The social activism with which SF State has become synonymous was reinforced on Thursday with the launch of a new foundation on campus that will offer students, faculty and community organizations a chance at civic service and research.

Held at the Towers Conference Center on campus, the formal induction of the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement was scheduled to include Mayor Gavin Newsom, but he could not make the event.

The institute combines the resources of two previous SF State programs, the San Francisco Urban Institute and the Office of Community Service Learning, including the California Campus Connect.

“This institute expresses all that is most deeply significant to SF State,” President Robert Corrigan said. “A college with a conscience.”

Mayor Newsom, though not at the event, declared Aug. 31 SFSU Institute for Civic and Community Engagement Day in San Francisco.

Corrigan told an audience of about 200 faculty, staff and city leaders that the institute will build upon the infrastructure already at SF State and help students develop a “moral compass” and it is set on “giving the students the tools they need to think.”

The new foundation is already working with organizations such as Whirlwind Wheelchair International and the RET Project, which serves the needs of people with disabilities through assistive technology.

“This is a call to action,” said John Gemello, vice president of academic affairs at SF State, “and to use the resources of this university.”

In the 2005-2006 academic year, 8,463 students volunteered 332,348 hours in agencies and nonprofits through SF State’s two programs, which merged into the new institute, the Office of Public Affairs said.

“We envision the new institution serving as a centralized research lab,” Gemello said.

This fall the institute will work with San Francisco Department of Elections and register young, student voters.

“We prepare our community to lead a new world of hope,” said Susan Alunan, the founding director of the institute and former director of the Urban Institute.