Robert Barker/University Photography

From left, Associate Director of the Public Service Renee Farkas; Executive Director Leonardo Vargas-Mendez; Vice President Susan Murphy; and Rob LaHood, director of public relations at the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, cut the ribbon of the new Public Service Center space in Barnes Hall.

The Public Service Center (PSC) celebrated the expansion of its facilities to include 100 Barnes Hall, in addition to 200 Barnes Hall, Feb. 17 with an open house reception and ribbon-cutting ceremony that highlighted its 20 years of leadership in community service.

The open house was held at the new facility, where a crowd of PSC student leaders, affiliated faculty members and student Student and academic Academic services Services (SAS) staff gathered to watch and cheer as Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy and PSC Executive Director Leonardo Vargas-Mendez cut the inaugural red ribbon with an outsized pair of scissors.

"I'm especially thrilled that this will become a gathering spot for the student programming because I think it will add an energy level that will be particularly exciting," Murphy said. "We hope it will be a lively place," agreed Vargas-Mendez.

With the PSC's continued growth, Assistant Director of Student Programs Joyce Muchan explained that they could no longer adequately serve the student groups that use the PSC facilities to direct their service operations. Pointing to a saturated meeting schedule on her office whiteboard, Muchan summarized the reason for the expansion: "It's difficult for the students to use the resources if they don't have room to meet."

The expanded space allows for more student organizations to have meeting spaces and office hours, as well as more room for programming, upstairs and downstairs.

Over its 20 years, the PSC has grown every year, from engaging about 700 students in community service in 1992 to 7,000 in 2010-11, said Vargas-Mendez. The PSC estimates that its 30 student-run projects and programs totaled 166,457 hours of volunteer service and service- learning last year.

Enthusiasm among the student body and the dedication of the PSC's long-serving staff have contributed to national recognition for the university's work in the community, said Murphy said. Cornell was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll in 2010 and is one of only 311 U.S. colleges and universities designated as an "institution of community engagement" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Ithaca Chamber of Commerce representative Rob LaHood praised this engagement between the Ithaca "downtown" and surrounding schools like Cornell as "something that's valuable, and you can point to it and say 'this relationship is working, and it's continuing to evolve and make this place an even better place to live and go to school."

For Vargas-Mendez, the ultimate mission of the PSC is "to develop a program that will make sure that the Cornell experience will lead to active citizenship in a democratic society."

Murphy noted the PSC's effectiveness in fulfilling that mission: "I believe that students who [serve] through the Public Service Center understand that they are not doing it to the community, or for community, but rather with the community.

"And if they leave here with that understanding," Murphy concluded, "I believe we will have given them one of the best educations we can."

In addition to continued growth and increased program capacity in coming years, Vargas-Mendez said that he also hopes to focus on programs that ground students' service experience in their academic interests. He also wants the PSC to use its 20 years of student leadership development experience to be a resource for non-service-oriented campus groups.

These formative resources are something that graduate student Katheryne Small '11, M.H.A. '13, co-founder of the PSC's Students Against Sexual Solicitation of Youth (SASSY), is very grateful for: "They really give you the tools to follow your dreams, and to do what means most to you," she shared.

Paul Bennetch '12 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.