Eligible Community Service Activities

Employees may be granted paid leave under this policy to provide "hands-on" voluntary service to their communities as part of an organized community service activity. Appropriate service activities include the provision of direct service to a non-profit organization, a public agency, a local school corporation or the clients that these organizations serve. Examples of direct service include:

• delivering meals to the homes of older adults
• tutoring and mentoring children through an organized program
• assisting with the physical maintenance of a community center
• reading to a pre-school class
• teaching a CPR class
• counseling a crime victim
• building a trail
• giving tours at a museum
• field trips with children and grandchildren

Service should be provided to organizations with goals that the University would deem ethical and consistent with the University's mission. A pre-approved list of organizations is available from the Center for Community Engagement by clicking here.

Employees, who are members of volunteer fire departments and rescue squads, or auxiliary units thereof, may be granted paid leave under this policy to:

• respond to emergency situations during their working hours at the University; or
• arrive after the normal beginning of their work shift if an emergency situation to which they responded outside their normal work hours continues beyond the normal beginning of their work shift at the University.

Excluded from this policy is service provided through an organization where the only recipients of the service are the members of the organization (i.e. painting and maintenance of church buildings, attending a committee meeting for a fraternal lodge). Activities involving political groups or causes do not qualify for use of this leave. Attendance of social events and fundraisers for a community organization also do not qualify.