The Pace Center for Community Service was formally dedicated during a ceremony in Frist Campus Center yesterday. Founded in 2001, the center's mission is to coordinate and support community service at the University, director Sasa Olessi Montano said during the ceremony.
"The core of our mission . . . is to be the central portal and a catalyst for community-based experience and learning at the University," she said.
President Tilghman joined students and administrators in praising the center's work and mission during the ceremony. While developing students' minds, the University also needs to "instill habits of the heart," Tilghman said.
The center has its roots in the University's 250th Anniversary celebration, said Professor Burton Malkiel GS '64, who raised much of the funds for the program's endowment. "We noted then that it was during the 150th anniversary that Woodrow Wilson made his famous speech in which he coined the term 'Princeton in the nation's service,'" Malkiel said.
"What we wanted to do in the 250th was to strengthen Princeton's long tradition in service" and create a center to expand and support the various student-initiated service activities that were already underway, Malkiel said.
Over the past two years, the Pace Center has sponsored a variety of community service events and organizations, the most visible of which has been a community service fair held in conjunction with the undergraduate activities fair.
In previous years, the volunteer opportunities available to students often seemed "jumbled and confusing," Cynthia Casazza '04 said. The fair allowed students to see the differences between the various community service organizations while keeping their overall goal in mind, she said.
Other center activities include training programs for volunteers, a fund for student groups managed through the Projects Board, and a collaboration with the Community-Based Learning Initiative, an experiential learning program that targets the local community, Montano said.
Student speakers praised the center's ability to promote communication between service-minded students. The Pace Center facilitates interaction between student activists and "fosters a sense of community in a campus that can at times feel somewhat large and unwelcoming," Anastasia Frank '06 said.
Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson, like other speakers at the event, was careful to emphasize that the Pace Center is not meant to duplicate the role of service organizations like the Student Volunteer Council and Community House.
While the other programs continue to provide direct service, the Pace Center serves more as a "clearinghouse" for information and support, Dickerson said. "Our challenge is to enhance programs already here," she said in an interview.
Elliot Ratzmann GS suggested another potential difference. Whereas the SVC and Community House might take "rearguard" actions like tutoring in poor schools, the PACE Center could do "vanguard" work by lobbying the state legislature for more funding for tutoring programs, he said in an interview.
Major donors to the center include Carl Ferenbach '64, founder of Berkshire Partners, John Bogle '51, founder of the Vanguard Group, and the center's namesake, international real estate developer John Pace '39.
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