Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 66.65
Liaison Austin Sutherland
Submission Date Aug. 9, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Pennsylvania
EN-13: Community Service

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.17 / 5.00
"---" 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:
26,675

Number of students engaged in community service:
2,636

Percentage of students engaged in community service:
9.88

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:
344,000

Number of annual community service hours contributed per student:
12.90

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:
The Netter Center at Penn's Volunteers in Public Service (VIPS) program is responsible for providing volunteer activities for faculty, staff, and alumni. The program manages a variety of activities that include creating volunteer activities, informing the University community and community at-large about available volunteer programs, and managing several University-wide volunteer activities. These activities are included, but not limited to: University-Assisted Community School Nights, Nonprofit Institute, Penn WorkPlace Mentoring Program, Penn Scholarship Program, and Dropsite Volunteers for various drives.

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:
https://www.college.upenn.edu/service-courses
https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/civichouse/"

The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to engaging with both the campus and public community on sustainability, with a goal to make climate change and sustainability part of the Penn culture. This commitment and long standing tradition of both campus and public engagement around the issue of sustainability is seen through campus sustainability groups and community focused centers. Both public and campus engagement organizations partner with the Sustainability Office to create student internships, engage in environmental issues, and build knowledge around sustainability. For a more complete listing of engagement activities on campus, please see EN 10 to EN 14.

The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton has also been referenced and noted as outside the boundary in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.

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.