Most busloads of visitors to Cornell are schoolchildren on field trips, but on May 8, four buses delivered 55 senior citizens, all participants in the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), to the Carl L. Becker House, where they dined with students in CUBS -- the Cornell University Becker in Service course.

"The overarching goal of the course is to connect Cornell students with the surrounding community through service," said graduate student Nick Robertson, a residential fellow at the Becker House, the newest residence hall in the West Campus Residential Initiative, and one of the course organizers. When the director of GIAC told the group that its senior club craved more contact with young people, the students decided to put on a dinner for them.

"The dining staff headed by chef Eileen Hughes prepared a fantastic dinner for them," he said. "Students of the class helped to prepare the dining room, serve the food, make desserts, clear tables and help the guests negotiate the dining room and house."

The students also helped the seniors on and off the buses and socialized with them during dinner. "It was really neat to hear their histories and about how much Ithaca has changed," said Robertson. "A couple of them even knew the Alice Cook that the Alice Cook House is named after."

Cindy Hazan, a faculty member in human development and the professor and dean of Becker House, said that service is an important part of the West Campus Residential Initiative. "We want to bring students and faculty together outside of the classroom through intellectual, cultural and social activities. We think the dinner was a fabulous context for this time of informal interaction that also made a meaningful contribution."

The course, Fieldwork, Human Development 402, is a collaboration between the Becker House and the College of Human Ecology. Hazan said it also is intended to be a prototype for the other houses on West Campus. "We would like to see each house offer its own community service course," said Hazan, adding that the course will be offered again next year.

Robertson said that bringing a piece of the community to campus helped remind everyone of the life surrounding Cornell. "So often we get stuck in our daily routines associated with our respective programs at Cornell and lose sight of the fact that there is a vibrant community surrounding the university," he said. "The events of this course have helped me remember that fact."

The course is supported in part by the Facullty Fellows in Service program through the Cornell Public Service Center, which offers grants up to $2,000 for faculty to bring community service into the classroom.