Project shows CSULB counts locally

For the second year, Cal State Long Beach is participating in the Community Involvement Database Project, a California State University systemwide project used to count and document the number of community projects done by university students, faculty and staff.

University departments and organizations are asked to submit any information regarding their involvement in the community.

One of the main goals for the database is to not only inform the community but also government officials.

"Since there are term limits for legislators, this is a good way to educate them and prospective legislators such as county supervisors, mayors and city councilmembers about the impact the universities have on the community," said Laura Lindberg, director for the Ambassadors for Higher Education.

The deadline for departments and organizations to return their involvement information is today. There are twelve categories ranging from environmental activities to university-sponsored community service.

"Response has been very good so far," said Elena Macias, who is in charge of gathering the information for CSULB.

"It has been better than two years ago. We are updating the records we gathered the first time around and also gathering new data."

The information is gathered and used in the CSU's Geography Information System, which plots the locations and prints maps to show the reach and extent of the university  involvement.

The maps can be viewed over the Internet at http://csumap.fullerton.edu by using "guest" as both the user name and password, Macias said.

This is the second year that the information has been compiled for the database run by the Ambassadors for Higher Education, a program within the CSU that works toward gaining support for the CSU, said CSU spokesman Ken Swisher.

The university has already improved in reporting its community involvement after the poor showing in the first round of data collection two years ago, Macias said.

The first year, 1998, the university had 19 K-12 school activities and 56 other activities reported, while Cal State Fullerton had 60 K-12 and 171 others.

The problem was in the reporting of the projects, Lindberg said.

In 1998, 3,000 community service projects were reported throughout the CSU system. Lindberg said she has high hopes for this year.

"We are hoping to double that this time around," she said.

"We are also hoping to make it possible to submit the information electronically."