To the Editor:
As the Executive Director of the Center for Social Justice, I applaud your raising the issue of integrating service with academic study (“Fortify Study With Service,” The Hoya, April 13, 2010, A2). While the 4th Credit Option for Social Action is one way, we have a more integrated way that I want you to know about, namely Community-Based Learning.
In January 2008, after two years of work with many faculty members, we submitted a proposal to University Provost James O’Donnell and his Council of Deans for approval of a system for defining and establishing both criteria and procedures for designating a course as a CBL course; it was unanimously approved. Following this approval, Georgetown is one of the first (if not the first) major university to have CBL designated on the transcripts.
What is important to note, however, is that the very definition of a CBL course is at the heart of Georgetown’s mission: It involves work in the community with “disadvantaged and underserved individuals or groups” integrated into an academic course – demanding an important pedagogy that honors a partnership between campus and community.
It is my own hope that eventually there would be one CBL course in every major offered at Georgetown.
Kathleen Maas Weigert
Executive Director,
Center for Social Justice
April 16, 2010
