The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
Frequently Asked Questions
Background
Q: Where did the Honor Roll come from?
A: The Corporation for National and Community Service created the Honor Roll in 2006 as a means of helping meet a Strategic Plan goal of 5 million college students engaged in community service by 2010 and encouraging increased support of such service by higher education institutions.
Q: What are its purposes?
A: The Honor Roll is designed to increase public awareness of the contributions of colleges and their students to local communities and the nation as a whole through volunteer service. It is also designed to identify and promote model community service programs and practices in higher education.
Q: What organizations are sponsoring the Honor Roll? What is the relationship between the sponsoring organizations?
A: The Corporation for National and Community Service administers the Honor Roll program and is its primary sponsor. The U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development are endorsing and publicizing the Honor Roll and their staff and officials help select award winners. The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation has endorsed the program and is also providing publicity. Campus Compact is endorsing and publicizing the program. The American Council on Education and other higher education associations are endorsing the program and helping provide publicity.
Eligibility
Q: Do applicants have to be grantees or subgrantees of Learn and Serve America or another program administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service?
A: No. All accredited, degree-granting institutions of higher education in the U.S. are eligible to apply.
Q: If our institution was on the Honor Roll or received a Presidential Award last year, are we eligible to apply again?
A: Absolutely. The Honor Roll and Presidential Awards is an annual program.
Q: Basic Honor Roll eligibility. What are “meaningful, relevant, and exemplary” programs? Do the descriptions relate to numbers of students participating, dollar amounts, etc.?
A: Honor Roll membership does not require specific numbers of students, etc. The community service performed must have been in response to real needs and there must be tangible community benefits. Projects must be worthy of being held up as examples for other schools and students.
Q: General Community Service vs. Special Focus area. Must our school have supported services to youth from disadvantaged circumstances, the 2008 Special Focus area, to be eligible for this year’s Honor Roll? What about the Presidential Awards?
A: Honor Roll membership does not require that an institution’s students have been specifically involved with high school completion and college readiness services to youth from disadvantaged circumstances—this year’s Special Focus Area.
Some Presidential Awards will be for institutions whose students were heavily involved in the Special Focus area. But other Awards will be reserved for General Community Service. Separate sections of the application provide information related to the Special Focus area and to General Community Service. Applicant institutions may choose to complete either or both of these sections.
Q: Are for-profit/ proprietary schools eligible to participate in the Honor Roll?
A: Yes, as long as they are degree-granting and accredited.
Q: Does the application need to be filled out by a specific person (e.g. the college president)?
A: The application should be filled out by a person designated by your president/ chancellor (often a community service or service-learning coordinator, student affairs dean, etc.).
Q: Are student projects eligible for inclusion in the application if they began prior to the academic year 2007-2008? How about those that were in planning but did not begin operations until after June 30, 2007?
A: All student service projects that were in active operation at any time during the period July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 may be included. Those that were in planning during that period but were not operational until after June 30, 2008 are not eligible for inclusion in this year’s Honor Roll application. However, such projects should be included in your institution’s application for the 2008 Honor Roll.
Q: If our institution collaborated with other institutions of higher education on a community service project, should we include our participation in that project as part of our application?
A: Yes. Each institution should include their students’ contributions to such a collaborative community service project – both in the service statistics and in the project description sections of the application. However, please include only data about/ descriptions of your student’s contributions.
Q: Must the student service projects and numbers included in the application involve only volunteer, not paid community service?
A: No. Federal Work-Study, pre-professional internships and other forms of paid community service activities should be included – as long as they meet the definition of community service and took place during the eligible academic year.
Q: Are internship and service hours required as part of academic courses and programs eligible for inclusion in the reporting of student community service hours and projects?
A: Yes. However, only hours spent in community service projects (not classroom hours) may be included.
Q: Are the service activities of graduate and professional students eligible for inclusion in the Honor Roll application?
A: Yes.
Q: Are free-standing graduate and professional schools (not connected with undergraduate schools) eligible to apply?
A: Yes. They simply need to be accredited and degree-granting institutions located in a U.S. state or territory.
Q: Are service projects that benefit communities located in foreign countries eligible for inclusion in the Honor Roll application?
A: Yes, as long as the higher education institution itself is located in the U.S.
Q: What is the statutory minimum Federal Work-Study community service requirement?
A: The Higher Education Act requires that at least 7% of a participating institution’s annual Federal Work-Study funding must be used for community service work.
Q: If my college doesn’t participate in Federal Work-Study, are we eligible for the Honor Roll and Presidential Awards?
A: Yes. All degree-granting higher education institutions are eligible, whether or not they participate in Federal Work-Study. The 7% Work-Study community service requirement applies only to those colleges that participate in the Federal Work-Study program.
Awards / Benefits
Q: What are the benefits of Honor Roll membership and Presidential Awards?
A: Honor Roll members will be listed with excerpts from their project descriptions on the Corporation’s website, as well as being eligible for other media and publicity opportunities. In addition to being listed on the Honor Roll, Presidential Award winners will be presented with Presidential Award trophies and certificates signed by the President.
