Interview with Dr. Ralph Pearson
Provost and Academic Vice President

On March 6, 2002, the Service Learning News sent Dr. Uhuru Hotep, a.k.a. Dr. Regi Newton, associate director of the Michael P., Weber Learning Skills Center to interview Dr. Ralph Pearson, Duquesne's new provost and academic vice president. Prior to coming to Duquesne, Pearson served as the vice president of academic affairs at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is an expert in American urban and ethnic history and has taught at Xavier University, Miami University, Springfield College and American University among others.

SLN – Would you please share with our readers some information about your professional background as it relates to service learning?

RP – At St. Thomas, my last university, we had an active service learning program. We selected a faculty member who served as the director of our campus-based initiatives. The director had a budget funded usually for a three-year period. He worked with faculty across the university, but primarily with the undergraduate colleges to establish courses appropriate for service learning modes of teaching and learning. We had courses in our English department, ma h in the social science departments such as psychology and sociology, and even a few in our business school, all designed to use service learning as their approach to teaching and learning.

SLN – How would you define service learning?

RP – Service learning is an educational opportunity presented in the framework of a credited course that integrates what one learns in the classroom with real world experience in the community. Service learning provides students with an opportunity to bring together theory and practice. But it’s different from volunteer work because students are evaluated on the quality of work and receive a course grade and course credit. So, it’s not a freebee in the sense of easy credits earned; students have to demonstrate that they understand theory and can apply it in the field. Service learning, in my opinion, is really a form of “applied education.”

SLN – What is the role of service learning at Duquesne University?

RP – I think it should play a major role at Duquesne University, especially in undergraduate education for a number of reasons. First, I feel that it fits well with our mission. Duquesne is committed to service, and service learning allows us to serve others in the context of a learning community, which, after all, is what a university is all about. So we take our learning community and place it at the service of the larger community, which allows us to fulfill one of the major goals in our mission. Second, the Spiritan Fathers teach us that to serve students is to serve God. Along these same lines, teaching our students to serve the community is a way for our students to also serve God. And third, I have always felt that universities should use their intellectual resources, which include their students as well as their faculty and administrators, to help communities where they are located. We have skills and talents that can help solve some of the problems in the communities around us. Service learning allows us to do this in a way that is beneficial for all concerned.

SLN – How should service learning fit into Duquesne University education?

RP – I feel that every student at the university should have at least one service learning experience before graduation. One possible way to begin is for one of the courses in our core curriculum to incorporate service learning into its content. Of course I would like to see departments provide a service learning opportunity in the major, too.

SLN – What role do you see for faculty in our service learning initiatives?

RP – The best service learning ideas at St. Thomas came from the faculty. They didn’t come from me as vice president. The faculty knew, however, that we encouraged it because we supported an office for service learning. As I just mentioned, we had a faculty in developing ideas. It was the English faculty who created some of the best ways to use service learning at St. Thomas. They developed courses and class projects that sent our students into St. Paul’s ethnic communities. It was the faculty who were the strategic people making service learning happen. The deans or the vice president may feel that it’s important, but if the faculty isn’t behind it, it won’t happen. So here at Duquesne, just like at St. Thomas, the faculty is the key to service learning becoming a viable part of the institution.

SLN – What do you see as the future of service learning at Duquesne?

RP – I plan to encourage faculty to incorporate service learning opportunities into their courses where and when appropriate. Once again, I feel that se4rvice learning is very important to the mission of this university, and I think it is important fir students to have the experience. Furthermore, I think it is important for the faculty to get students into the community as a complement to classroom instruction. I foresee service learning playing a vital role in Duquesne’s future.

SLN – Thank you for sharing your view with our readers.

(By permission from the Spring 2002-Service Learning News-Volume 2, Issue 1)