RADFORD – The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Radford University today with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

The university was honored largely for spending almost 2,000 student service hours in projects at Mountain View Cemetery, a site located just off the Wilderness Road, over which thousands of pioneers traveled. The cemetery is the principal site for burials of former slaves and members of the local black community from 1865 to 1965. Since 2001, RU staff and students have volunteered their time alongside community members to clear brush and provide a respectful burial ground for former members of the African American community.

During the 2007- 2008 academic year, one class of students in partnership with the community began to conduct a search of cemetery boundaries to determine the number of people buried on the site. Another class interviewed members of the churches about their ancestors who are buried at the cemetery. A third class developed recommendations for maintenance and the development of the cemetery as a community heritage site.

In addition to these classes, several RU service clubs, including Men of Standards, continue to work on the site. The project is being coordinated by RU’s Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services. Project members hope that this model of using historical site preservation, community service, and academic research can encourage other universities to engage their students to teach racial and cultural understanding.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.