DePaul University Steans Center records

In the spring of 1996 Richard J. Meister, DePaul's executive vice president for academic affairs, expressed the hope that DePaul University would grow to exemplify the New American University, a university that contributed to the public good through acts of service. In addition, strategic planning initiatives developed goals that called for the increased integration of community-based service learning projects throughout university-wide curriculum. In response to these objectives, the Strategic Initiative Committee, composed of staff across multiple disciplines, submitted a proposal recommending the establishment of a center that would support faculty and students as they worked to promote community-based service learning at DePaul. On September 4, 1998, Dr. Richard Meister announced the establishment of the Office of Community-based Service Learning (CbSL). The Office was directed by Laurie Worrall, who had previously worked as Associate Director of DePaul's Msgr. John J. Egan Urban Center. From its earliest beginnings the CbSL office has worked to support students and staff participating in service learning courses. Unique to the CbSL office is its emphasis on obtaining input from community partners into the design, implementation, and ongoing work of the office and its programs. In 2001, a donation from the Steans family led to the office's independent status as a center as well as its renaming to the Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning and Community Service Studies. Today, the Steans Center has grown into one of the largest service learning programs in Illinois higher education.