Connecting Communities

Important federal legislation to extend the Higher Education Act, now working its way through Congress, contains worthwhile provisions to encourage a stronger commitment by colleges and students to their communities.

One of the most important of these provisions will make it possible for students to be more involved in community service as part of campus work-study activities. Current law impedes these worthwhile efforts by requiring community service organizations, which are often as hard-pressed as students for funds, to pay a 25 percent share of students' wages in the work-study program. Our pending Senate bill reduces the share to 10 percent, so that more students will be able to work for these cash-strapped but highly meritorious organizations.

The Senate measure also provides new incentives for students to become teachers in high-need schools. If they teach for three years in such a school, their college loans will be forgiven over the next three years, up to a maximum forgiveness of $10,000.

Unfortunately, the current version of the Senate bill does not include President Clinton's "High Hopes" proposal to encourage colleges to work with young pupils in local public schools and give them stronger incentives to complete high school and enroll in college. I intend to press this idea as the legislation moves through Congress later this spring.

Including these initiatives in the Higher Education Act will reflect the fact that colleges are partners with their communities and can strengthen each other. At a conference I convened in Boston in January for Massachusetts college presidents to press the concept of university-community partnerships, the response was impressive. It is clear that colleges, students and communities will all benefit from closer ties.

Several types of cooperation are available--from simple, low-cost projects to multi-year, grant-funded initiatives. It's not a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Many partnerships will be natural outgrowths of various university missions. Encouraging students to be more involved in their communities can build active and involved electorates that will strengthen democracy at every level.

Colleges often speak of their mission as "educating the whole person." A useful way to help do so is by enabling students to make community service part of their educational experience, along with classes and other extracurricular activities. In fact, many colleges are giving academic credit for community service programs, and I strongly support that trend. Learning and community service should go hand in hand. If they are joined together in college, they' re likely to stay together throughout life.

Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 is Massachusetts' senior Senator.