Campus/Community Consortium of the Capital Region (4CR) Mission Statement

In support of the missions of its founding members (Siena College, the Sage Colleges, the College of Saint Rose and Unity House), the Campus/Community Consortium of the Capital Region is an academic service learning network which aims to create and sustain strong community partnerships, integrate the ASL pedagogy into the classroom and community, and work towards community development.  4CR is committed to deep service and the growth of students and Community Partners through community collaborations.  4CR is a membership organization of educational institutions, faculty members, students, and Community Partners.

4CR is guided by the principles of community voice, student engagement, faculty commitment and social responsibility.

·         Community Voice.  Through the establishment of a Community Partner Caucus, 4CR will be able to address the thoughts, concerns and ideas of community partners.  We highly value the input of our community partners and their input on what issues to address.

·         Student Engagement.  Students are an essential part of academic service learning.  Through their experiences with academic service learning, students will become more civically engaged and aware of their community’s issues and will be capable of starting their own community initiatives after they leave college.  We are working toward establishing a Student Caucus made up of students from all member campuses.

·         Faculty Commitment.  Faculty members have a unique role as a pivot point with students, institutions, and community partners.  A faculty member’s ability to coordinate and communicate with a community partner is integral to sustaining the community relations that we build as a network.  Without faculty commitment to teach academic service learning courses, there would be no academic service learning.

·         Social Responsibility.  We believe that social responsibility is at the heart of academic service learning.  From faculty interaction with community partners to students gaining the understanding of deeper issues such as diversity and poverty, it is our goal to help engage faculty, students and local citizens in acts of social responsibility.

We pursue our mission through:

1. Training and on-going development of cadre of academic service learning faculty.
2. Developing and supporting strong campus/community partnerships.
3. Hosting an annual Capital Region Academic Service Learning Conference for students, faculty, staff, and administrators from K-12 and college/university settings, as well as community partners.