Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 72.78
Liaison Emily Vollmer
Submission Date Feb. 18, 2021

STARS v2.2

Virginia Tech
EN-13: Community Service

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.90 / 5.00 Dennis Cochrane
Director, Office of Sustainability
Division of Campus Planning, Infrastructure and Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Percentage of students participating in community service 

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 1 of this credit (student participation in community service)?:
Yes

Total number of students:
36,882

Number of students engaged in community service:
18,447

Percentage of students engaged in community service:
50.02

Part 2. Community service hours per student

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (community service hours)?:
Yes

Total number of student community service hours contributed annually:
91,036

Number of annual community service hours contributed per student:
2.47

Part 3. Employee community service program

Does the institution have a formal program to support employee volunteering during regular work hours?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s program to support employee volunteering:
School assistance and volunteer service leave provides paid leave for employees to provide voluntary services within their communities. Service may be provided through school assistance or as a volunteer of a community service organization as defined in Department of Human Resources Management Policy 4.40: School Assistance and Volunteer Service Leave.

Full-time employees are provided up to 16 hours of paid leave per leave year. Part-time employees are provided leave proportionate to the percentage of hours they work. Leave is credited to current employees on Jan. 10 of each year. Newly eligible employees are credited School Assistance and Volunteer Service Leave immediately upon employment.

https://www.hr.vt.edu/benefits/leave.html

https://www.hr.vt.edu/content/dam/hr_vt_edu/benefits-perks/leave/schoolassistancevolunteerpolicy.pdf

https://www.dhrm.virginia.gov/docs/default-source/hrpolicy/pol4_40.pdf?sfvrsn=d382e90e_2

Does the institution track the number of employee community service hours contributed through programs it sponsors?:
No

Total number of employee community service hours contributed annually through programs sponsored by the institution:
---

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s community service programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Virginia Tech's motto is "Ut Prosim," That I May Serve. Service is a huge part of student life at Virginia Tech and students participate in community service in hugely diverse ways.

The Big Event: A national day of service throughout local communities. Virginia Tech boasts one of the largest days of service in the US. In 2019, 7,820 students participated at 1,180 sites in the community.

Relay for Life: Another national community service event to raise awareness for cancer research. In 2019, 150 students participated in Relay for Life with approximately 600 attending the annual fundraiser event. https://gobblerconnect.vt.edu/organization/vtrelay

Relay for Life Planning Team: For the entire school year leading up to the Relay event, a team of 120 students runs events, has planning meetings, and sets up on the day of.

Greek Life: All Greek Life chapters complete philanthropy projects every year. There are 5,100 students or about 19% of the student population participating in 48 different chapters of Greek Life at VT.

YMCA at Virginia Tech: The YMCA works to build leaders in Virginia Tech students, offering a variety of programs in which they can participate and gain valuable experience while contributing to their community. Last year, 661 students volunteered with the Y in 2,945 hours of service.

Corps of Cadets: The mission of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is to graduate leaders of exemplary character who are instilled with the values and skills essential for leadership success in service to the nation. Last year there were over 1,700 cadets.

Virginia Tech Volunteer Rescue Squad: This group of volunteer students respond to 911 calls made from campus and the nearby areas. They are EMT trained and are first responders to emergency situations on campus. There are 38 members contributing a total of 914 hours of service. https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2019/05/ops-vtrs50th.html.

Galileo and Hypatia: These groups are living-learning communities for first-year engineering students. All members are required to complete 20 hours of service during the academic year. In 2019, there were more than 600 students in these communities. https://eng.vt.edu/ceed/ceed-undergraduate-programs/communities/what-to-expect-from-the-course.html

VT Engage: This department provides both co-curricular and curricular service learning opportunities at Virginia Tech. Through this commitment, community organizations benefit from having regularly scheduled volunteers who are dedicated to the organization throughout the semester, as opposed to receiving one-time volunteers. During 2018-19 academic year, 1,427 students participated in VT Engage service learning programs.

Kas Church, 540-231-1113, kasc@vt.edu

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.