Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

S.T.A.R.T. Exchange Vol. 03, No. 01, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

Willa Cather's Red Cloud Writes A New Chapter

Voluntary Action On The College Campus - From Theory To Practice, Debra Floerchinger

Higher Education

President and Mrs. Bush committed his administration to the promotion of volunteer service in the President's Inaugural Address in January l989. The "Points of Light Initiative" was announced in June 1989 to advance volunteerism and community service on the national level. This initiative created a foundation to promote these ideals.

Eureka! A Yurt! Integrating Mathematics, Cooperative Learning, And Community Service, Jo Anna Allen

Project Summaries

The significance of "Eureka!" in the title derives from the exhilaration of discovery that took place through a project in which a class of sixth graders built a Yurt.¹ There was a "Wow!" sense of awe and achievement akin to completing one's first rockclimb or a thousand-piece puzzle. In the words of many of the sixth graders who participated-" I can't believe we did it!" They built a scaled-down Yurt (see photo], a circular building having walls that slant upward and outward from a round base, with an overhanging, cone-like roof. The roof has a skylight in the middle, …

Differences Among Community Service Volunteers, Extracurricular Volunteers, And Nonvolunteers On The College Campus, R. Thomas Fitch

Higher Education

Students involved in volunteer community service activities display different demographic characteristics and inte1personal values than do other students.

S.T.A.R.T. Exchange Vol. 01, No. 03, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

Stuart Targets Community Appearance

The Omaha Jewish Community Survey Report, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

In an effort to better serve the needs of the Jewish community in Omaha, The Jewish Federation of Omaha initiated a study of service needs in the Spring of 1991. The University of Nebraska at Omaha's Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR) was retained to conduct the study.

Cpar Review Vol. 02, No. 06, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

A $100,000 commitment from the Omaha World-Herald Foundation will enable Nebraska communities to con­ tinue utilizing a successful strategic planning project. The Strategic Training and Resource Targeting (S.TA.R.T.) program directed by CPAR has helped more than 50 Nebraska communities in the past two years. The World-Herald grant will enable 40 additional communities to begin the community-based economic development program over the next two years.

Omaha Effort, The: Findings From A Survey, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

This report summarizes findings from a July 1991 telephone survey. The survey was conducted for the City of Omaha Department of Public Works and focused on Omaha's current recycling program, The Omaha Effort, as well as citizen attitudes toward recycling in general.

An Empirical Models Of Community Strategies For Economic Development, Robert F. Blair

Publications

A Research Project Presentation at Annual Conference Community Development Society in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada July 22, 1991

Promoting Youth Development: Strengthening The Role Of Youth Service And Community Organizations, Karen J. Pittman

School K-12

Concern about youth problems is escalating. The volume of task forces, reports, initiatives, coalitions and media specials confirm that there is broad agreement that too many youth are "at risk."

Incidence Of Functionally Impaired Elderly: Comparing Enoa Samples With A Rural Sample, Chuck Powell

Publications

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once remarked: "To be seventy years young is sometimes more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old," (Cavanaugh, 1990). The comment by Justice Holmes is positive and rests on hope, the hope that we will be healthy in our old age and capable of living independently.

S.T.A.R.T. Exchange Vol. 02, No. 02, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

First S.T.A.R.T. Conference Scheduled October 29 In Columbus

Phi Delta Kappan - Special Section On Youth Service, Joe Nathan, James Kielsmeier

Special Topics, General

This Special Section on Youth Service features: The Sleeping Giant of School Reform; School-Based Community Service: What We Know from Research and Theory; Project Service Leadership: School Service Projects In Washington State; Gadugi: A Model of Service-Learning for Native American Communities; Citizenship, Service, and School Reform in Pennsylvania; Community Service Learning And School Improvement in Springfield, Massachusetts; Community Service and Civic Education; SerVermont: The Little Initiative That Could; and National Service and Education for Citizenship.

Community Service Learning And School Improvement In Springfield, Massachusetts, Virginia Anderson, Carol Kinsley, Peter Negroni, Carolyn Price

Service Learning, General

Calls for changes in the education system continually issue forth from various segments of society. Each outpouring of public concern challenges educators to address the needs of young people and to achieve school renewal. The current literature on school reform advocates an agenda of improvement efforts aimed at creating effective, caring schools that will provide active learning opportunities for students. develop learning communities, expand learning into the community. foster collegiality among staff members, and enable teachers to become "orchestra conductors" in the classroom rather than lecturers. But educators ask, "How can all of this be achieved?"

Community Service And Civic Education, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

Community service, widely touted as the cure for young people's political apathy, in fact teaches little about the arts of participation in public life. To reengage students in public affairs requires redefining politics to include, in addition to electoral activity, ongoing citizen involvement in solving public problems. It requires a conceptual framework that distinguishes between public life and private life. And it calls for a pedagogical strategy that puts the design and ownership of problem-solving projects into the hands of young people.

Improving Public Education In Nebraska, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

In 1990, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Co=erce created a study group to examine public elementary and secondary education in Nebraska. The study group was composed of representatives of the business co=unity, educators, and members of the Unicameral. Five work sessions were held to listen to experts discuss the approaches being used by other states to improve education, to discuss the applicability of such approaches to our state, and to identify a set of activities that would assure that pupils throughout Nebraska would be able to compete successfully with other young people in this country and around the world.

