Tufts University's new University College of Citizenship and Public Service is "virtual" in that it's not located in a specific building, and it doesn't award degrees. The program is real, however, in terms of the effect it already is having on students and faculty, and the results promised for the nearby community, the New York Times reports.

The program is being funded with a $10 million grant from alumni Pierre and Pam Omidyar, the billionaire founders of eBay. The Omidyars said they want the gift to help create well-rounded students.

Tufts isn't the only university emphasizing public service, the Times reports. Hundreds of colleges and universities are adding new courses and programs designed to break higher education out of for-profit concerns such as job skills training, and return it to a focus on citizenship, the newspaper reports.

"It is not enough to provide a great education," University of Pennsylvania President Judith Rodin said in a Yale University speech last fall. "It is not enough for us to produce brilliant, imaginative doctors, lawyers, scholars and scientists who will press the envelopes of their disciplines or professions, if we do not also engage them in the larger issues of our day, in the ferment of our times and our society."

One entity that has helped organize university programs is Campus Compact, a national community service program with 670 member organizations. Students at Campus Compact member schools performed 32 million volunteer hours in 1999, and the schools themselves offer nearly 12,000 different service opportunities, the Times reports.

But Campus Compact isn't the only alternative: many universities have launched their own community service programs and are collaborating directly with other schools.

"Being an active part of your community, an active citizen, involved in public service, is not just one of the bubbles that are part of your life," Pierre Omidyar told Tufts students this past week. "It's not something you put on your résumé. It's not something you do each morning before you go to work. It's something you should think about throughout every day."

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