DePaul’s Campus Diversity Also Ranked in Nation’s Top 50

DePaul University’s commitment to community-based service learning (CbSL), which has engaged nearly 7,000 DePaul students with more than 100 Chicago-area service organizations in Chicago since its inception in 1998, has now engaged the attention of a national magazine’s college rankings, as well.

DePaul was named as one of the nation’s 23 stellar programs in service learning by U.S. News & World Report in their annual college rankings issue, "America’s Best Colleges 2005." The publication sought out "schools with outstanding examples of academic programs that are believed to lead to student success," and then invited college presidents, chief academic officers and deans of students to name 10 institutions that were the best examples of each program type. Those mentioned most often were honored in the publication under the section titled "Programs to Look For."

"In service learning programs, required (or for-credit) volunteer work in the community is an instructional strategy," the magazine wrote. "What’s learned in the field bolsters what happens in the class and vice versa."

At the forefront of DePaul’s efforts to support its university mission of care and service to others and the needs of society is the Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning. Established through a $5 million endowment from philanthropist, banker and DePaul trustee Harrison I. Steans, the center creates an opportunity for students to develop a lifelong commitment to service, civic engagement and leadership. By integrating academic coursework and community service, the Steans Center is able to address the needs of community agencies that do not have the resources to hire additional paid staff.

Collaborating with faculty in more than 25 departments and programs across the university, more than 1,600 DePaul students engage in direct service, project development or community-based research each year as part of the 100 CbSL-related courses offered on campus.

"It is both humbling and flattering that our peers in higher education, along with a national magazine, have recognized DePaul’s dedication to community-based service learning," said Laurie Worrall, executive director of the Irwin W. Steans Center. "This is a tribute to the generosity of the Steans family, as well as the hard work of the faculty, staff and students who have participated in this important university initiative."

In addition to the Steans Center, DePaul’s commitment to community service is reflected by several campus organizations and institutes, including University Ministry’s Community Service office, the DePaul Community Service Association, Amate House, the Center for Community Research, the Center for Community Technology Support, the Center for Latino Research, the Egan Urban Center, the Humanities Center, the Mental Health Center, the Schiller, DuCanto and Fleck Family Law Center and the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, as well as dozens of student political and community advocacy groups. Student volunteers also take part in more than a dozen weeklong service immersion trips around the country, as well as two annual community service days, where students perform more than 7,000 hours of community service tasks around the city. This fall’s New Student Service Day will be held Sept. 7.

U.S. News & World Report also honored DePaul for its diverse student body, ranking the university 42nd in its rankings for Campus Diversity among national universities. DePaul was one of only five Midwestern universities ranked in the top 50 in this category.

DePaul is the largest private university in Chicago and the largest Catholic university in the nation. A richly diverse population of 23,610 students attends classes on two city and five suburban campuses.

DePaul was founded in 1898 by the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers (the Congregation of the Mission), a Roman Catholic religious community that continues the mission and values of Vincent de Paul, the 17th century French saint known as the "Apostle of Charity."