Turning On Youth To Politics; Beyond Community Service, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

Studies by the Times Mirror Center ("The Age of Indifference") and others purport to reveal that today's teenagers and young adults view politics with nearly universal hatred and express apathy toward public affairs generally. A little more probing uncovers a more complex set of attitudes. Allan Moyle's film Pump Up the Volume, based in part on workshops with teenagers in New York, reveals a generation not so much apathetic as disgusted with adult hypocrisy, furious at adults' apparent inaction on mounting social problems, cynical about 1960s-style protest and uncertain about what else there is to do. But it is clear …

Moving Beyond Apathy To Environmental Action, John Fallis

Special Topics, General

It's so nice here compared to Toronto. The air is fresh and the water is so clear. You people don't have any problems.

The city is such a polluted mess. I'd like to help out but I don't know where to start, plus, it seems hopeless!

These are comments of frustrated, environmentally aware high school students who have participated in residential school programs at the Boyne River outdoor and environmental education centre. During their stay of up to a week, their lives have been enriched through a range of outdoor, hands-on, learning experiences. They may have gained a new perspective …

Cpar Review Vol. 02, No. 05, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

Health Services Program Tested For Non-Metropolitan Communities

A Mandate For Liberty: Requiring Education-Based Community Service, Benjamin R. Barber

Special Topics, General

The extraordinary rise in American interest in community service has inspired widespread participation by the nation's young in service programs. It has also provoked a profound and telling debate about the relationship of service to voluntarism on the one hand, and to civic education and citizenship on the other. Two complementary approaches to service have emerged that are mutually supportive but also in a certain tension with one another. The first aims at attracting young volunteers, particularly students, out of the classroom and into service projects as part of a strategy designed to strengthen altruism, philanthropy, individualism, and self-reliance. The …

Making A Case For Collaborative Problem Solving, Christopher T. Gates

Partnerships/Community

As the number and diversity of actors expecting to be part of any community decision increase, so must the process for making those decisions become more open and accessible. Bringing diverse/layers together- finding common ground, defining share interests - is a process of self-realization whereby all community members can discover that they have the talent and ideas necessary to improve community life for themselves and their neighbors.

Cpar Review Vol. 02, No. 04, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

Businesses and individuals registered with CPAR's NEB-INDEX on-line computerized bulletin board and database service have access to the latest 1990 population figures prior to any public notification.

S.T.A.R.T. Exchange Vol. 02, No. 01, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

Oxford "Goes Bananas" Over Economic Drought

Researching Student Community Service: An Opportunity To Promote Reflection?, Cecil D. Bradfield, R. Ann Myers

Service Learning, General

In recent years there has been a growing interest in student community service. It is suggested that the students of the 1980's and 90's are returning to an ethic of community service. Organizations have developed to promote service from both the student and the academic perspectives. The Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) is a student movement promoting community service. Campus Compact represents the academic administration interest in promoting student community service with presidents of institutions forming the membership in the organization. A third organization, the National Society of Internships and Experiential Education (NSIEE), includes student community service as a form …

Involving Older Volunteers, In Public Schools, Kristen J. Amundson

Intergenerational

Each day, 5,000 Americans celebrate their sixty-fifth birthday. As this age group becomes larger, it will also become more powerful. As voters, seniors make up the most conscientious of the voting group in our society.

Cpar Review Vol. 02, No. 03, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

CPAR's current studies include projects from both the private and public sectors:

The Business Incubator: A Rural Economic Development Tool, Raymond A. Marquardt, Steven A. Schulz

Marketing and Management Faculty Publications

In the 1980s universities and economic development agencies encouraged the establishment of business incubators to bolster economic development. Business incubators are designed to cultivate the formation of new business ventures in an environment conducive to success.

The Role Of Service-Learning In Today's College Curriculum, Dwight E. Giles

Higher Education

When I am given a topic or question to address I find that playing with the topic produces intellectual stimulation, helps to develop a clearer focus for my thoughts, and provides a respectable form of procrastination. This topic has been no exception in providing all three of the above; I'd like to begin by suggesting some ways we might play with the topic together over the next few minutes.

Community Service And Critical Thinking: An Exploratory Analysis Of Collegiate Influences, Eric L. Dey

Higher Education

Interest in encouraging undergraduates to become involved in community service has grown rapidly over the past several years. In addition to the formation of groups such as the Campus Compact, this interest can be seen in the curricula of numerous colleges which have instituted community services requirements for graduation. Interest in critical thinking has increased as well, with widespread agreement among educators that critical thinking should be an important, if not central, goal of education. Although critical thinking has long been valued by educators at all (Siegel, 1980), the importance placed upon the development of critical thinking has recently been …

Cpar Review Vol. 02, No. 02, Uno Center For Public Affairs Research

Publications

Since the final 1990 Census counts have been released, The Nebraska State Data Center at UNO's Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR) has averaged 20 to 25 requests for information each day, and usage has doubled on the NEB-INDEX electronic bulletin board.