Since August̢۪s $3.5 million gift from Jan and Bud Richter, their picture can be seen on the rotating Save Mart Center marquee alongside the coming entertainment acts.

Yet what sets them apart from, for example, Beyoncé or Maná is that their monetary pledge to Fresno Sate will aid in the campus’ efforts to promote and enhance community service among students, staff and faculty.

“It’s a transforming gift to the university,â€Â said President John D. Welty. “We believe it will be possible for us to generate more student service; it will allow us to expand our efforts.â€Â

The pledge—made by the Richters, who are both alumni and longtime philanthropic supporters of Fresno State since the 1950s—will be an added resource for Fresno State’s Civic Engagement and Service-Learning program.

Chris Fiorentino, the program director, said the community need is so great that the donation will allow the university to make an even bigger difference.

One of those differences is the university’s goal of logging 1 million volunteer hours annually by 2011. It may be “a bold goal,â€Â but can be done, said Fiorentino.

In the past year, over 485,000 hours were dedicated to servicing about 200 local agencies with well over 6,000 students taking part in the effort to improve the community. A few of the many local agencies affected by the university̢۪s program are University HOPE, Direction Sports and the S.M.I.L.E. Center.

“For us, none of these 3 programs would operate without the service projects provided by these students,â€Â said Don Romsa, the pastor of Lutheran Campus Ministry and active volunteer for all three agencies.

He said Fresno State has taken the lead in providing the students with an opportunity to learn through community service.

“This [donation] will help more and more,â€Â said Romsa. “The obvious impact on this community is pretty incredible.â€Â

With the donation, the university wants to improve data collection of service hours for all campus organizations and provide new efforts to engage the faculty and students in service-learning.

More of the service-learning volunteers hours are unaccounted for because the university is not always informed of all community service hours, which is an issue that may be resolved.

“We believe a vast majority of [community service] is already going on,â€Â said Fiorentino.

The concept of service-learning is to essentially provide students the opportunity to go out into the community, as a part of their certain course requirements, to gain valuable skills and knowledge of community problems.

Welty said the donation will also provide improved training for students so that they become more effective when helping out in the community.

Also, the university hopes to increase the research surrounding social issues and, with the help of community agencies, to provide more leadership opportunities for students, said Fiorentino.

Because of the Richter̢۪s donation, the existing program will be renamed to the Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning at Fresno State, pending a November approval from the California State University Board of Trustees.

“[The Richter’s] want to be involved to the extent we want them to be involved,â€Â Fiorentino said. “We’re going to be working with them, consistently communicating with them. We want it to represent them in a way they feel comfortable with.â€Â