Currently there are 19 service learning faculty fellows who participate in the MSU Service Learning Program. All service-learning faculty members are aligned with one of six issue areas on which the service-learning program is focused. Theses issue areas include: education, substance abuse; issues on aging; at-risk youth, the digital divide; and peer mentoring. Faculty fellows can also teach service-learning courses in an issue area associated with their own interest and discipline and with community partners with whom they have established a partnership. Only faculty members who have participated in the Service-Learning Faculty Fellows Program are eligible to teach a service-learning course.

Among other responsibilities service-learning faculty are required to:

Integrate the pedagogy and practices of service-learning into their syllabus and course objectives;

Teach, once a year, a service-learning course that meets university-established criteria;

Assist with and participate in student orientations, debriefing sessions, task force meetings, and student recognition events related to the issue area with which a service-learning course is aligned;

Conduct a minimum of one visit at each community partner site with which a service-learning course is aligned;

Attend one service-learning faculty meeting each semester; and

Assist with any program and evaluation activities conducted by the Service-Learning Program.

Service-Learning Faculty members are also encouraged to:

Produce a scholarly product associated with their service-learning activities;

Attend regional or national service-learning or professional conferences to learn more about the philosophy, pedagogy, and practices of service-learning and experiential education;

Work collaboratively with a community partner and the Center for Community-Based Learning to address an identified issue;

Generate a “professional portfolio” that documents their service-learning activities, which can be used in the process of reappointment, tenure, promotion and range changes; and

Participate in MSU’s annual engaged campus conference and other service-learning campus-wide events such as brown bag lunches.