Leveraging Scarce Resources: A Case Study Where Community Service Did the Work

Abstract

The University of Jordan is the first national university established in Jordan. Although first established in a suburban and secluded area of the capital Amman, the continuous urban development in its vicinity has led to excessive delays and traffic congestion on its surrounding street network. As a result, the University's administration requested two faculty members with transportation backgrounds to assess the situation and propose solutions. Due to the unavailability of funds to conduct the assessment, the authors utilized the University's community service program. University students were solicited to collect the data, assist in the analysis, and help develop solutions to the traffic congestion problem. Based upon the students' efforts a “traffic redirection” scheme was developed and proposed to the Greater Amman Municipality, which is currently considering the implementation of the proposed scheme. The involvement of students in solving campus problems was very well received by the student body, and promoted their sense of belonging to the University. The feeling of contributing to making a change has increased students' eagerness to engage in other campus related activities. It is recommended that the community service program become a national program in all Jordanian universities and that university administrations fully utilize such programs to involve students in solving campus related problems, thus increasing their sense of belonging to their campus.

The authors extend their appreciation to University of Jordan's Community Service Office and to all students who assisted in the data collection and analyses. The authors also thank the civil engineering department's surveying technicians for their assistance with the data collection.