Basis and OrientationThe University of Saint Louis foresees itself as a CICM Catholic educational institution that offers quality relevant education that aims for the holistic development of the human person. As an institution of higher learning, the university aligns itself with its threefold function of research, instruction, and extension. Believing that community involvement is a basic and pervasive aspect of university education, the University through the Community and Extension Services Office (CESO) initiates and implements extension/ outreach/ community service activities that allow students, faculty, and personnel to apply new knowledge they generate to address specific social development problems. However, unlike state universities and colleges (SUCs) which are mandated specifically to align their programs in support of national, regional, or local development plans (RA 7722 or Higher Education Act of 1994, Sec. 2, Par. 2), the university assumes a more liberal thrust for its extension programs. As a CICM educational institution, it pursues it programs within the broader frame of the CICM missionary focus on the transformation of the world and the coming of the reign of God (CICM Constitutions Commentary, 1999). The holistic development of peoples and communities as the University envisions suggests that it commits itself to the educational, spiritual, socio- cultural, economic, and political, health, and environmental development needs of its partner communities and the nation as a whole. However, as there are also other institutions working in each of these areas, the university may collaborate with them or endeavors to focus on specific needs that are least attended to most importantly those that are in line with CICM mission priorities and insofar as its capacities can reasonably permit. As a higher education institution, the university brings to bear in its extension/ outreach/ service learning programs its expertise in instruction and research. These programs, however, are not a one- way traffic. They are implemented as a result of researches conducted and concepts taught in the classroom. As the university extends its expertise with the partner communities, feedbacks are generated from the stakeholders. These feedbacks will eventually be used to assess and improve the programs. Hence, the university contributes to the development of the partner communities and at the same time the values and valuable learning through university’s exposure to partner communities play a vital role in the significant development of the Louisian Community. Vision- MissionThe University’s Community and Extension Services (CES) Office envisions developing socially aware, sensitive and responsive members of the Louisian Community through active involvement in community extension, service learning, and outreach activities towards community development. As the over-all coordinating body of the various community extension activities that are initiated by the different sectors of the Louisian Community, the Community and Extension Services Office shall:
Program Goals and ObjectivesGuided of its goal of a wide, functional service to the community and an advocacy of sustainable development with complete linkages here in the country and abroad, the Community and Extension Services Office seeks to-
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