A university program that takes students around the country and the globe to complete community service projects each spring break had a record number of applicants this year. So much for the apathetic college population.
About 400 students are vying for the 180 available spots in the university’s Alternative Spring Break program. That’s a huge number for a program that had only 39 applicants its first year. What the growth of this program shows about today’s university population is that students here are increasingly looking for ways to give back to a world in which they are, as college students, part of an extremely privileged minority.
In 2005, The Princeton Review published a book titled Colleges with a Conscience that looked at the stereotype that college students these days are lazy and self-centered. An article adaptation from the book on the Review’s website states, “Today, 83 percent of Campus Compact member schools house a Community Service or Service-Learning Office, up from only 50 percent ten years ago.”
Campus Compact is an organization this university joined in 1993 and, according to its website, is “a coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents – representing some 6 million students – who are committed to fulfilling the public purposes of higher education” and “a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life.”
This university, indeed, has its own Community Service-Learning Office, which falls right in stride with the university’s role as both the flagship university of the state and a land-grant institution. This office would mean nothing, however, if students weren’t participating in its programs. The fact that students are volunteering to participate in programs such as Alternative Spring Break shows not only that they are aware of these university roles but also that they are willing to dedicate their time and energy to help make sure that role is realized.
Students today are volunteering in increasing numbers. Our generation of privileged college students is clearly taking its responsibility seriously to help those who are less fortunate. Still, older generations often claim our generation is apathetic. Even people within our generation claim the same!
Our generation has become a running punchline for people like Jon Stewart. We are the lazy, non-voting, selfish, video-game-playing ingrates who will probably be the first generation to be less successful than our parents. We go about our merry, privileged lives without caring much for the Iraq War, the collapsing environment or the devastatingly horrible tragedies occurring in countries like Sudan, right?
Wrong. We do care. The numbers show it. Yes, there are those students who would rather read Perez Hilton’s blog than The Washington Post, but their type has existed forever. We are not any more apathetic than previous generations and should be angered by society’s claim that we are.
According to The Princeton Review’s article, “Not only are students asking for it, but community involvement in college is a sound teaching practice, leading to better student learning inside and outside the classroom. It leads to lower dropout rates. It reduces feelings of isolation on campus. It’s even been correlated with a longer lifespan!”
These are all great things, but they aren’t at the heart of why record numbers of college students are volunteering. What’s at the heart is our lack of apathy, and it’s about time we acknowledge that.
