NCCU Re-Examines Service Requirement

By Eric Ferreri, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Mar. 5–DURHAM — N.C. Central University leaders want to streamline the school’s requirement that all undergraduates participate in community service, and the public schools close to campus might benefit.

Chancellor Charlie Nelms recently announced his desire to change the initiative, which mandates that every student put in 120 hours of community service in order to graduate. In its current form, the program allows students to volunteer at any of about 600 agencies — a net so wide it is tough for the university to monitor and evaluate, Nelms said recently.

Instead, Nelms hopes to reconfigure the community service program so that most if not all NCCU students put in their volunteer hours at one of the several public schools within two miles of campus. Nelms explained that NCCU, a major state university squarely in the middle of a proud, historic neighborhood, makes much of its desire to serve the community. Changing its community service program would be one way to prove that commitment.

“It would say something about the university’s commitment to the sustainability of the community,” he said. “And it’s easier to work with the people in your immediate surroundings.”

There are public schools on all sides of the university. Just down the hill and to the west is C.C. Spaulding Elementary School. Just south along Fayetteville Street you’ll find the Fayetteville Street Lab School — whose choir highlighted Nelms’ recent installation — W.G. Pearson Elementary School, and a bit further down, Hillside High School.

At C.C. Spaulding, NCCU students are a common and visible presence already, said Principal Vandi Kelley. They assist teachers and chat up students, often sitting down and eating lunch with them.

“They come when they don’t have to,” Kelley said. “Even when they finish their hours, they come back and help the teachers.”

Kelley and other educators also say a more direct relationship with NCCU will mean more tours of college classrooms — another way, she thinks, to spark desire and ambition. And perhaps most importantly, NCCU students can be symbols of hope to children whose parents did not go to college.

“Some children don’t ever get the opportunity to visit a college campus or think about going to college,” said Sandy Chambers, principal at W.G. Pearson. “Early is important. You need to start talking about it now.”

eric.ferreri@newsobserver.com or (919) 956-2415

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