Student Involvement in Community Service: Institutional Commitment and the Campus Compact.

The study reports factors that contribute to student participation in community service and institutional commitment to community service. Students who were most involved in community service in college tended to have been heavily involved in service in high school, Roman Catholic or Jewish, and from a high socioeconomic background. The study showed that those students who interacted the most with other students were most likely to be involved in community service. Majors in social sciences and education; interdisciplinary courses; relationships to a faculty committed to social change; participation in religious activities, campus activism, and different ethnic groups; and Roman Catholic colleges tended to promote community service amongst the student body. The study showed that colleges that had a strong commitment to undergraduate education and serving the community with a faculty that was committed to the students, institution, and social change also helped breed student community service. Astin also notes similarities amongst Campus Compact colleges and universities, a consortium formed in the mid 1980s to promote volunteerism amongst undergraduates. (SH)