Q: Is there a financial benefit? Weren’t there financial awards in connection with the 2006 Presidential Awards?
A: The Corporation is prohibited by statute from making financial awards of this kind. Last year, a foundation contributed $5,000 awards to each of the Presidential Award winners, for investment in additional student community service support services. As of this time there are no identified private sponsors of financial awards in connection with the 2008 Presidential Awards. This situation could change in the coming months.
Q. When and where will the Awards Ceremony be held for the 2008 Honor Roll program? How will we know whether we should plan to attend?
A. Presidential Awards will be presented at the American Council on Education’s (ACE) annual national conference in San Diego, California in early February 2009. (For more information about this event as it becomes available, visit www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll or www.acenet.edu.) Presidential Award winners will be notified and specially invited to the event well in advance. All institutional representatives attending the ACE conference are most welcome to attend the Honor Roll awards ceremony.
Q: What are the Presidential Award selection criteria? Are certain areas more important than others?
A: Applicants will be evaluated based on a number of factors, including: Reviewer evaluations of the student service project descriptions concerning their scope, innovativeness, and evidence of effectiveness; levels of student participation in community service activities and service-learning courses (relative to enrollment); the institution’s Federal Work-Study community service participation rate (if the school participates in the Federal Work-Study program); whether the institution supports at least one full-time student service or service-learning coordinator; and whether the institution provides scholarships or other financial rewards for service, such as “matching” of the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. A comprehensive list of selection factors can be found in the Application Guidance for 2008 located at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll
The exemplary project descriptions are weighted most heavily in the selection process. Please take care to provide detailed and concrete information about project scope, innovativeness, and effectiveness; and do not include descriptions of projects for which you do not have detailed and compelling information.
Q: Who is reviewing the applications and deciding on awards?
A: Reviewers include: staff and officials of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with higher education faculty and service/ service-learning practitioners.
Q: Will we receive documentation of Honor Roll membership if we are named to the Honor Roll?
A: Yes. All Honor Roll member institutions are listed on the Corporation for National and Community Service’s website, and all receive certificates of Honor Roll membership.
Q: Are students, faculty, college staff, or community service directors being recognized by the Honor Roll program?
A: Honor Roll membership and Presidential Awards are designed to recognize higher education institutions as a whole. There are no explicit awards for students, college/ university staff, or other individuals. However, the institutional awards indirectly reward, and are a positive reflection upon, all individuals, offices and agencies involved.
Application / Technical Issues
Q: When is the application due?
A: All applications are due September 23, 2008 at 09:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. It is, of course, advisable to complete the application prior to the deadline.
Q: What if I can’t make the deadline?
A: To be assured of inclusion on the Honor Roll and considered for a Presidential Award, your application must be submitted by September 23, 2008 at 09:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Q. Once I hit the “Submit” button, may I go back in and change/ improve our institution’s application?
A. NO. You can only make changes to your application BEFORE you hit “Submit.” Once you have submitted the application you may not re-open it. Thus, please be very careful to ensure that all questions are answered completely BEFORE submitting the application.
Q: Do I have to complete and submit the application online? Can I print the form and mail it in instead?
A: All applications MUST be submitted online through the Honor Roll application website. Paper copies will NOT be accepted.
Q: How will I know whether our application has been received?
A: You will receive a confirmation e-mail within one hour of submitting your application.
Q: I cannot enter all of the description I want to in the Project Description fields.
A: The Project Description fields are limited to 1800 characters per narrative block and will not allow more characters than that.
Q. May applications be submitted from more multiple offices that sponsor student community service on one campus?
A: No. Only one application is allowed per institution. However, note that the Honor Roll application may include descriptions of up to 5 general community service projects and another 5 special focus area projects – providing opportunity for applicant institutions to include projects from several campus units and organizations.
A: Should a state-wide or other multi-campus university system apply on behalf of all of its associated campuses/ institutions?
A: No, the Honor Roll program is designed to highlight community service support by individual college or university campuses. The individual institutions must apply separately.
Q: What should I do if I don’t have exact data to answer a particular question?
A: Estimates are acceptable if exact data are not available; but please make your best effort to estimate accurately.
Q: How many projects can I describe?
A: Up to 5 projects can be described in the “Exemplary Service Projects – General” section; and up to 5 projects can be described in the “Exemplary Service Projects – Special Focus Area” section.
Q: Can I send additional documentation to demonstrate the quality and impacts of our student projects?
A: No. Please do not send any supplementary materials (such as brochures, videotapes, etc.). Please do not submit anything other than the application. Other materials may be requested at a later date – to be used only for publicity purposes if your institution is selected for an award.
Q: Where can we go to obtain technical assistance if we encounter problems completing or submitting the Honor Roll application?
A: You can contact the Honor Roll application Customer Support Desk (operated by the application development contractor) Monday through Friday at http://myproject.nationalservice.gov/honorroll/Public/Help/SupportCase.aspx or by hitting the “Support” button on the website. You can expect a response within 24 hours.