These individuals were chosen because I knew they had a similar passion for establishing
beneficial relationships between our university and the larger community and,
more specifically, finding ways to utilize the student resources at the university to help
people in the community who were in the greatest need of assistance. As such, I knew
these individuals would submit project proposals, serve as project liaisons, or put me
in contact with other individuals and organizations that would be interested in participating
in this class. One important thing I had to find out was what they felt a reasonable
time commitment was to ask of a project liaison. Investment of staff time and the
corresponding opportunity costs associated with short-term service learning projects
could cause dissatisfaction if not taken into account (Bushouse, 2005; Tryon et al.,
2008). After discussing the goals of the class as well as the benefits to the community
organization, our group established what we thought would be a time commitment that
would facilitate the effectiveness of the class but not overburden the project liaison
(community partner)