential learning community, more commonly known as a living-learning program. Each year, the program enrolls about 150 students, about two-thirds of whom are first-year college stu- dents. The remaining one-third of students return to the program in various student leadership roles, such as peer advisors, peer mentors, resident advisors, and course facilitators after their first year in MCSP. Over the past seven years, the program has con- sistently attracted a student body of about 50% students of color and international students and 50% white students. MCSP typi- cally has 10-15 faculty and 10 community partners. Although the program refers to itself as a “scholars” program, all students who have gained admission to the University of Michigan are eligible for admission to MCSP regardless of their academic profile.
Diversity and Civic Engagement
MCSP takes seriously the vision of the American dream, that of a just, well-educated diverse, civically engaged, democratic society, and it has created an academic program and a learning environ- ment that model those values. They integrate diversity and em- phasize civic engagement and intergroup dialogue in all activities.
The program seeks to develop well-educated, active partici- pants and leaders for a diverse democracy. MCSP emphasizes to students the importance of wanting to “make a difference,” and MCSP programs and classes emphasize the ideal of “lives of commitment.”
The focus of MCSP is on community service, community building, and learning. Academic excellence is a core goal of all students, as is their commitment to modeling a diverse democratic community in their residential living space, doing service in the community, and studying about community in their academic courses.
MCSP embraces diversity as a core program asset for personal, social, educational, and community development. It encourages its students to actively engage one another across their different backgrounds and provides structures for them to learn to do so effectively. The diverse students find common ground and purpose in their commitment to community service. MCSP has achieved 100% retention of its first-year underrepresented students of color
for three years (those entering college in fall 2003, 2004, 2005 re- turned 100% in fall 2004, 2005, and 2006 respectively); nearly that same retention rate held for all MCSP students.
Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Boundary-Crossing
Faculty bring to the MCSP community an interdisciplinary perspective on issues of community and diversity, coming from disciplines within the liberal arts college and across Michigan’s professional schools. Academic requirements include departmen- tal-based first-year seminars, a cutting-edge community service- learning course that incorporates intergroup dialogue (Soc 389), and a one-credit MSCP seminar (UC 102).
Funded by both the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and University Housing, MCSP is built on the concept of bound- ary-crossing. It crosses the boundaries of academic affairs and student affairs, different academic disciplines, faculty and student divisions, the gap between diversity and other undergraduate ini- tiatives, and the university and the community. In each aspect, it works to bring together the whole for the good of each learner.
Faculty teach in classrooms in the residence hall, hold office hours there, and join students for meals in the cafeteria. Faculty also offer one or two co-curricular programs each year for all stu- dents in the program (e.g., classical concerts, museum tours, talks about affirmative action, the Middle East). Faculty also partici- pate in monthly seminars on teaching, guest lecture in each oth- er’s courses and organize meet-togethers of their courses. There is routine sharing of syllabi and pedagogical practice.
MCSP purchases daily copies (Monday-Friday) of The New York Times and offers them free to all MCSP students, staff, and faculty right outside the MCSP office. The MCSP “Opinion Board” is located above the free papers and articles are highlight- ed each day with questions posed to the MCSP community for written exchange of viewpoints and perspectives. The newspapers and the opinion board together establish a tone for engagement with civic and political issues that sets MCSP apart as a residen- tial learning environment.
Of distinctive note, the MCSP faculty co-authored chapters with staff, students, and community partners in an MCSP book, Engaging the Whole of Service-Learning, Diversity, and Learning Communities (OCSL Press, 2004). They are now participating in
study and a series of retreats as part of a Ford Foundation grant, “Difficult Dialogues: Religious Pluralism and Academic Free- dom.”
Assessment
MCSP has developed and published research designs for program evaluation, retention, and for long-term impact. It has been able to collect data on retention rates as well as program evaluation, including student satisfaction, documentation of program trends and activities, and anecdotal reports from participants. With research funding, MCSP hopes to conduct studies on the long- term impact of the program in terms of civic engagement and diversity democracy measures.
For three consecutive years, 2003-2006, 100% of underrepre- sented students of color who entered the University of Michigan and MCSP as first-year college students returned to U of Michi- gan in their sophomore year. The rate for all MCSP students was also 100% in 2005-2006 and was only a few percentage points low- er than 100% in prior years. These MCSP rates surpass the overall University of Michigan persistence and retention rates.
MCSP has had considerable success in interrupting the cycle of civic disengagement and racial segregation. Through the efforts of faculty, staff, and student leaders, MCSP students go on to (1) make commitments to do community service and work with di- verse populations in their careers; (2) participate and become lead- ers in civic/community service and multicultural organizations; (3) broaden their academic studies to include courses that emphasize civic engagement and discuss the experience of various ethnic/ra- cial groups and (4) live in diverse households once they leave the residence hall.
Other indicators of success include the following:
s -#30HIGHLIGHTEDON#..SAnderson Cooper 360 as a program that represents a counter-example to the resegregation of America;
s &ORD&OUNDATIONGRANTTO-#30ASPARTOFLARGER5-
grant) on Difficult Dialogues: Religious Pluralism and Academic Freedom;
s Princeton Review – MCSP is a named example why UM is ranked as a “College with a Conscience”;
s -#30STUDENTLEADERSGOONTOBECOMECAMPUSWIDELEAD- ers and win numerous awards in other civic engagement and race/ethnicity-focused organizations at UM, well beyond their proportional numbers;
s 5-/UTSTANDING.EW3TUDENT0ROGRAMn-#300ROGRAM- ming Board;
s 5-/UTSTANDING3TUDENT0ROGRAMn-#30S#HILDRENS
Theater Troupe;
s %LECTIONOF-#30STUDENTTOHISHOMECOMMUNITYSSCHOOL
board, possibly the youngest school board member in the State of Michigan;
s %XCELLENTREPUTATIONOF-#30STUDENTSFORHIGHQUALITY
service by community partners;
s 0UBLICATIONOFABOOKEngaging the Whole of Service-Learn- ing, Diversity, and Learning Communities (2004), with co-au- thorship of articles by faculty, students, community partners and staff.
Supplemental Materials
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mcs/
I. Contributor’s Name and Contact Information
David Schoem
Director, Michigan Community Scholars Program Adjunct Associate Professor, Sociology
MCSP University of Michigan 1300 E. Ann St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2050 Phone: 734-615-6847 Fax: 734-936-1203 Email: [email protected]
II. Institutional Description
a. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI b. Four-year
c. Public d. Residential
e. The undergraduate FTE is 24,446, with 6,115 first-year students
f. 98% of students live in the university’s residence halls in their first year of college.
CASE STUDY
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO