On Feb. 5, Otterbein was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, one of 83 institutions of higher learning in the country classified as Honor Roll with Distinction. The award was announced during the annual conference of the American Council on Education held in Washington, D.C.

This is the third year Otterbein has earned the award. Last year, it was given the President's Award for General Community Service, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Hill.

Hill said Otterbein's Center for Community Engagement organizes the college's volunteering efforts.

"(CCE)'s dedicated students and faculty improve the level of participation, programs and civic issues it covers each year," Hill said. "The CCE brings together volunteerism, service-learning and community-based action research for interested students, giving them a plethora of service activities to choose from."

During the 2007-2008 school year, more than 1,100 students were enrolled in 83 service-learning courses, logging in about 22,320 service hours in the community, Hill said.

The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its work in service-learning and civic engagement, according to the organization's Web site. Honorees are 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.

With tough economic times, volunteers are needed more than ever, said Stephen Goldsmith, vice chair of the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which oversees the honor roll.

"College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges," Goldsmith said. "We salute Otterbein College for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others."

According to the CNCS, 2,800,000 college students provided more than 297,000,000 hours of volunteer service in 2006.

A full list of honor roll recipients is available online at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

lrice@thisweeknews.com